No Good Nick is an American comedy-dramaweb television series, created by David H. Steinberg and Keetgi Kogan. The series stars Siena Agudong, Lauren Lindsey Donzis, Kalama Epstein, Melissa Joan Hart and Sean Astin, and the first part premiered on April 15, 2019, on Netflix. Part two was released on August 5, 2019. On September 15, 2019, it was announced that the series was canceled after one season.
Premise
No Good Nick centers on 13-year-old Nicole Franzelli. She presents herself at the door of the Thompson family and declares she is an orphan named Nicole Patterson and that they are her closest living relatives, successfully infiltrating her target. As she gets to know the family, however, she finds compassion for them and will struggle with whether or not she can go through with her plan. Later, it is revealed that she is being manipulated by her imprisoned father Tony to right some wrong inflicted on his family by the Thompsons. Reviews note the difficulty in classifying the genre of No Good Nick, citing that, although it casts veteran child stars of Disney, Freeform, and Nickelodeon, the series features themes more attuned to adults such as physical violence and drama.
Cast and characters
Main
Siena Agudong as Nicole aka "Nick", a teenage con artist who is planning to rob the Thompson family
Lauren Lindsey Donzis as Molly, the youngest Thompson child, a student and an environmental activist with a large online following
Kalama Epstein as Jeremy, the eldest Thompson child, and an overachieving high school sophomore who is suspicious of Nick. He later comes out as gay to his family.
Sean Astin as Ed, the patriarch of the Thompson household and a senior loan officer at Overton Bank
Kyla-Drew as Becky, activist, and leader of the volunteer squad, Molly's frenemy
Sanai Victoria as Tamika, member of the volunteer squad
Tiana Le as Xuan, member of the volunteer squad
Eddie McClintock as Tony, Nick's father and proprietor of the defunct restaurant Franzelli's who is in prison after he committed heists to pay off the mob when Ed denied him a loan extension
On September 21, 2018, it was announced that Netflix had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of twenty episodes. The series was created by David H. Steinberg and Keetgi Kogan, both of whom were also expected to executive produce. It was further announced that Andy Fickman would serve as the series' director. On March 6, 2019, Netflix announced that the series is set to release the first 10 episodes on April 15, 2019, and a promotional poster was released. Alongside the series order announcement, it was confirmed that Melissa Joan Hart, Sean Astin, Siena Agudong, Kalama Epstein, and Lauren Lindsey Donzis had been cast in starring roles. Principal photography for the series had reportedly already begun by September 2018.
Reception
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 60% based on 5 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. A critic from the Hollywood Gossip writes: "There are plenty of ways that No Good Nick could have made more of its premise, but it never really stumbles on a compelling one."
