Netflix's new top 10 show has huge Succession vibes - just don't read the reviews
Prepare for more boardroom backstabbing than The Apprentice...
Netflix's answer to Succession is here - but whatever you do, just don't read the reviews.
A Man in Full is the cut-throat, money-swindling drama we've all been thirsty for, with the streaming service unleashing more moral bankruptcy than the 2007 financial crisis.
Based on the Tom Wolfe novel of the same name which had an initial print run of over 1.2 million copies, this six-part series aims to channel the writers impeccable knack for satire onto the small screen.
It was always set to be a challenge, following the luke-warm reception of Wolfe's similarly adapted novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities.
Now, Wolfe's 1988 New York Times bestseller is the latest to face adaptation, with A Man in Full telling the tale of a bankrupt Atlanta real estate mogul named Charlie Croker - and the lengths others are willing to go to in order to capitalise on his stratospheric demise.
However, it's safe to say initial reviews - so fresh, they're yet to be aggregated on Rotten Tomatoes - are a mixed bag.
Written by prolific Big Little Lies creator David E. Kelley, directing duties are shared between Regina King and Thomas Schlamme.
The limited-series boasts a stellar cast; Jeff Daniels stars as the one and only Charlie Croker, with Diane Lane (The Outsiders, Inside Out) as Jeff's wife Martha.
The pair are joined by Ozark star Tom Pelphrey as bank executive Raymond Peepgrass, Aml Ameen as lawyer Aml Ameen and Charlie's Angels and Kill Bill star Lucy Liu as Joyce Newman, the founder of a successful clean beauty company with interests linked to Croker.
"I don't want to just take down your husband, I want to devour him," declares one of Croakers associates - a one liner that adequately summarises the shark infested waters the mogul finds himself in.
However, the critics don't appear to be fawning over this Wolf of Wall Street-esque release, with A Man in Full coming under fire for its clunky depiction of an otherwise slick novel
Time Magazine writes: "The book’s themes—money, power, race, masculinity—are grand. So it’s beyond strange that the first word that comes to mind to describe the new Netflix adaptation of A Man in Full... is slight."
Deadline writes: "A Man in Full is a splendid thing to see indeed. The sprawling tome may have been set in the last superpower era of the 1990s, but this variation of A Man in Full, which has Thomas Schlamme directing three episodes too, is very much in the America of 2024 and an unsteady landscape."
The Telegraph gives the series a tepid two stars, writing: "Where Wolfe was adept at exploring societal, political and racial issues with a satirical eye, Kelley doesn’t have the same talents... There are hints of Succession – family troubles, talk of money, Croker yelling about “the Boeing” – but the series is nowhere near the same league. You wait for the drama to ramp up but it never quite does."
The Guardian's Lucy Mangan describes it as "skin-crawling Trump satire", writing: "With Kelley at the helm and Regina King directing, it was hardly in doubt that a smart, propulsive drama would unfold and A Man in Full is very much that... If, however, as seems likely, A Man in Full is Netflix’s attempt to capture the post-Succession audience, it may have a way to go."
The Hollywood Reporter writes: "It disposes of most of the plot of Wolfe’s novel, which is hardly a disaster... Despite an exceptional cast that feels like it would have been game for almost anything Kelley and directors Regina King and Thomas Schlamme asked of them, A Man in Full is a small and flat TV series."
The LA Times writes: "A Man in Full” comes off as smaller and shallower and more obvious than the novel, and on its own feels like not the best episode of one of Kelley’s old soap-operatic lawyer shows. As television, it’s very much like … television. Which, depending what you’re after, might be enough."