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Ricky Gervais’ new animated sitcom Alley Cats hit Netflix yesterday, and it’s fair to say it was a little divisive.
The general critical consensus was that the show, about a grumpy, foul-mouthed cat called Gus who’s trying to help a lost kitten get home, wasn’t very good.
Indeed, Metacritic, a site that aggregates review scores, has given the show a rather paltry 39/100.
But that’s just a number, isn’t it? What did fans and critics really think of Alley Cats? Well, we’ve done a round up of the general reaction to Rick’s new show
Sadly, The Independent gave it one star and called it ‘abrasive, smug, and completely mirthless,’ and The Telegraph said it was ‘abysmal’ in a zero-star review.
Meanwhile, another reviewer (who I hear is exceptionally handsome) wrote that Alley Cats was ‘the televisual equivalent of a black hole of bad ideas’.
Wow, powerful stuff. I must remember to thank whoever wrote that…
As I say, though, not everyone thought Alley Cats was complete bilge.
Variety wrote that it was ‘enjoyably low-key binge’ and The Guardian claimed it had ‘glimmers of potential in this comedy’ (although they still only gave it two stars).
To be fair, The Times, the UK’s newspaper of record, gave it three out of five and there’s a glowing quote from Heat Magazine on the poster calling it ‘delightful and outrageous’.
Still, it’s important to remember that Ricky doesn’t really care about critics, as he explained during a recent live stream where he was asked what advice he’d give to up-and-coming comedians.
Sitting in front of his hoard of gleaming gold prizes and gongs, the Derek star said: ‘When I first started out I wanted affirmation. I wanted a five-star review, and I wanted to win an award.
‘Actually, I didn’t want to win an award, but when I did I really liked it, but I did want to get good reviews from the posh papers, as opposed to caring how many people watched it or came to the gig.
‘Now I’d tell a young comedian “don’t worry about that”. It doesn’t matter because they’re so fickle, everyone gets a turn. They don’t mean it. They judge it differently to the people you’re trying to make laugh… worry about the public.’