Disclaimer is gorgeous, expensive, and sadly hard to care about.
There's a specific kind of prestige TV that makes you feel like you should be enjoying it more than you really are. The kind where every frame is gorgeous, everything's unraveling in perfect lighting, and halfway through an episode you realize you don't really care what's happening, but man this looks expensive. That was us with Disclaimer.
Alfonso Cuarón's Apple TV+ mystery follows a celebrated journalist whose life starts collapsing after an anonymous novel appears to expose a buried chapter of her past. Secrets. Tragedy. Revenge. The kind of ingredients prestige TV usually can't stop ordering.
And visually, the show is incredible. Cuarón shoots television like a man personally offended by the idea of normal coverage. Sunlight bleeds through curtains like a luxury fragrance ad. European coastlines glow. Wine glasses sit untouched in immaculate kitchens while rich people avoid saying what they actually mean.
Cate Blanchett is excellent because Cate Blanchett is always excellent. Sacha Baron Cohen spends most of the series looking like he's already bracing for divorce. Kevin Kline wanders through the whole thing with the energy of a man who hasn't recovered from anything since 1987.
The problem is everybody's so cold, withholding, and miserable that the show starts pushing you away instead of pulling you in. Husbands resent wives. Coworkers betray each other. But after spending time with him, you start to understand their side of it. And every conversation feels like somebody preparing to weaponize information. After a while, the whole thing starts suffocating under its own moodiness.
It's frustrating because the craftsmanship is undeniable. But Disclaimer ultimately feels like a stunningly photographed dinner party where nobody wanted to be there—and after a while, neither do you.
The Rundown
Performances
Cate Blanchett slays us. Sacha Baron Cohen constantly looks like he's a conversation away from a nervous breakdown, while Kevin Kline brings a sadness that almost gives the show a pulse.
What You Come Here For
Alfonso Cuarón and Cate Blanchett, obviously. But also gorgeous cinematography and wealthy people emotionally torturing each other in beautiful locations.
Best Episode
"Chapter VII" (S1E7) — the episode where the show finally lays its cards on the table and reveals what the mystery's been building toward the whole time.
Weak Spots
The show gets so consumed by mood and seriousness that it occasionally forgets to make you care about the people involved.
Pair With
Big Little Lies, Tár, The Undoing.
Included In
What Our
Ratings Mean
Learn More →It's Dicey: You could do worse. These might scratch a specific itch or work for the right audience — but watch at your own risk.
Suggested Viewing
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Most spy shows want to be taken as seriously as type 2 diabetes. Slow Horses lets Gary Oldman bungle through an assassination one minute, then fart on a park bench the next. Both feel equally essential.
Beef
Road rage as blood sport — two seasons of people torching their own lives, and you somehow understand every terrible decision.
Adolescence
A four-episode bludgeoning that became one of the biggest cultural conversations of 2025 — and refuses to let anyone off the hook.