Alley Cats (TV series)
British animated television series
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alley Cats is a British adult animated television series by Ricky Gervais for Netflix. Produced by Blink Industries, the series was released on 7 August 2026, on Netflix.
| Alley Cats | |
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Promotional poster | |
| Genre | |
| Created by | Ricky Gervais |
| Written by | Ricky Gervais |
| Directed by |
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| Voices of |
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| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Producer | Hugo Donkin |
| Running time | 15—17 mintues |
| Production companies |
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| Original release | |
| Network | Netflix |
| Release | 7 August 2026 |
Voice cast
- Ricky Gervais as Gus, a cynical, lazy Tabby cat[1]
- Tom Basden as Rupert (Ponce), a logical, privileged Chartreux cat[1]
- Andrew Brooke as Fang, a rough-and-tumble Tuxedo cat[1]
- David Earl as Puke, a scrawny, scruffy Havana Brown cat[1]
- Kerry Godliman as Lara, a sarcastic silver Tabby cat and Gus's love interest[1]
- Jo Hartley as Kitten, a timid, innocent Black cat[1]
- Diane Morgan as Olive, Gus's dim-witted Tabby cat half-sister[1]
- Natalie Cassidy as Gus's mum, Gus's old, ailing mother[1]
- Tony Way as Drug Dealer, a shady alley cat drug kingpin[1]
Release
Reception
Alley Cats received largely negative reviews from critics, many of whom criticized its writing, pacing, and reliance on shock humour, though a handful of reviewers found it more sweet-natured than expected.
Writing for Screen Rant, Dani Kessel Odem described the series as an "uninspired, unfunny slog," singling out the animation as looking "incredibly cheap" and arguing that the show's humour and narrative both fell flat across its six episodes.[4] Empire was similarly unimpressed, writing that the series was not so much offensive as simply "not very good," criticizing an "unearned" emotional tone in each episode's closing minutes and describing much of the swearing-driven comedy as juvenile.[5]
The Hollywood Reporter gave a mixed-to-negative assessment, finding the show's tonal shifts between crudeness and sentimentality unconvincing and concluding that it was "rarely all that funny," while allowing that the voice cast and character design showed some promise.[6] HuffPost UK's roundup of critical reaction noted that several reviewers went further, with the show being labelled by some critics as among the worst television of the year.[7]
Not all reviews were negative. Variety described the series as "surprisingly bittersweet," praising an underlying melancholy that cut against Gervais's reputation for pure acerbity, though also noting that the show's compressed runtime left some subplots underdeveloped.[8] CGMagazine was more favourable still, calling the series "rude, scrappy and often very funny" and praising its short episode format, though it also noted uneven pacing.[9]