The New Look
"Creation is survival."
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Overview
The shocking story of how fashion icon Christian Dior and his contemporaries including Coco Chanel, Pierre Balmain, and Cristóbal Balenciaga navigated the horrors of World War Il and launched modern fashion.
What critics are saying
The New Look received largely negative to mixed reviews from critics, who found the historical drama about fashion icons Christian Dior and Coco Chanel during World War II to be surprisingly dull and superficial. Despite a talented cast led by Ben Mendelsohn and Juliette Binoche, reviewers felt the series struggled to balance its heavy wartime setting with its fashion-focused subject matter.
Many critics pointed to sluggish pacing and a lack of narrative momentum as major drawbacks, noting that episodes drag without establishing clear stakes or purpose. Critics also expressed frustration with how the series handles complex historical dynamics, arguing that it skirts around deeper character relationships and pales in comparison to the real-life gravity of Nazi-occupied Paris.
While some praised the strong lead performances and luxurious production values, the overarching critical consensus views the drama as a dreary missed opportunity sapped of both style and emotional resonance.
“Such superficiality is typical of this weirdly incurious series.”
“Episodes drag past with a languid pace, rarely asserting their importance beyond the scant thrills that come from watching capital-A actors do their jobs.”
“Though it features fine performances from Juliette Binoche and Ben Mendelsohn, the backdrop of war is essentially written out of the series in favour of a competition over tulle”
“Ben Mendelsohn and Juliette Binoche star in a drawn-out drama that purports to be more pivotal and purposeful than it ever achieves.”
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The New Look tracks the survival strategies of influential designers during the German occupation of Paris. Through a combination of historical biography and political drama, the series examines the delicate balance between personal ambition and the grim realities of life under wartime constraints. It centers on the professional friction and compromises of figures like Christian Dior and Coco Chanel as they attempt to preserve their craft amidst a crumbling city.
Juliette Binoche and the rest of the ensemble portray these designers not as icons on pedestals, but as individuals navigating moral gray areas. The narrative avoids glossy retellings to favor a candid look at the fragility of status during global instability. By framing the birth of modern fashion as a response to the trauma of World War II, the show focuses on how aesthetic invention persists when the world is effectively burning.
Cast
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Crew
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Keywords
Details
- First Aired
- February 13, 2024
- Status
- Canceled
- Origin
- US
- TMDB Votes
- 86