''Rain Dogs'' is a British comedy-drama series created, written, and executive produced by

Cash Carraway Cash Carraway is a British-Irish author, playwright and screenwriter, best known for creating and writing the HBO series, '' Rain Dogs.'' Carraway first came to prominence for her bestselling book '' Skint Estate.'' Her writing is often compare ...

for

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

and

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 ...

. 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 wi ...

Jack Farthing Jack Farthing (born 14 October 1985) is a British actor. Early life Born and raised in North London, Farthing attended two independent schools; the Hall School, Hampstead and Westminster School in central London. He read History of Art at St C ...

, Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo 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 Richard Laxton (born 5 July 1967 in London) is a British film director Career Richard Laxton started his career with the short film '' I Bet It Will Rain'' in 1992. Initially he mainly worked for TV production, and was nominated for British ...

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 power pop and new wave,Cruel to Be Kind "Cruel to Be Kind" is a song by Nick Lowe, co-written by Lowe and his former Brinsley Schwarz bandmate Ian Gomm. Written by Lowe and Gomm while the pair were in Brinsley Schwarz, the song was saved on a demo until Columbia Records convinced Lo ...

”, The Replacements “ Little Mascara”,

Warren Zevon Warren William Zevon (; January 24, 1947 – September 7, 2003) was an American rock singer, songwriter, and musician. Zevon's most famous compositions include "Werewolves of London", "Lawyers, Guns and Money", and " Roland the Headless Tho ...

’s “

Werewolves of London "Werewolves of London" is a rock song performed by American singer-songwriter Warren Zevon. It was composed by Zevon, LeRoy Marinell and Waddy Wachtel and was included on ''Excitable Boy'' (1978), Zevon's third solo album. The track featured ...

”,

Caroline Rose Caroline Elizabeth Rose (born October 19, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, musician and producer. After releasing two records of folk and country-inspired music, she released a pop-rock album ''Loner'' in 2018. Her most recent album, '' ...

’s “Soul No. 5”, and

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 singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...

’s “ It’s Hard To Be A Saint in the City” and Episode 7 from

The Smiths The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. They comprised the singer Morrissey, the guitarist Johnny Marr, the bassist Andy Rourke and the drummer Mike Joyce. They are regarded as one of the most important acts to emerg ...

“You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby”. The lead character Costello Jones is named after

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...

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, fabrics, purses, furniture, and other items. The term comes from the French , which literally means "gloves from Sweden". The term was fir ...

. 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 the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during ...

’ booze-soaked record about “people who sleep in doorways”

Reception

On 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 Wang ...

, ''Rain Dogs'' holds an approval rating of 96% based on 24 reviews. 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 ...

, 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 88 out of 100 based on 13 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.

Critical reception

Dan Einav in ''

The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikk ...

'' 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, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' 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 Craig ...

of the

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

awarded it five stars, calling the show "staggering".

Notes

References

External links

* * {{HBONetwork Shows 2023 British television series debuts 2020s British comedy television series 2020s British drama television series 2020s British television miniseries HBO original programming BBC television dramas English-language television shows Television shows set in London Television shows shot in Bristol 2020s British comedy-drama television series Television series by BBC Studios Television series by Home Box Office