Ricky Gervais’s “Alley Cats” Gets Clawed Apart by Critics — and He Fires Back

Ricky Gervais’s six-episode adult animated comedy “Alley Cats” premiered on Netflix on Aug. 7, following a gang of stray felines as they try to help a lost kitten find its way home. Reviews arrived overwhelmingly negative: The Telegraph gave it zero stars and called it “the worst thing to happen to cats since Cats,” The Independent awarded one star and dismissed it as a “Dark Garfield” that “might have been transgressive 30 years ago – not today,” and The Guardian wrote that the voice cast “can’t save it from being lazy, crude and boring” [1, 2]. Gervais responded on X, writing, “If you watch Alley Cats and you get offended at any point, just remember that 1, It’s just a cartoon about cats, and 2, you’re an adult, and can take it” [1].

Why It Sucks:

TV Critics

• A crowded genre got another lazy entry. Reviewers argue the show leans on shock value instead of jokes, with Metro calling it “the televisual equivalent of a black hole of bad ideas” [1].
• Star power couldn’t paper over weak writing. Despite a cast including Gervais, David Earl, Diane Morgan and Kerry Godliman, The Guardian says the material itself sinks the show regardless of who voices it [1].
• Being pre-emptively told they’re too sensitive is insulting. Critics who panned the show on craft grounds now have to field Gervais framing their reviews as evidence they can’t “take it,” rather than legitimate criticism [1].

Ricky Gervais and His Defenders

• Dark comedy is getting punished for being dark. Gervais’s own defense frames the pile-on as proof that transgressive humor is now treated as a moral failing rather than a legitimate comedic choice [1].
• Critics seem to be reviewing “offense” instead of jokes. Supporters argue coverage focused more on shock content than on whether the show is actually funny, which Gervais pre-empted by insisting “it’s just a cartoon about cats” [1].
• A near-unanimous pile-on invites skepticism. When outlets from The Telegraph to The Independent to The Guardian all land on the same harsh verdict within a day of release, defenders see groupthink rather than independent critical judgment [1, 2].

Netflix

• A high-profile bet on adult animation just face-planted publicly. Netflix greenlit “Alley Cats” as part of its push into adult animated comedy, and a near-universal critical drubbing on debut day undercuts that strategy right out of the gate [1, 2].
• The show’s creator is now the story, not the show. Gervais’s public spat with critics threatens to overshadow Netflix’s own promotion of the series, turning a launch-day marketing push into a controversy-management exercise [1].
• Future adult-animation greenlights get harder to justify. A reception this negative gives risk-averse executives reason to hesitate on similar swings, even if the show finds an audience despite the reviews [2].

Sources & Citations:

[1] AOL/The Independent: Ricky Gervais hits out at ‘offended’ Alley Cats viewers as critics pan Netflix show
[2] HuffPost UK: Alley Cats Review: Ricky Gervais’ Netflix Comedy Gets Slated By Critics