''Divorce'' is an American

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

television series created by

Sharon Horgan Sharon Lorencia Horgan (born 13 July 1970) is an Irish actress, writer, director, comedian and producer who co-wrote and starred in the comedy series '' Pulling'' (2006–2009) and ''Catastrophe'' (2015–2019). She also created the HBO comedy ...

, set in

Hastings-on-Hudson, New York Hastings-on-Hudson is a village in Westchester County located in the southwestern part of the town of Greenburgh in the state of New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of midtown Manha ...

, and starring

Sarah Jessica Parker Sarah Jessica Parker (born March 25, 1965) is an American actress and television producer. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Golden Globe Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 1 ...

and

Thomas Haden Church Thomas Haden Church (born Thomas Richard McMillen; June 17, 1960) is an American actor. After starring in the 1990s sitcom ''Wings'' and playing the lead for two seasons in ''Ned & Stacey'' (1995–1997)'','' Church became known for his film work, ...

as a middle-aged divorcing couple. The series premiered on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, 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 ba ...

on October 9, 2016. The pilot episode was written by Horgan and directed by

Jesse Peretz Jesse Peretz (born May 19, 1968) is an American film and television director, TV producer and former musician. He first rose to prominence as a bass guitarist and founding member of The Lemonheads, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based band which for ...

. On November 14, 2016, HBO renewed the show for a second season, which premiered on January 14, 2018. On November 2, 2018, HBO renewed the show for a third season, which was later announced on its premiere date to be the final season.

Cast

Main

as Frances Dufresne, a married woman who has an affair which precipitates her divorce *

as Robert Dufresne, Frances' hapless husband who discovers the affair and divorces her *

Molly Shannon Molly Helen Shannon (born September 16, 1964) is an American actress and comedian who was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1995 to 2001. In 2017, she won the Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in ...

as Diane, Frances' high-strung friend *

Talia Balsam Talia Balsam (born March 5, 1959) is an American television and film actress. Early life Balsam was born in New York City on March 5, 1959, to actors Martin Balsam and Joyce Van Patten. Her ancestry is Russian Jewish (father) and Italian, Dutch, ...

as Dallas Holt, Frances' close friend *

Tracy Letts Tracy S. Letts (born July 4, 1965) is an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. He started his career at the Steppenwolf Theatre before making his Broadway debut as a playwright for '' August: Osage County'' (2007), for which he received ...

as Nick, Diane's husband (seasons 1–2; guest season 3) * Sterling Jerins as Lila Dufresne, Frances and Robert's daughter *Charlie Kilgore as Tom Dufresne, Frances and Robert's son *

Becki Newton Rebecca Sara Newton is an American actress, known for her roles as Amanda Tanen on ''Ugly Betty'' and Quinn Garvey on ''How I Met Your Mother''. Early life Newton was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of Thomas Newton and Jennifer Ne ...

as Jackie Giannopolis, Robert's new girlfriend and later wife (season 3; recurring season 2)

Recurring

Jemaine Clement Jemaine Atea Mahana Clement (born 10 January 1974) is a New Zealand actor, comedian, musician and filmmaker. He has released several albums with Bret McKenzie as the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, and created a comedy series of the ...

as Julian Renaut *

Alex Wolff Alexander Draper Wolff (born November 1, 1997) is an American actor and musician. He first gained recognition for starring alongside his older brother Nat in the Nickelodeon musical comedy series '' The Naked Brothers Band'' (2007–09), which ...

(seasons 1-2), Isaac Josephthal (season 3) as Cole Holt *

Dean Winters Dean Gerard Winters (born July 20, 1964) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Ryan O'Reily on the HBO prison drama ''Oz (TV series), Oz'' and had roles in TV series'' Rescue Me (U.S. TV series), Rescue Me'', ''30 Rock'', ''Sex and th ...

as Tony Silvercreek *

Jeffrey DeMunn Jeffrey DeMunn (born April 25, 1947) is an American stage, film and television actor known for playing Captain Esteridge in '' The Hitcher'' (1986), Sheriff Herb Geller in ''The Blob'' (1988), Andrei Chikatilo in '' Citizen X'' (1995), Harry Terwi ...

as Max Brodkin *Roslyn Ruff as Sylvia *

Yul Vazquez Yul Vazquez (born March 18, 1965) is a Cuban-American actor and musician. He has appeared in ''Runaway Bride (film), Runaway Bride'' (1999), ''Bad Boys II'' (2003), ''War of the Worlds (2005 film), War of the Worlds'' (2005), ''American Gangster ...

as Craig Anders *

Keisha Zollar Keisha Zollar is an American writer, comedian, and actress. She is a founding member of Upright Citizen Brigade Theatre's first all-black team Astronomy Club and was co-head writer for the group's Netflix series. Zollar was on the writing staff ...

as Grace *Jorge Chapa as Sebastian *Danny Garcia as Gabriel *

James Lesure James Lesure (born September 21, 1970) is an American television actor, best known for roles on the NBC/The WB sitcom ''For Your Love'' (1998–2002), and NBC comedy-drama ''Las Vegas'' (2003–2008), '' Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce'' (2017–20 ...

as Henry

Production

In December 2014, it was announced

had been cast in the

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

and would also serve as an

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

. In February 2015,

and

joined the series. In November 2015,

joined the cast. In December 2015, Sterling Jerins joined the cast.

Episodes

Season 1 (2016)

; Notes

Season 2 (2018)

Season 3 (2019)

Broadcast

The series premiered in the United Kingdom on

Sky Atlantic Sky Atlantic is a British pay television channel owned by Sky Group Limited broadcast in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is primarily dedicated to imported programmes from the United States, and holds the domestic rights to HBO ...

on October 11, 2016. It premiered in Australia on

Showcase Showcase or vitrine may refer to: *Cabinet (furniture) *Display case Music * ''Showcase'' (Bill Anderson album), 1964 * ''Showcase'' (Patsy Cline album), 1961 * ''Showcase'' (Buddy Holly album), 1964 * ''Showcase'' (Philly Joe Jones album), 1959 ...

on October 12, 2016.

Reception

Critical reception

''Divorce'' has received mixed to positive reviews from television critics. On

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 Wang ...

the first season has a rating of 63%, based on 51 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "While the execution borders on superficial, the dark humor and character chemistry in ''Divorce'' hit the mark." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, 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 arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the first season has a score of 60 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{HBONetwork Shows 2010s American comedy-drama television series 2016 American television series debuts 2019 American television series endings Adultery in television English-language television shows HBO original programming Television series about dysfunctional families Television series created by Sharon Horgan Television shows set in New York (state) Television series about divorce Television series by Kapital Entertainment