A compelling, thought-provoking new 8-hour miniseries about the class warfare that erupts when a member of Manhattan’s wealthiest 1% (“Star Trek” vet Zachary Quinto) smacks the tiny, badly misbehaving son of a pair of Brooklyn-dwelling 99-percenters (“Alias” vet Melissa George & “The Newsroom” vet Thomas Sandowski).
The hippyish mother of the slapee is unusually fond of her boy and still allows him to suckle her breast (Robin Arryn-style, for you “Game of Thrones” fans) even though the actor who plays the boy looks, walks and talks like he’s in the second grade.
The miniseries was adapted from a book and Australian TV by playwright Jon Robin Baitz, who earlier created the far less interesting ABC drama “Brothers & Sisters” -- but don’t let Baitz’ participation dissuade you. “The Slap,” which also depicts a number of extramarital affairs, feels more like Showtime’s excellent “The Affair,” only with more Victor Garber narration.
Some will complain that the characters are not very likeable (a charge that can also be leveled against key characters in HBO’s recent “Olive Kitteridge” miniseries which, like “The Slap,” was directed by Lisa Cholodenko), but I confess I found some of the most unlikeable “Slap” characters surprisingly complex and even relatable.
In “A Clockwork Orange,” Stanley Kubrick made me care about the fate of a monstrous, bullying, Derby-sporting rapist named Alex DeLarge. I think what I like most about “The Slap” is it makes it much easier to root for the arrogant millionaire who slaps -- and root against the hippies’ spoiled brat of a kid, who really does come off as a prime candidate for slappage.
(For some reason I love stories that make me cheer for characters for whom I really think I shouldn’t be cheering. Jake Gyllenhaal’s sociopathic local TV cameraman in “Nightcrawler,” my favorite film of 2014, is one example. Hugh Jackman’s kid-torturing father in “Prisoners,” my favorite film of 2013, another.)
Another “Slap” element I love is the brainy, blunt and pragmatic criminal-court judge who, during the second episode, demonstrates he knows how to cut to a chase.
(During that episode-two courtroom scene? Somebody calls somebody else an “asshole.” Will that be bleeped or can one say “asshole” before 9 p.m. on NBC now? We’ll find out next week!)
The “Slap” cast also includes Peter Sarsgaard (“The Killing”), very good as the Quinto character’s philandering cousin Hector, and the wildly kissable Makenzie Leigh, who until very recently played Fish Mooney’s hottest spy on “Gotham” -- and here plays the Sarsgaard character’s alluring teen babysitter. Also in the mix are Brian Cox (the original Hannibal Lektor from “Manhunter”), Thandie Newton (“Mission Impossible II”) and Uma Thurman (“Kill Bill”), the last a last-minute replacement for a pneumonia-stricken Mary Louise Parker.
Because it’s a miniseries, NBC can’t really cancel it -- which is a good thing since it’s going to get clobbered in the ratings opposite “The Big Bang Theory,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “American Idol.”
Critics are divided!
... a sophisticated, suspenseful comedy of ill manners that seems much more like a Showtime or Netflix drama than a broadcast network offering. … Viewers know from the outset what happens at the party, but the journey to that moment and the road that follows are mapped out with wit and also compassion. People behave monstrously, but they aren’t monsters, just complicated and inconsistent. …
... There’s something quite absorbing about the show, particularly as each episode deals with a different adult participant, illuminating the character’s reaction to the slap and its aftermath and also chipping away at their own private shortcomings as spouses, lovers, parents, children, siblings, cousins. …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... If “The Slap” does feel oddly intelligent, credit not only the novelist but also playwright Jon Robin Baitz (“Brothers & Sisters”) and director Lisa Cholodenko (“The Kids Are All Right,” “Olive Kitteridge”), who have taken exceptional care to make the stories that make up the plot of “The Slap” compelling and credible at every turn. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... Just weeks after feel-good family drama "Parenthood" ended, NBC introduces the feel-bad family drama of the season. … Tuning in to watch it may lead to epic levels of hate-watching, at least among masochistic viewers who can stand the show. For others, this unlikable collection of insufferable characters is sure to send viewers scrambling to change the channel. …
... In the second episode, things really start to get interesting (perhaps not coincidentally, since it features much less narration). Quinto’s character is the focus, and the actor is all in portraying this powder keg of a man. It is intriguing and discomfiting to watch as his fuse burns slowly at times, and with explosive speed at others, as he veers from hissable and villainous to reasonable and oddly self-aware of his anger management issues. …
... the audience that comes to "The Slap" will be fully engaged, and it could make this miniseries a social-media sensation: Who could fail to have a reaction to the show's pivotal event, and to feel like sharing it with the world, even as that position may shift with each episode's disruptive new round of information. … Ultimately, "The Slap" would appear to concentrate not on the punishment inflicted by one adult on one child, but the punishment these adults inflict on one another and themselves in the wake of an act that, in another time or place, would have been a non-event. By the end of the first episode, the child's pain is already subsiding. The grownups' pain is just starting in fascinating ways that could make "The Slap" a hit.
... the most intriguing and irritating new drama I’ve seen in a while. … Zachary Quinto rivets as Harry, a manly materialist with a severe code and furious intensity, which he struggles to wield constructively. Quinto makes everything ugly about his alpha male — his fears, his hypocrisies, the slap itself — sensible and compelling. … most of the characters pique curiosity, even as they grate. You’ll watch The Slap. You might want to slap it yourself, but you’ll watch.
... it's hard to breathe dramatic life into issues when they're pinned on characters who are both unlikable and unbelievable, mouthing dialogue that constantly hammers those issues home. …
... a waste of a number of good performances, and about as subtle as its title action …
... feels like a broadcast network took an HBO-style project–provocative premise, specific cultural milieu–and then killed it with a pile of “Make the subtext more explicit!” notes. …
... It's an agitating piece of work by design, hoping to prompt conversation and create first impressions that it might later be able to subvert, but the takeaway is that none of the characters are particularly likeable …
... the premiere crisply races through the dizzying roster of characters, while focusing squarely on Hector’s predicament. … it does represent the kind of drama that should appeal to a sophisticated palate if the ongoing quality justifies first impressions. …
9 p.m. Thursday. NBC.
