Review Roundup: What Did Critics Think of THE POLITICIAN?

The Netflix original series from Ryan Murphy, The Politician, is prepping for its launch on September 27.

Season one series regulars include Ben Platt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Lange, Zoey Deutch, Lucy Boynton, Bob Balaban, David Corenswet, Julia Schlaepfer, Laura Dreyfuss, Theo Germaine, Rahne Jones, and Benjamin Barrett.

Payton Hobart (Ben Platt), a wealthy student from Santa Barbara, California, has known since age seven that he's going to be President of the United States. But first he'll have to navigate the most treacherous political landscape of all: Saint Sebastian High School.

To get elected Student Body President, secure a spot at Harvard, and stay on his singular path to success, Payton will have to outsmart his ruthless classmates without sacrificing his own morality and carefully crafted image.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

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Caroline Framke, Variety: Following Payton's own journey of self-discovery, by the end of the season, "The Politician" becomes far more nuanced and complex than its initial few episodes suggest. It almost feels like the Murphy, Falchuk, Brennan team knows what viewers are expecting of them (i.e. colorfully bitchy social commentary served up with hyper-stylized flair) before pulling out the rug from underneath them entirely. It doesn't always work; their tonal shifts remain jarring; the cartoons are characters until they're not; the extent of the show's belief that Payton deserves the world simply because he says so can be unclear. But when it does click into place, "The Politician" proves a perversely fascinating portrait of what it means to not only have ambition, but stop at nothing to serve it.

Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter: Maybe it should be? With a wandering focus and an erratic sense of tone, The Politician simply doesn't come together as a clean vision. It remains generally watchable throughout thanks to a great cast and fleeting moments of inspiration and it actually teases a promising second season - none of which makes these episodes any less of a wasted opportunity for satire and commentary.

Kristen Baldwin, Entertainment Weekly: The sequence perfectly encapsulates the eight-episode dramedy, the first fruits of Netflix's multi-million-dollar deal with Ryan Murphy, who co-created the show along with Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. But as The Politician wrestles with its central question - is Payton a man or a construct? - it struggles to keep its own ideas contained, and the result sometimes feels more like a junk drawer cluttered with the creative detritus of Murphy's mind.

Chris Mandle, BBC: Throughout its intended run - a second season has already been confirmed, though four to six are expected in total - the show is planning to observe Hobart through key stages of his life as he climbs towards the White House; it's definitely an exciting premise, which will allow the setting and supporting cast to change each year, echoing the template Murphy established in his other anthology shows AMERICAN HORROR STORY and AMERICAN CRIME Story. But unfortunately this first season feels chaotic and messy, too blunt a tool for Murphy definitively to carve out his space in Netflix's vast empire.

Alan Sepinwal, Rolling Stone: If Pose displays all of Murphy and Falchuk's greatest strengths as creators, The Politician exemplifies all three men's gravest weaknesses - as if they split themselves into good and evil versions, and sent the evil ones to make this show. It is mean, nonsensical, and utterly hollow. Moments when anyone onscreen emotionally resembles a person are rare. It's Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennan trying to make their own version of a Wes Anderson movie (and it does look beautiful) without understanding that there has to be recognizable, understandable human behavior lurking underneath all the twee stylistic flourishes.

Judy Berman, TIME: Like American Horror Story, it tackles contemporary anxieties in overwrought yet imaginative ways. Like Glee, it's about young people figuring out who they are; queerness abounds, though in a post-Poseworld, casual fluidity is the rule. Authentic emotion coexists with camp. There's singing, dancing, violence, stunt casting, side plots ripped from the headlines. The show is a lot. And it seems destined to be both popular and polarizing.

Dave Nemetz, TVLine: In fact, if you can imagine Anderson's Rushmore remade by Murphy, with a bit of Election sprinkled in for good measure, you get a pretty solid idea of what to expect from The Politician... and the result is one of the most entertaining new shows of the fall.

Ben Travers, IndieWire: "The Politician" isn't actually interested in politics. It's interested in scheming and melodrama, which would be fine if it wasn't so ostensibly obsessed with using the broken system of government referred to in its title to prop up its plot. What results is a shallow character study supported by equally flimsy ties to important-sounding ideas.

Jillian Goodman, Bloomberg: Like Election, The Politician is primarily about an ambitious anti-hero (played by Ben Platt, who we'll get to in a bit) who's convinced their entire future hangs on winning the office of student body president. Unlike Election, which is decidedly satire, The Politician at first seems insecure in its self-identity. Is it burlesque? Is it melodrama? Is it bildungsroman? The answer is that it's a Ryan Murphy show, i.e. all three and then some.

Shannon Miller, A.V. Club: So it's understandable as to why the eight-episode first season hits the ground running, immediately submerging viewers in Payton's unrelenting moxie. Still, while the pacing lends itself to a final product that shirks boredom at every turn, the eagerness to keep the audiences guessing leads to twists that don't feel entirely earned-moments that would resonate way more if the show slowed down and gave us an opportunity to get to know the other characters as thoroughly as Payton or Ivory. Cramming Glee-sized drama, which usually took a minimum of 13 episodes to gestate, into just eight episodes proves to be a challenge here, resulting in moments that are less shocking and more fodder.

Patricia Puentes, CNET: New Netflix show The Politician isn't just for political junkies. It's for anyone who likes smart dramedies that tackle current themes. For the political satire, available on Sept. 27, uber-producer Ryan Murphy (Glee, American Horror Story) captures the tribulations of a group of precocious Generation Z high schoolers. And it's hard to watch it without drawing parallels to present realities.

Kayla Cobb, Decider: Other than Payton, the entire series is a thrilling rollercoaster of drama, filled with episodes where characters lose, then gain, then lose their massive fortunes again over the span of 45 minutes. Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan have fully capitalized on their arsenal of top-notch talent to make the first season, particularly when it comes to Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Lange, and Zoey Deutch. All three of these actresses are at their best in The Politician.

Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, The Daily Dot: As you'd expect from a Murphy show, The Politician is witty, fast-moving, and addictive, with so many plot twists per episode that I truly pity the recappers. While the candidates debate issues like gun control and gender equality, the election is mostly decided by scandal, ranging from love triangles to assassination attempts.

Esther Zuckerman, Thrillist: The Politician feels like Murphy unleashed. It's the most unhinged he's been since the Glee days: The eight-episode series dropping on September 27 is stuffed with random musical numbers, throuples, celebrity cameos, and hot-button issues used as joke-y fodder for melodramatic plots. It's well-acted and entertaining almost by sheer force of will, but you're also left wondering what, if anything, Murphy is trying to get at and whether the show's over-the-top tastelessness is at all earned.

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