Rain Dogs (TV series)

Rain Dogs is a British comedy-drama television series created, written, and executive produced by Cash Carraway for BBC One and HBO. It premiered on HBO on 6 March 2023 and stars Daisy May Cooper, Jack Farthing, Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo and Fleur Tashjian. The series has received critical acclaim, with particular praise for the writing and performances of its cast.^[1]

Rain Dogs
Genre	Black comedy
Created by	Cash Carraway
Screenplay by	Cash Carraway
Directed by	Richard Laxton Jennifer Perrott
Starring	Daisy May Cooper Jack Farthing Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo Fleur Tashjian
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producers	Cash Carraway Jo McLellan Lee Morris Sally Woodward Gentle
Producers	Henrietta Colvin Ciara McIlvenny
Production locations	Bristol, England Gloucestershire, England London, England Somerset, England
Cinematography	Carlos Catalán Wojciech Szepel Felix Wiedemann
Running time	26–29 minutes
Production companies	BBC Studios Sid Gentle Films
Original release
Network	BBC One HBO
Release	6 March (2023-03-06) – 24 April 2023 (2023-04-24)

Synopsis

An unconventional love story between a working-class single mother, her young daughter, and a privileged gay man.^[2][3]

Cast

• Daisy May Cooper as Costello
• Jack Farthing as Selby
• Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo as Gloria
• Fleur Tashjian as Iris
• Stephen Wight as Brett
• Adrian Edmondson as Lenny
• Sam Hazeldine as Paul
• Steve Toussaint as the Duke
• Tom Durant-Pritchard as Richard
• Anna Chancellor as Allegra
• Tanya Moodie as Serena
• Karl Pilkington as Simon
• Emily Fairn as Frida

Episodes

No.	Title [4]	Directed by	Written by	Original release date [4]	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	"It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City"	Richard Laxton	Cash Carraway	6 March 2023 (2023-03-06)	N/A
2	"Scenes from a Crucifixion"	Richard Laxton	Cash Carraway	13 March 2023 (2023-03-13)	N/A
3	"The Small World of Florian Selby"	Jennifer Perrott	Cash Carraway	20 March 2023 (2023-03-20)	N/A
4	"Didion Hell"	Jennifer Perrott	Cash Carraway	27 March 2023 (2023-03-27)	N/A
5	"Emotional Erection"	Jennifer Perrott	Cash Carraway	3 April 2023 (2023-04-03)	N/A
6	"Jesus Loves a Hustler"	Jennifer Perrott	Cash Carraway	10 April 2023 (2023-04-10)	N/A
7	"You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby"	Richard Laxton	Cash Carraway	17 April 2023 (2023-04-17)	N/A
8	"This Is Not an Exit"	Richard Laxton	Cash Carraway	24 April 2023 (2023-04-24)	N/A

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.^[5]

Music

Rain Dogs has a soundtrack of power pop and alternative rock classics chosen by the show’s creator Cash Carraway.^[6]

Some of the songs featured on the show include Nick Lowe's "Cruel to Be Kind", The Replacements' "Little Mascara", Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London", Caroline Rose's "Soul No. 5", and Justin Townes Earle's "Baby’s Got a Bad Idea".^[7]

Episode 1 takes its name from Bruce Springsteen's "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" and Episode 7 from The Smiths' "You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby".^[8]

The lead character Costello Jones is named after Elvis Costello and all of the supporting male roles are named after members of the English rock band Suede.^[9]

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' booze-soaked record about "people who sleep in doorways".^[10]

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 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."^[11]

On Metacritic, it has a weighted average rating of 87 out of 100 based on 14 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".^[12] Metacritic ranked Rain Dogs as the number one critically acclaimed new show in the United States for the first half of 2023.^[13]

Dan Einav in The Financial Times said that it "plays as both a bruising tragedy…and as an obscene, gallows humour comedy".^[14] Alan Sepinwell in Rolling Stone described it as “fascinating, poignant, and at times darkly funny”.^[15] Sean O'Grady gave it five stars in The Independent and hailed it as "a fine memento of our troubled times."^[16] Craig Mathieson of The Sydney Morning Herald awarded it five stars, calling the show "staggering".^[17]

Accolades

Gotham Independent Film Awards 2023 - Breakthrough Series – Under 40 minutes (nomination) ^[18] Carraway was announced as a BAFTA Breakthrough 2023 for creating, writing, and executive producing Rain Dogs.^[19] Farthing was nominated for Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series at the 39th Independent Spirit Awards in February 2024.^[20] Adékoluẹjo was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards in March 2024.^[21] Cooper was nominated for Best Actress at the 2024 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards.^[22]

References

1. Spilde, Coleman (5 March 2023). "This Biting, Brilliant Show Will Be HBO's Next Sleeper Hit". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
2. "Daisy May Cooper stars in new HBO and BBC One co-production Rain Dogs". rts.org.uk. Royal Television Society. 20 February 2023. Archived from the original on 21 February 2023. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
3. "Rain Dogs' Series Starring Daisy May Cooper Begins Filming in Bristol". Gloucestershire Live. 17 February 2023. Archived from the original on 21 February 2023. Retrieved 24 February 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
4. "HBO Schedule". HBO. Archived from the original on 15 March 2023. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
5. "HBO Boards BBC Drama 'Rain Dogs' From New Writer Cash Carraway, Starring Daisy May Cooper". Deadline. 25 March 2022. Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
6. Dyer, James (3 April 2023). "Pilot TV Podcast #230: Rain Dogs, Beef, And Grease: Rise Of The Pink Ladies. With Guest Jack Farthing". Empire Magazine. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
7. "Tunes with attitude from BBC One's comedy drama Rain Dogs". BBC. 28 March 2023. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
8. Sepinwall, Alan (3 March 2023). "'Rain Dogs' Is One of the Most Surprising New Shows of the Year". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
9. Parks, Miles (26 March 2023). "Cash Carraway on her new HBO series 'Rain Dogs'". NPR. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
10. Berman, Judy (6 March 2023). "HBO's Magnificently Dark Rain Dogs Is Like No Other Family Comedy on TV". Time. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
11. "Rain Dogs: Season 1". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
12. "Rain Dogs critic reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
13. "Best New TV Shows of 2023 So Far (at Midyear): Rain Dogs (HBO)". Metacritic. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
14. Einav, Dan (4 April 2023). "Rain Dogs review — Daisy May Cooper is outstanding in bruising BBC dramedy". Financial Times. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
15. Sepinwell, Alan (3 March 2023). "'Rain Dogs' Is One of the Most Surprising New Shows of the Year". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
16. O'Grady, Sean (4 April 2023). "Rain Dogs review: Brilliant, bleak sketch of life at the arse-end of Rishi Sunak's Britain". The Independent. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
17. Mathison, Craig (1 March 2023). "'This show floored me': Here is the first must-see series of 2023". The Sydney Morning Herald.
18. Goldsmith, Jill (24 October 2023). "Gotham Awards Nominations: All of Us Strangers Tops Movie List; Ryan Gosling Gets Barbie Nom with Budget Caps Removed". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
19. "Cash Carraway | Creator, Writer, Executive Producer". www.bafta.org. 27 November 2023. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
20. "Jack Farthing". Film Independent. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
21. "RTS PROGRAMME AWARDS 2024". RTS.org.uk. 7 March 2024.
22. "Broadcasting Press Guild Awards 2024 nominees". Comedy.co.uk. 29 February 2024. Retrieved 21 March 2024.

External links

• Rain Dogs at BBC Online
• Rain Dogs at IMDb