'Disclaimer' Will Begin Excusing Itself in October

Apple TV+ recently admitted it would actually start attempting to reign in the massive budgets for its original content after a year that saw high-priced projects like Masters of the Air and Fly Me To The Moon barely register, while the long-delayed second season of Severence practically turned into a boondoggle. However, fans of extraordinarily well-made television starring people you'd never expect to see on the small screen still have quite a few shows to look forward to in the meantime, as the last of the super-expensive shows it commissioned roll out over the next year, like Disclaimer, a seven-part series from Academy Award Winner Alfonso Cuarón.

The ensemble series is led by the great Cate Blanchett (The Lord of the Rings) and American actor Kevin Kline (The Pirates of Penzance, always and forever) as adversaries. She plays an acclaimed journalist, Catherine Ravenscroft, who has spent her life bringing down the powerful by raiding the skeletons in their closets. He plays Stephen Brigstocke, an elderly man who has lost his family, only to discover his heartbreak may have been caused by one of the skeletons Catherine would rather forget existed. In his grief and anger, he becomes obsessed with exposing her. 

The series is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by BBC documentarian-turned-writer Renée Knight. It was initially announced in December 2021, the first project after Cuarón's success with the film Roma. It marks the first time Cuarón has written and directed a series for TV, as well as Kline's TV series debut.

Here's the series synopsis:

Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Renée Knight, acclaimed journalist Catherine Ravenscroft built her reputation revealing the misdeeds and transgressions of others. When she receives a novel from an unknown author, she is horrified to realize she is now the main character in a story that exposes her darkest secrets.

As Catherine races to uncover the writer’s true identity, she is forced to confront her past before it destroys her life and her relationships with her husband, Robert, and their son, Nicholas. 

Blanchett and Kline co-star alongside a who's who of an ensemble cast, including Sacha Baron Cohen (The Spy), Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog), Lesley Manville (Moonflower Murders), Louis Partridge (Enola Holmes), Leila George (Animal Kingdom), Hoyeon Jung (Chicken Run), and Indira Varma (The Capture).

Cuarón wrote and directed all episodes and serves as executive producer alongside Blanchett, Kline, Emmanuel Lubezki, Donald Sabourin, Carlos Morales, Gabriela Rodriguez for Esperanto Filmoj, and David Levine and Steve Golin for Anonymous Content. Finneas O’Connell (the unsung hero of Billie Eilish's career) composed the score.

Disclaimer premieres with two episodes on Friday, October 11, followed by one a week every Friday through November 15, 2024.