Disney+'s next big TV show is a raunchy throwback that's a hit with the critics

The next great Disney+ series may be something you’d have a hard time picturing on a Disney slate, but it’s already picking up great reviews.

Rivals is out on Disney+, and Hulu in the US, from October 18. It’s an adaptation of a Jilly Cooper novel.

These tomes, once dubbed bonkbusters in their 1980s and 1990s heyday, were full of sex and drama. But unlike some working in this field, Cooper could actually write well.

Rivals the novel was released in 1988, and centres around people working at a TV production company. There are rivalries, of course, and a lot of steamy goings-on.

David Tennant stars as Tony Baddingham alongside Aidan Turner, Katherine Parkinson, Emily Atack and Bella Maclean. Oh, and Danny Dyer.

Cast aside, Rivals it may sound like a recipe for pure trash TV. But the critics are almost entirely united in their praise for it. Most of them don’t ladle on the mild stuff either.

Rivals reviews

Reviews are effusive, calling Rivals an absolute blast that doesn’t water down the source material (which you might expect from Disney). They say it feels like a trip back to a previous era of TV. In a good sense.

Paste Magazine gave Rivals a cracking 8.9/10 score, calling it a “deliciously decadent reminder of television’s glory days.”

“Unlike many of its contemporaries today, Rivals is a series that’s supremely confident in its own identity,” the review says, while noting the story “has not been Disneyfied in the slightest.”

The Standard’s 4/5 review calls Rivals “gloriously trashy and arch, the epitome of guilty-pleasure TV.”

The Guardian also gave Rivals a 4/5 write-up, saying “brace yourself for a supremely fun time.”

We have a sneaking suspicion there may be a bit of a generational divide in the reaction to Rivals, though.

One of the younger critics around town, writing for ScreenRant, gave Rivals just 4/10, and found it all a bit empty and pointless.

“Some people might like this subgenre of sex and infidelity for the sake of it, but I found it to be a bit empty, especially when the result is that the world of TV production feels like an unnecessary subplot in Rivals,” the review reads.

We’ll have to wait until its release on October 18 too see if there really is going to be a “Gen Z versus the rest” divide on what sounds like an unusually good adaptation of unusual source material. The show is made up of eight episodes, which we expect will arrive piecemeal like other Disney+ shows.

• The best Disney Plus shows to stream today (October 2024)