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Disclaimer Series-Premiere Recap: The Perfect Stranger
Alfonso Cuarón’s series feels reminiscent of class-conscious shows that tend to star Nicole Kidman, but its level of ambition muddies its themes.
Disclaimer issues a warning to its audience early on: “Beware of narrative and form.” The words belong to an unnamed awards-ceremony emcee, and she’s talking specifically about documentary filmmaking — how journalists and producers can massage a story by privileging one voice over another; how a close telling can eliminate psychic distance but a wider view might be better suited to capturing the truth. The fictional TV series Disclaimer, which is based on a 2015 domestic noir thriller from Renée Knight, feels like it was written by someone who took that warning seriously and decided the path to verisimilitude is to use as many narratives and forms as possible. Twenty years later, in the present-day thread, TV documentarian Catherine Ravenscroft (Blanchett) is sitting at an awards ceremony, listening as a presenter pontificates on the beguiling power of narrative and form.
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