Carrie: A Tender, Modern Reimagining That Stumbles at the Finish
Richard Roeper makes the strongest case for Mike Flanagan’s Carrie, arguing this is a reboot that earns its existence. Spread across eight episodes, the story finally has room to breathe, giving the supporting players fuller backstories and echoing the novel’s patchwork structure through emergency calls and survivor testimony.
He admires how much it has on its mind, from religious extremism and mob cruelty to anonymous online bullying, all wrapped in stylish visuals, dark humor and a haunting soundtrack. Because the story is so familiar it rarely shocks, and Chris’s cruelty can be hard to sit with, but Summer H. Howell and Samantha Sloyan left him wanting more. Richard Roeper, RogerEbert.com
Joshua Rivera calls the series a warm, compassionate take on Stephen King’s first novel. He singles out Howell as a Carrie viewers instantly want to protect, and Alison Thornton as a Chris who is both pitiable and vicious. The rebuilt bond between Carrie and her fundamentalist mother gives the show its richest material.
His reservations center on the endgame. A major change to the climax muddies rather than sharpens it, and a thread suggesting Carrie isn’t the only gifted girl drags the show down whenever it resurfaces. He also misses the book’s raw anger, which is mostly sanded away here, and finds the parents-versus-school subplot thin. Joshua Rivera, TV Guide
Cheryl Eddy enjoyed spending time with this version, thanks largely to its cast. Howell makes Carrie’s stolen future feel painfully real, Sloyan finds a twisted kind of love beneath Margaret’s control, and Siena Agudong’s Sue is a quiet standout. Even Chris is given insecurities that help explain her behavior.
Where the show stumbles, she says, is in its additions. Interludes about other persecuted telekinetic women feel more confusing than meaningful, the bullying and social media themes are well worn, and the scares lean toward slow dread. Most frustrating for her is a finale that seems more interested in setting up a future season than closing this one. Cheryl Eddy, Gizmodo
Maria Lattila admires how freely Flanagan treats the source, which she feels is too slim to fill eight hours on its own. The modern touches land, from phone-recorded humiliation to metal detectors and lockdown drills, and the bold decision to tell Chris’s story alongside Carrie’s pays off, especially in the third episode.
She considers the first half close to flawless before things loosen. New characters, including one played by Katee Sackhoff, and a string of mysteries prove more irritating than intriguing, while Matthew Lillard’s principal and Sue get pushed aside. By the finale, the many threads never quite come together into a satisfying whole. Maria Lattila, Film Stories
The consensus: Critics agree that Carrie is beautifully acted, with Summer H. Howell and Samantha Sloyan drawing the loudest praise, and that its modern, empathetic angle breathes new life into a familiar story. Where they split is on Flanagan’s expansions and an anticlimactic finale, leaving a strong, often moving series that falls just short of essential.
