Kate Winslet’s new HBO series The Regime received critical acclaim before its release, but since its premiere on March 3, its once-promising Rotten Tomatoes score has quickly plummeted. Created by Will Tracy, the co-writer of The Menu, The Regime chronicles a year inside the palace of the collapsing authoritarian regime of a fictional Central European nation. Winslet stars as Chancellor Elena Vernham, a paranoid autocrat who begins to rely on the advice of a recently disgraced soldier played by Matthias Schoenaerts. The limited series will run for six episodes, concluding its run on April 7.
The Regime seemed to have everything going for it: a rich satirical premise, lavish production design, and the great Stephen Frears and Jessica Hobbs each directing half of its episodes. Winslet is backed up by such A-list supporting players as Hugh Grant and Andrea Riseborough in The Regime’s impressively star-studded cast. But in spite of all these exciting attributes, The Regime has been met with enough negative reviews to drown out the early praise it received before its release. So, what went wrong? Why are the reviews for The Regime so mixed?
The Regime Episode 1 Recap: Elena’s Big Speech & 8 Other Reveals
The first episode of HBO’s new dark satire The Regime ends on a rousing speech from Kate Winslet’s Elena, which sets the stage for what’s to come.
The Regime’s Reviews Went From Critically Acclaimed To Mixed Very Quickly
Before its release, The Regime’s Rotten Tomatoes score sat nice and high at 89%. This doesn’t indicate universal praise, but it’s pretty close. However, post-release, that score has dropped to a dismal 57%, crossing the dreaded threshold from “fresh” to “rotten.” First reactions are often unreliable, because the people providing those reactions have been given early access to a high-profile project and don’t want to jeopardize their chances of getting early access to future films and TV shows, so they tend to say only positive things to appease the studio.
Once a movie or TV show has come out and becomes accessible to anyone who wants to write a review, critics are free to share their true opinions. The pre-release reviews focused mostly on Winslet’s powerhouse performance as Chancellor Vernham. As usual, Winslet is a magnetic screen presence with a deep understanding of the nuances of her character. But the post-release reviews suggest that Winslet’s typically strong acting isn’t enough to salvage a series whose writing falls far short of its satirical ambitions.
Why The Regime’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Dropped By Over 40% After Release
After its release, The Regime’s Rotten Tomatoes score dropped by more than 40%, taking it from a comfortable “fresh” rating to an unenviable “rotten” rating. This is because the first half of the reviews, which were added to Rotten Tomatoes before the show’s release, were mostly positive. Then, the next batch of reviews, added after the series premiered on HBO, were mostly negative. These negative reviews counterbalanced the existing positive reviews and dragged the overall score down to the middle of the scale.
A lot of the early positive reviews came with a caveat. It’s not as funny as a political satire should be, but the central relationship is consistently engaging. The writing is cartoonish, but Winslet’s performance salvages it. Even the most laudatory reviews made negative points about the series. The second wave of reviews didn’t give The Regime the benefit of the doubt like the first wave and just went full-tilt negative, lambasting its featherlight satire, thinly drawn characters, and failure to say anything original about the threat of autocracy.
The Regime’s 57% Rotten Tomatoes Score Breaks A Huge Kate Winslet Trend
The mixed reviews met by The Regime have sadly broken an impressive streak that Winslet had with her other HBO projects. Winslet’s past two HBO miniseries, Mildred Pierce and Mare of Easttown, were both critically acclaimed and rank pretty high in the overall critical scores of HBO’s original programming. Mildred Pierce holds an 81% score on Rotten Tomatoes, while Mare of Easttown has a near-perfect rating of 95%. Both of these scores are well above the “fresh” threshold, but that success streak has been broken by The Regime’s disappointing 57% score.
Usually, in a case like this, the audience reception can save the show. A lot of popular TV shows received negative reviews from critics, but ended up being embraced by audiences. Sadly, The Regime can’t even boast a positive audience reception. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is even lower than the critics’ score, sitting at a dismal 48%. It’s a shame because, in the age of Putin, the world really needs a show like The Regime – but not if that show has no new points to make, or even any satirical bite.
The Regime
The Regime is an HBO/Max mini-series that takes place over the course of one year and follows a failing dictator as her fictional empire begins to crumble around her. The show will see the beginning of the end of the dictatorship and the challenges that the Chancellor faces to keep her unsustainable rule afloat.
- Cast
- Kate Winslet , Andrea Riseborough , Hugh Grant , Martha Plimpton , Matthias Schoenaerts
- Streaming Service(s)
- HBO
- Showrunner
- Will Tracy
