'Disclaimer' Begins with Twin Episodes About Desire, Secrets & Revenge

Disclaimer, the new AppleTV+ series written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, wastes no time letting viewers know exactly what they are in for with well, a disclaimer. There’s the warning that precedes every episode: “This series contains strong, sexual content and depictions of sexual, physical, and emotional violence.” Then, as if to prove the point, the premiere opens with a young couple having (very loud, very passionate) sex on a train.

The action then moves to Catherine Ravenscroft (Cate Blanchett), an investigative journalist receiving an award from the Royal Television Society with her devoted husband Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen) by her side. Then it jumps to Stephen Brigstocke (Kevin Kline), an aging private school professor, deciding he would rather quit than retract any snarky comments he made on a student’s paper. How these three seemingly disparate storylines are connected is unclear.

Catherine and Robert have one son, Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who is 25 and recently out of the house. Catherine thought he needed to be independent; Robert, who always had a closer relationship with their son, says he could have stayed. The couple also recently moved; returning home to share an expensive bottle of wine in celebration, Catherine says she'll go through the mail before bed. There's a package with a book called The Perfect Stranger, with an inscription “to my son Jonathan.” The disclaimer (there’s the title!): “Any resemblance to a person living or dead is not a coincidence.”