Disclaimer (TV series)

Disclaimer is a psychological thriller miniseries written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Renée Knight. It stars Cate Blanchett as a documentarian who is forced to confront her past. The supporting cast includes Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Louis Partridge, Leila George and Lesley Manville.

The series made its debut at the 81st Venice International Film Festival before premiering on Apple TV+ on October 11, 2024, with its first two episodes. It has garnered mostly positive reviews from critics.

Premise

A famed documentary journalist discovers she is a prominent character in a novel that reveals a secret she has tried to keep hidden. The story is revealed in a non-linear fashion with the main actions occurring firstly when Nicholas is four years old (young Catherine’s secret affair with Jonathan in Italy and Jonathan’s subsequent death) and secondly twenty years later (the truth emerges, the consequences).

Cast

Main

• Cate Blanchett as Catherine Ravenscroft, an award-winning journalist and documentarian.
  • Leila George as young Catherine Ravenscroft
• Kevin Kline as Stephen Brigstocke, a retired private school teacher who harbors a grudge against Catherine.
• Sacha Baron Cohen as Robert Ravenscroft, Catherine's husband, who runs a corrupt non-profit.
  • Adam El Hagar as young Robert Ravenscroft
• Lesley Manville as Nancy Brigstocke, Stephen's late wife.
• Louis Partridge as Jonathan Brigstocke, Stephen and Nancy's deceased son.
• Indira Varma as the Narrator
• Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nicholas Ravenscroft, Catherine and Robert's aimless, drug-addled son.

Guest

• Art Malik as Justin, Stephen's publisher and former colleague
• Liv Hill as Sasha, Jonathan's girlfriend
• Christiane Amanpour as herself
• HoYeon as Jisoo Kim, Catherine's assistant
• Michael Spicer as Simon, Catherine's colleague
• Gemma Jones as Helen, Catherine's mother who suffers from dementia
• Youssef Kerkour as Richard Perkins

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Teleplay by	Original release date
1	"I"	Alfonso Cuarón	Alfonso Cuarón	October 11, 2024 (2024-10-11)
Celebrated documentarian Catherine Ravenscroft receives a package containing a book titled The Perfect Stranger. Horrified by its contents, Catherine sets the book on fire before finishing it, telling her husband Robert that she believes the story to be about her. Flashbacks show that the book was sent to Catherine by Stephen Brigstocke, a retired teacher grieving the deaths of his wife Nancy and son Jonathan. Stephen finds a manuscript of the book in Nancy's belongings, alongside a collection of photos taken by Jonathan during his trip to Italy 20 years before, which includes erotic photos of a young Catherine. Stephen publishes the book and sends it to Catherine as revenge for Jonathan's death, for which he holds her responsible. Another series of flashbacks to 2001 shows Jonathan arriving in Italy with his girlfriend Sasha, who abruptly leaves when she learns her aunt has died in a car crash. Now alone, Jonathan visits a beach where he first sees and surreptitiously photographs Catherine.
2	"II"	Alfonso Cuarón	Alfonso Cuarón	October 11, 2024 (2024-10-11)
Stephen is shown to have visited Catherine's estranged, wayward son Nicholas at the department store he works at to discreetly deliver him a copy of The Perfect Stranger. Another flashback shows Catherine visiting Nancy, who is dying of cancer and berates Catherine for her role in Jonathan's death. She demands to meet Nicholas, telling Catherine that he would not be alive if not for Jonathan; Catherine refuses and leaves in a panic. In the present, Stephen delivers a copy of the book to Robert's office via his secretary, also including copies of Jonathan's photos. A disgusted Robert recognizes the photos from his and Catherine's vacation in Italy 20 years ago. Robert confronts Catherine with the photos, believing her to have had an affair after he was called away from the trip for work. A tearful Catherine says that the man who took the photos died. Before she can explain further, Robert rushes out of the house with the book and drives away.
3	"III"	Alfonso Cuarón	Alfonso Cuarón	October 18, 2024 (2024-10-18)
Robert spends the night drinking and sleeping in his car. The next day, he ignores Catherine's calls and skips work to read The Perfect Stranger. Catherine leaves a voicemail for Stephen sympathizing with his grief but asserting that the book is a fiction. Stephen learns that the book has gained popularity since its publication. In 2001, Jonathan befriends Catherine by helping her bring a young Nicholas and her belongings back to her hotel. Catherine invites Jonathan for a drink in the hotel restaurant and aggressively flirts with him. She brings him to her room and guides him through how to pleasure her, culminating in passionate sex. Days later, the police inform a devastated Stephen and Nancy that Jonathan died of an accidental drowning at the beach. The couple travel to Italy to identify their son's body, and Nancy secretly collects the film stock in Jonathan's camera.
4	"IV"	Alfonso Cuarón	Alfonso Cuarón	October 18, 2024 (2024-10-18)
Catherine is horrified to discover The Perfect Stranger in her local bookstore. Robert kicks Catherine out of the house. Stephen asks Justin, his publisher and former colleague, to help him set up a Facebook page for a fictional teenage boy, ostensibly as research for another book he is writing. In flashbacks to the years after Jonathan's death, a grieving Nancy moves into Jonathan's room and secretly begins writing The Perfect Stranger while dying of cancer. In 2001, Jonathan has Catherine pose for his photos during their tryst, and the two have sex again the next day in a beach bathroom. Jonathan tells Catherine he is in love with her and has already bought a ticket to London to be with her, but Catherine tells him they cannot be together. Nicholas, left unattended, takes his inflatable dinghy into the water, and the current takes him far into the sea. Jonathan rushes in to save him, followed by a number of lifeguards and beachgoers. Nicholas is successfully rescued, but Catherine sees Jonathan drowning in the distance and neglects to alert anyone; by the time the lifeguards take notice and bring him ashore, Jonathan has already died.
5	"V"	Alfonso Cuarón	Alfonso Cuarón	October 25, 2024 (2024-10-25)
Catherine goes to stay with her mother Helen, who suffers from dementia, and tells her the full truth of her past while she sleeps. Stephen visits Catherine's office with copies of The Perfect Stranger and tells Jisoo, Catherine's assistant, that the book recounts Catherine's choice to leave her lover to die. By the time Catherine arrives at work, all her coworkers have read the book and shun her; she storms out and slaps her colleague, Simon, for touching her arm, which is caught on video and goes viral. Catherine knocks on Stephen's door demanding to talk to him, but he does not answer. Stephen and Robert later meet for dinner, where Robert thanks Stephen for the book. Stephen creates a fake Instagram page for Jonathan and uses it to message Nicholas; he eventually reveals that Jonathan is dead and that Nicholas is the boy he died saving, and sends Jonathan's photos of Catherine to Nicholas to cross-reference with the book. A horrified Nicholas visits a drug den he frequents, and overdoses on heroin.
6	"VI"	Alfonso Cuarón	Alfonso Cuarón	November 1, 2024 (2024-11-01)
Separate flashbacks reveal inaccuracies in Nancy's retelling of the events in Italy: Sasha is revealed to have left the trip after a fight with Jonathan, not because of her aunt, and Catherine recounts that she simply noticed Jonathan watching her throughout her first day alone with Nicholas, and did not actually engage with him. In the present, Nicholas is hospitalized following his overdose. Robert informs Stephen and allows him to visit the comatose Nicholas. Stephen arrives with a syringe full of cleaning chemicals, intending to kill Nicholas, only for Catherine to intervene. Following a tense fight, Robert privately apologizes to Stephen for Catherine's behavior and tells him he can visit again. That night, Catherine breaks into Stephen's house, and sits him down to hear the truth of what really happened in Italy.
7	"VII"	Alfonso Cuarón	Alfonso Cuarón	November 8, 2024 (2024-11-08)

Production

It was announced in December 2021 that Alfonso Cuarón was writing and directing a series for Apple TV+, with Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline starring and Emmanuel Lubezki and Bruno Delbonnel serving as cinematographers. In February 2022, Kodi Smit-McPhee joined the cast while Sacha Baron Cohen entered negotiations for a role. Cohen was confirmed the following month, with HoYeon Jung also added to the cast. Louis Partridge joined the cast in May, and Lesley Manville joined the next month. Leila George was added to the cast in October.

Filming for the series had begun by June 2022 in Archway, London; Mexico, and Sydney, and finished production in February 2023.

Release

Disclaimer was screened at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on August 29, 2024, was screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, in the Primetime program, and it was screened at the 2024 BFI London Film Festival on October 10, as a special event. It premiered on October 11, 2024, on Apple TV+, with the first two episodes available immediately and then two on October 18, 2024, then one a week, until November 8, 2024.

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 77% with an average rating of 7.3/10, based on 92 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "An intelligent offering from a dream team of talent that also dishes some plain pulpy pleasures, Disclaimer is a dense and rewarding psychological puzzle." Metacritic calculated a weighted average of 71 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

External links

• Disclaimer at IMDb