Tom Holland's new television show on Apple TV+, The Crowded Room, is not impressing critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
Most of the world knows Holland for his role as Spider-Man in the MCU. His last appearance as the character was in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Since then, he's been on a bit of a break from Marvel Studios, which gave the actor plenty of time to do other projects outside of the superhero world. At least one of those endeavors isn't working out so well.
The Crowded Room Disappoints on Rotten Tomatoes
Critics are making their thoughts about Tom Holland's The Crowded Room known on Rotten Tomatoes, and they are not very positive.
The Crowded Room takes place in New York City in 1979 and follows Holland's character, Danny Sullivan, with dissociative identity disorder named Danny Sullivan, who was arrested for involvement in a shooting. Through a number of interviews with interrogator Rya Goodwin, audiences are made witness to the life story of Danny.
Currently, after seven reviews, the Apple TV+ series is sitting at a 14% critic approval score—which is incredibly low, especially for a television show.
Nick Schager from The Daily Beast slammed The Crowded Room for "[spoiling] itself from the outset" while going on to "[pretend] that it hasn't:"
“'The Crowded Room' is a unique TV affair—one that spoils itself from the outset, and then pretends that it hasn’t, endlessly teasing the very information it’s already divulged, and continues to proffer with each ham-fisted misdirection and clunky elusion."
Slash Film's Marshall Shaffer criticized the show's "twists and turns" as "being underdeveloped:"
"'The Crowded Room' makes its twists and turns feel tedious by virtue of being underdeveloped."
Chase Hutchinson from Collider called the show "aptly titled" and "more over-embellished than engaging:"
"Whether it is the manner in which it draws out its 'mystery' to the point of frustration or how the subsequent fallout of its supposed surprise loses sight of Holland himself, 'The Crowded Room' is aptly titled, more over-embellished than engaging."
Financial Times' Dan Einav offered a slightly more positive angle, saying that it is "a joy to see [Tom] Holland play against his usual type:"
"There’s a brilliant, complex story at the heart of this thriller-drama, but it gets lost in the clichés. It’s genuinely a joy to see Holland play against his usual type but 'The Crowded Room' proves out to be a disappointingly middling, uneven series."
Tom Holland Swings and Misses
Tom Holland previously hyped up how excited he was for this series. He even admitted that the experience "broke [him] in every possible way."
Given that, the star surely won't be too pleased with the reception to The Crowded Room.
Outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the actor's projects haven't really hit the mark for many. Movies like Spies in Disguise, Cherry, and Uncharted all landed with a lukewarm reception.
Next up, the actor will be portraying Fred Astaire in a biopic about the famous film and dance star. The film from Sony Pictures will be directed by Paul King and does not currently have a release date.
After that, the actor is likely to return to the MCU with the Spider-Man 4 sequel. Due to the WGA strike, development on the highly anticipated project is at a standstill.
The Crowded Room is currently streaming on Apple TV+.
