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- 2024
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- 2024
- Apple TV+
- 2024
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- 2024
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The Big Cigar
Season 1 Premiere: May 17, 2024
61
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 11 Critic Reviews
61
45% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
55% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 11 Critic Reviews
61
45% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
55% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
The Big Cigar works on multiple levels. It’s a retro action thriller. It’s a fictional representation of American history and the biography of a countercultural giant. It’s a showcase for Nivola, Boone, and especially Holland, who balances Huey’s intelligence, courage, and post-traumatic paranoia. There’s humor in the culture clash between revolutionaries and Hollywood types.
“The Big Cigar” makes no claims to be any kind of definitive biopic; it’s simply a well-made and, yes, fictionalized telling of the Hollywood-adjacent chapter in Newton’s life.
The Big Cigar is thoroughly entertaining, but rather than fully honoring this under-told piece of history, it feels like things have been manipulated into the form of a digestible six-episode miniseries.
When digging into the inner-workings of Newton’s mind and exploring the in-fighting and rival ambitions that ultimately undermined the Black Panthers, we are taken to the heart of a key period of recent history. So much so that Newton’s flight to Cuba and Schneider’s part in it feel like an unwelcome guest at the party.
The series isn’t dumb; if anything, it has too much on its mind. But in attempting to tell so many stories about so many people, and with its ceaseless rocketing around in time, it loses focus and force. .... But Holland shifts gears smoothly through these twists and turns. .... He makes him someone you want to learn more about, the best thing an actor playing a real person can do.
The series consistently leaves him circling the same frustrations, rehashing the same arguments with Gwen, as well as the same worries about his role in the revolution. Newton was a man hell-bent on driving the world forward, but The Big Cigar spends most of its time running in place.
The Big Cigar ends up being two different unsatisfying shows squished together into six episodes of under 42 minutes apiece — occasionally stylish and boasting a very good lead performance by André Holland, but frustratingly mediocre overall.
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Production Company:
- Epic Pictures
- Folding Chair Productions
- Warner Bros. Television
Initial Release Date: May 17, 2024
Number of seasons: 1 Season