Is Tom Holland's The Crowded Room the next Apple TV Plus flop?

The Crowded Room artwork
(Image credit: Apple TV+)

Today sees the premiere of the Apple TV Plus thriller The Crowded Room, starring Tom Holland and Amanda Seyfried. But the early reviews have been less than positive.

Following the release of Ghosted which broke streaming records despite awful reviews, you have to wonder whether Apple's streak of hits including Ted Lasso, Dark Horses, The Morning Show, Severance, and others might have come to an end.

But there might be some light at the end of the tunnel because while the critics seem to have universally panned the show, paying customers actually seem to like it.

"Tom Holland should stick to superheroes"

And when we say the critics have been unimpressed, we aren't joking. The Telegraph couldn't wait beyond its headline to tell us that "Tom Holland should stick to superheroes," a quote that seems unnecessarily harsh. But the sentiment is mirrored across multiple reviews, it seems.

You get a feel for that in the Rotten Tomatoes score that The Crowded Room has so far been able to muster. A poor 26% may tell the story. But the 96% audience rating might tell a different one, suggesting that maybe The Crowded Room is worth checking out anyway — no matter what the reviewers say.

It certainly sounds good.

"Starring and executive produced by Tom Holland, 'The Crowded Room' is a gripping, 10-episode limited series that stars Holland as Danny Sullivan, a man who is arrested following his involvement in a shooting in New York City in 1979," Apple TV Plus' description begins. "A captivating thriller told through a series of interviews with curious interrogator Rya Goodwin (Amanda Seyfried), Danny’s life story unfolds, revealing elements of the mysterious past that shaped him, and the twists and turns that will lead him to a life-altering revelation."

If that's enough to pique your interest — and it probably should be — you can of course watch The Crowded Room on Apple TV Plus starting today. The first three episodes are up now, while new ones will arrive every Friday through to the season's completion.

You can watch Apple TV Plus on just about anything, and there are plenty of Apple TV 4K alternatives if you'd like to save some money as well.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.