''Rain Dogs'' is a British comedy-drama television series created, written, and executive produced by Cash Carraway for
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...
and
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
. It premiered on HBO on 6 March 2023 and stars
Daisy May Cooper
Daisy May Cooper (born 1 August 1986) is an English actress and writer. She won the 2018 BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for playing Kerry Mucklowe in the BBC Three series '' This Country'', which she co-created and co-wrote w ...
Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo
Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo ( ) is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Jack Starbright in the Amazon Prime spy thriller ''Alex Rider (TV series), Alex Rider'' (2020–2024) and Yvonne in the Netflix musical film ''Been So Long (film), B ...
and Fleur Tashjian. The series has received critical acclaim, with particular praise for the writing and performances of its cast.
Synopsis
An unconventional love story between a working-class single mother, her young daughter, and a privileged gay man.
Cast
Episodes
Production
''Rain Dogs'' is executive produced by Cash Carraway, Lee Morris, Sally Woodward Gentle, and Jo McLellan for BBC One. The series is directed by Richard Laxton and Jennifer Perrott.
Music
Rain Dogs has a soundtrack of power pop and alternative rock classics chosen by the show’s creator Cash Carraway.
Some of the songs featured on the show include
Nick Lowe
Nicholas Drain Lowe (born 24 March 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer. A noted figure in Pub rock (United Kingdom), pub rock, power pop and New wave music, new wave,Cruel to Be Kind", The Replacements' " Little Mascara",
Warren Zevon
Warren William Zevon (January 24, 1947 – September 7, 2003) was an American rock singer and songwriter. His most famous compositions include "Werewolves of London", "Lawyers, Guns and Money" and "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner". All t ...
's "
Werewolves of London
"Werewolves of London" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Warren Zevon, written by Zevon, LeRoy Marinell and Waddy Wachtel. It first appeared on '' Excitable Boy'' (1978), Zevon's third studio album, then it was released as a s ...
Justin Townes Earle
Justin Townes Earle (January 4, 1982August 20, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. After his debut EP, ''Yuma'' (2007), he released eight full-length albums. He was recognized with an Americana Music Award for Emerging Artist ...
's "Baby’s Got a Bad Idea".
Episode 1 takes its name from
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Manchester in 1982, composed of Morrissey (vocals), Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (musician), Mike Joyce (drums). Morrissey and Marr formed the band's songwrit ...
' "You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby".
The lead character Costello Jones is named after
Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to ''Rolling Stone'', Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical ...
and all of the supporting male roles are named after members of the English rock band
Suede
Suede (pronounced ) is a type of leather with a fuzzy, napped finish, commonly used for jackets, shoes, Textile, fabrics, Handbag, purses, furniture, and other items.
Suede is made from the underside of the animal skin, which is softer and m ...
.
Showrunner Cash Carraway was originally going to call the series ''All Shook Down'' after an album by The Replacements but later changed it to ''Rain Dogs'' after
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on society's underworld and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He began in the American folk music, fo ...
' booze-soaked record about "people who sleep in doorways".
Reception
Critical response
On the
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...
, ''Rain Dogs'' holds an approval rating of 93% based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Authentically brutal with pinpricks of humor that's all the more true to life, ''Rain Dogs'' is a bracing story of toil that proves to be immensely rewarding."
On
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, it has a
weighted average
The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
rating of 87 out of 100 based on 14 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Metacritic ranked ''Rain Dogs'' as the number one critically acclaimed new show in the United States for the first half of 2023.
Dan Einav in ''
The Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...
'' said that it "plays as both a bruising tragedy…and as an obscene, gallows humour comedy". Alan Sepinwell in ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The magazine was first known fo ...
'' described it as “fascinating, poignant, and at times darkly funny”. Sean O'Grady gave it five stars in ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' and hailed it as "a fine memento of our troubled times".
Craig Mathieson
Craig Mathieson (born 1971) is an Australian music journalist and writer. His books include, ''Hi Fi Days'' (1996), '' The Sell-In'' in (2000) and the '' 100 Best Australian Albums'' in 2010, with Toby Creswell and John O'Donnell
Biography
...
of ''
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...
'' awarded it five stars, calling the show "staggering".
BAFTA
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
Breakthrough 2023 for creating, writing, and executive producing Rain Dogs. Farthing was nominated for Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series at the 39th Independent Spirit Awards in February 2024. Adékoluẹjo was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the
Royal Television Society Programme Awards
The Royal Television Society Programme Awards, (often referred to as the RTS Awards) seek to recognise programmes or individuals who have made a positive and material contribution to their genre: either because their content or originality in for ...
in March 2024. Cooper was nominated for Best Actress at the 2024
Broadcasting Press Guild
The Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) is a British association of journalists dedicated to the topic of general media issues.
History
The Guild was established in 1974 as a breakaway of The Critics' Circle and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 20 ...