The new Netflix series The Girls on the Bus, adapted from a memoir about covering Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, has received poor reviews from media critics despite seeming poised for praise due to its focus on feminist themes.
CNN media critic Brian Lowry criticized the show for devolving into a superficial CW-style drama that pays lip service to journalism’s decline.
The Girls on the Bus “devolves into a CW-style drama that occasionally addresses the slow death of journalism on the most perfunctory level,” Lowry wrote. It is “at best a frothy soap opera” and at worst “an ethical twilight zone.”
He said it fails to live up to precedents like The Newsroom and offers no morale boost for the profession.
“At a moment when journalism would benefit from any kind of morale lift, the last thing it needs is another broadly drawn series that seems to put a spotlight on the profession’s principles before backing over them,” Lowry wrote.
Variety also reviewed it negatively, noting the protagonist rails against double standards faced by female reporters but crosses her own lines.
“[She] rails against the sexist double standard applied to female reporters, including the media trope that they sleep with sources…except she does have a relationship with a press secretary that ends up crossing a line, so her speechifying falls on deaf ears,” Variety wrote.
“Its frequent silliness feels inappropriate, while its occasional grandstanding comes off as entirely out of its depth,” Variety added.
The Hollywood Reporter similarly found the show resembles a teen drama more than a serious examination of politics or journalism.
While touting feminist ideals, critics agreed The Girls on the Bus comes off as an inappropriate and shallow treatment of important issues.
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