Who else remembers Ryan Gosling in the 2004 movie Day One? I’m sure a lot of people – because Nick Cassavetes’ romance is very often at the top of the lists of favorite movies when it comes to love films, and FILMSTARTS readers also have a heart for Gosling and Rachel McAdams as a fate-stricken couple. However, critics see things very differently: “Like one day” is judged, among other things, as “cliché”, “overly sentimental” and “grossly manipulative”. In any case, the film splits the mind – and is not the only one.
It is no different with series. Latest example: “The Crowded Room” starring “Spider-Man” Tom Holland. The ten episodes tell the story of Danny Sullivan (incidentally based on true events) who is allegedly involved in a brutal shooting in New York in 1979. The police want to know why it happened and who Danny’s accomplices were. Investigator Rya Goodwin (Amanda Seyfried) interrogates the young man and along the way learns that Danny has a dark secret he doesn’t even know about…
The series has only been running for a few days and has not exactly received much praise from critics. The current score on the summary page Rotten tomatoes is a measly 32 percent positive reviews (with 42 reviews) and really euphoric opinions about the series are like a needle in a haystack…
That’s why “The Crowded Room” has been panned
“‘The Crowded Room’ leaves a vacuum where a twist should be, but one that can’t be filled with compelling pitch,” writes for example about the series and very often it is criticized that the story with ten episodes is much too long, that the tension is built up incorrectly and that you already suspect in the beginning where the whole plot will lead. Only Tom Holland’s acting performances are praised.
The appreciation of the public however, looks very different. It is currently Score here at 90 percent positive reviews (currently at 500 ratings), giving it a big head start over the major streaming series starting in June and making it the best series on Apple TV+ for the current month. Of course, the Netherlands is also praised here, but the story, the 1970s decors, the music and the empathy for the complicated and historical figures are also often praised.
If you want to see for yourself whether “The Crowded Room” is good or bad, you can find it on Apple TV+. Four of the ten episodes are currently streaming. There is a different episode every Friday.
In the meantime, you can learn a lot about the nerve-racking film adaptation of “The Crowded Room” in this text: