The Listeners; Cheaters

“The programme keeps you finely unbalanced throughout, as ideas about the boundary between supernatural and plausibly scientific explanations are introduced, unreliable narrators start – maybe! – entering into proceedings, and our capacity for collective delusion and denial – the strength of it, the protection it offers and the destruction wreaked by it in the end – are all dissected and laid out for horrified inspection. By the final episode, it has built a sense of thriller-ish and existential dread that is quite paralysing.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“With its artfully directed feel, it’s clear that this is a drama reaching for the philosophical and profound. That, at least, surely makes it unique for a British primetime drama. Yes, there is a large kitchen island in Claire and her husband Paul’s nice home, but this isn’t the kind of middle-class-family-in-crisis show we’re normally fed.”
James Jackson, The Times

“There are moments when it becomes just too pretentious. At one point, Kyle likens the noise of a lawnmower to ‘the sound of eternity’. Its saving graces are Prasanna Puwanarajah and Mia Tharia as Claire’s husband and daughter, Paul and Ashley. While Claire drifts off into a world of hallucinatory oddness, these two keep the drama grounded by behaving exactly as normal people would in this situation – which is to treat Claire with sympathy at first, and then as if she’s gone completely nuts.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“The Listeners can be challenging. But that doesn’t mean it won’t reward patient viewing. Director Janicza Bravo and writer Jordan Tannahill have created a parabolic nightmare that deploys genre conventions in service of an elliptical tale of human nature. What do we want? How do we attain it? What might we lose along the way? Far from light entertainment, then, The Listeners is a complex story of association and dissociation.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent

“The Listeners holds a brilliant premise at its heart, one that it delivers with considerable style. Produced by the team who made Normal People and Poor Things, the aesthetic is an expression of the series’ haunting DNA: architectural lines, muted colours, washed-out faces. From its subtle opening to the explosive final episode, this is a truly great piece of television.”
Marianne Levy, The i

“It’s hard to maintain a TV show’s momentum when its initial conceit has run its course, but season two proves there is still plenty of complicated romantic entanglements to keep up with.”
Rachel Aroesti, The Guardian

“If you enjoyed series one then you’ll enjoy this – although not as much, because it’s drawing out the story beyond its natural life.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph