''Full Circle'' is an American television miniseries created and written by Ed Solomon and directed by

Steven Soderbergh Steven Andrew Soderbergh (; born January 14, 1963) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor. A pioneer of modern independent cinema, Soderbergh is an acclaimed and prolific filmmaker. Soderbergh's direct ...

for the Max streaming television service. It premiered July 13, 2023.

Premise

An investigation into a botched kidnapping uncovers long-held secrets connecting multiple characters and cultures in present-day New York City.

Cast

Zazie Beetz Zazie Olivia Beetz ( ; ; born June 1, 1991) is a American actress. She stars in the FX comedy-drama series ''Atlanta'' (2016–22), for which she received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy ...

as Mel Harmony *

Claire Danes Claire Catherine Danes (born April 12, 1979) is an American actress. She is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2012, ''Time'' named her one of the 100 most influential ...

as Sam Browne *

Timothy Olyphant Timothy David Olyphant ( ; born May 20, 1968) is an American actor. He made his acting debut in an off-Broadway theater in 1995, in ''The Monogamist'', and won the Theatre World Award for his performance, and then originated David Sedaris' '' Th ...

as Derek Browne *

Dennis Quaid Dennis William Quaid (born April 9, 1954) is an American actor known for a wide variety of dramatic and comedic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the late 1970s, some of his notable credits include '' Breaking Away'' (1979), '' The ...

as Jeff McCusker * Suzanne Savoy as Kristin McCusker *

Jharrel Jerome Jharrel Jerome (born October 9, 1997) is an American actor and rapper who is best known for appearing in Barry Jenkins's acclaimed drama film ''Moonlight'' (2016), and for portraying Korey Wise in Ava DuVernay's Netflix miniseries '' When They S ...

as Aked * Gerald Jones as Louis * Sheyi Cole as Xavier *

CCH Pounder Carol Christine Hilaria Pounder (born December 25, 1952) is a Guyanese-American actress. She has received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her roles in '' The X-Files'', '' ER'', '' The Shield'', and '' The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agen ...

as Savitri Mahabir *

Jim Gaffigan James Christopher Gaffigan (born July 7, 1966) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. His material often addresses fatherhood, laziness, food, religion, and general observations. He is regarded as a "clean" comic, using l ...

as Manny Broward * Adia as Natalia *

Phaldut Sharma Phaldut "Paul" Sharma, also known as Paul Sharma, is a UK-based actor and dancer. He is best known for his roles in Gavin and Stacey as Achmed and Eastenders as AJ Ahmed . Career Television and film Sharma played Vinnay Ramdas in '' Casualty'' ...

as Garmen Harry * Lucian Zanes as Nicky * William Sadler as Gene McCusker * Happy Anderson as Joey * Kareem Savinon as Paul Tranquada * Franklin Ojeda Smith as Woulghby * Ethan Stoddard as Jared * Jay Vanderveer * Jarod Lindsey as Len * Rachel Annette Helson as Charisse * Finn (golden retriever) as Ruby

Episodes

Production

On June 17, 2021, it was reported that

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netwo ...

was set to develop the series ''Full Circle'' with Ed Solomon writing and producing the series with Casey Silver and

, who would direct the 6-episode series. In September 2022,

, Sheyi Cole,

, and

were cast. In October 2022, William Sadler, Happy Anderson, and Adia joined the cast. The story for the series was inspired by the 1963

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dy ...

film ''High and Low''. Filming for the series began in September 2022 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. The series had its world premiere at the

Tribeca Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was fo ...

on June 11, 2023. Max released a trailer and poster on May 18, 2023, confirming that it would premiere on the platform on July 13, 2023, with two episodes released weekly until July 27.

Reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reported a 79% approval rating with an average rating of 7.5/10, based on 39 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "''Full Circle''s windy plotting may prove too labyrinthine for casual enjoyment, but

's assured direction and a stacked cast give this simmering noir plenty of intrigue."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 70 out of 100 based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".

References

External links

* * {{Max (streaming service) Max (streaming service) original programming English-language television shows 2023 American television series debuts Works by Ed Solomon