'Joan' Reviews: Series is "great fun"

         On October 2, 2024, The CW premiered 'Joan', which has earned predominantly positive reviews from critics, currently holding at 60% on Rotten Tomatoes. In the series, "Joan Hannington, a fiery and uncompromising woman in her 20s, is a devoted mother to her 6-year-old daughter, Kelly, but is trapped in a disastrous marriage with a violent criminal named Gary. When Gary goes on the run, Joan seizes the opportunity to create a new life for herself and her daughter. Adopting new identities and making new acquaintances along the way, Joan becomes a masterful jewel thief. She embarks on a thrilling, high-stakes journey that challenges her every limit, driven by her desire to create a secure home." The ensemble cast includes Sophie Turner, Frank Dillane, Kirsty J. Curtis, and Gershwyn Eustache Jnr. But what did they say? 

       Caroline Siede of AV Club notes, "Sophie Turner has spent the first part of her career coming of age—initially in her phenomenal work as Sansa Stark on Game Of Thrones, then in her far more uneven turn as Jean Grey in the X-Men film series. Even her highly public pop-star marriage and divorce felt like it had the beats of a coming-of-age story, with eternal teen-girl icon Taylor Swift swooping in to save the day. Now, however, Turner is firmly entering her grown-up era with Joan, a British-American co-production loosely inspired by a real-life 1980s jewel thief named Joan Hannington. The story of a young mother stepping into her power, Joan is rooted more in crime-thriller tropes than young-adult ones. And while the series as a whole lacks a certain spark, it provides a strong platform to launch the next phase of Turner’s career."

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       Lacy Baugher of Paste Magazine says, "While Turner does her best, Joan is a drama that can’t quite decide what it wants to be, often choosing the safest and least interesting path by which to tell the story of its notorious central figure." Adding, "As a result, Joan often feels more like a domestic thriller than it does a true crime drama, and while its focus on its titular character’s struggle to reunite with her daughter is emotionally fraught, there’s not much here that feels new or exciting. The show pokes at some interesting ideas about female ambition and the challenges of being taken seriously in a man’s world—even when that world is full of criminals—but it never really takes any of them far enough, choosing instead to default back to Joan’s relationship drama with Boisie and the question of how she’ll ever manage to reclaim Kelly from foster care."

       Lucy Mangan of Guardian praises the series, stating, "It’s great fun, holding the genuine grief and fears behind Joan’s courage nicely in tension with the glorious adrenaline rushes and addictive glamour of the heists and Spanish smuggling jaunts. Turner – at least in the two episodes available for review – never lets us lose sight of the anxious mother in the criminal, nor the core of desperation that drives her."