The review finds little to recommend in Ricky Gervais’s Netflix animation Alley Cats, despite its experienced voice cast and a premise that could have supported a more observant comedy. It argues that the six-part series relies too heavily on swearing, nihilism and repeated sexual jokes, making it feel lazy, crude and tiresome rather than edgy.

Gervais voices Gus, the self-satisfied leader of a group of homeless cats, alongside characters built largely around aggression, disgust and mocking a neutered pedigree cat. The reviewer says a lost kitten introduces a sentimental storyline about family and death, but regards Gervais’s more emotional material as unconvincing and unsettling; isolated jokes, including one about neutering, are among the few moments that raise a smile.