{"id":37134,"date":"2026-08-10T20:21:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T15:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=37134"},"modified":"2026-08-10T20:21:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T15:21:27","slug":"ricky-gervais-alley-cats-gets-thumbs-up-from-john-cleese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=37134","title":{"rendered":"Ricky Gervais&#8217; &#8216;Alley Cats&#8217; Gets Thumbs Up From John Cleese"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/ricky-gervais\/\" id=\"auto-tag_ricky-gervais\" data-tag=\"ricky-gervais\">Ricky Gervais<\/a>\u2018 new animated TV series <em><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/alley-cats\/\" id=\"auto-tag_alley-cats\" data-tag=\"alley-cats\">Alley Cats<\/a><\/em> may have drawn fire from critics, but one comedy legend has come out to bat for the show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Critics have had their knives out for <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/netflix\/\" id=\"auto-tag_netflix\" data-tag=\"netflix\">Netflix<\/a>\u2018s politically incorrect dark comedy, which debuted over the weekend. The show has only a 39% score on Metacritic with The Telegraph giving it a rare zero stars and The Independent one star. Multiple outlets only stretched to two stars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the bad notices Gervais took to social over the weekend to screenshot the favourable ranking for the show on Netflix\u2019s UK charts, which seemed to show an appetite from viewers. We\u2019ve reached out to the streamer for any data it can share.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Late last night the show got a thumbs up from a fellow bona fide comedy legend in the shape of Monty Python star and <em>Fawlty Towers<\/em> creator-actor <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/john-cleese\/\" id=\"auto-tag_john-cleese\" data-tag=\"john-cleese\">John Cleese<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cleese wrote on X: \u201cThe Ricky Gervaise [sic] CATS animation is quite wonderful\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To which Gervais responded: \u201cThanks so much, John. That means quite a lot from the creator of the greatest British sitcom of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Ricky Gervaise CATS animation is quite wonderful<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 John Cleese (@JohnCleese) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JohnCleese\/status\/2086544765168861213?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">August 9, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thanks so much, John. That means quite a lot from the creator of the greatest British sitcom of all time \u2665\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rickygervais\/status\/2086555576713040305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">August 9, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">R-rated <em>Alley Cats<\/em>, created by and voiced by Gervais, follows the trials and tribulations of a group of feral British cats from all walks of society, who seek companionship while ruminating on everyday life. The expletive-laden show had previously got a strong reception at the Annecy film festival where it debuted first footage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The series marks Gervais\u2019 return to the adult animation game 13 years after the conclusion of HBO and Channel 4\u2019s\u00a0<em>The Ricky Gervais Show<\/em>, which was an animated version of the popular podcast from Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington using Hanna-Barbera-era cartoons.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ricky Gervais\u2018 new animated TV series Alley Cats may have drawn fire from critics, but one comedy legend has come out to bat for the show. Critics have had their knives out for Netflix\u2018s politically incorrect dark comedy, which debuted over the weekend. The show has only a 39% score on Metacritic with The Telegraph&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/MixCollage-25-Jun-2026-12-07-PM-3965.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}