Alley Cats
Forget cute cat videos. Ricky Gervais just handed Netflix a litter box full of chaos, and honestly? We’re purring.
Today, the comedian’s brand-new adult animated series, Alley Cats, debuted all six episodes on Netflix. It’s already the most insane thing to happen to cartoon cats since Tom kept losing to a mouse with more publicity. This group bites, curses, and sometimes wonders what life is all about in between naps, so if you arrived expecting fuzzy whiskers and endearing meows, fasten your seatbelt.
So What Exactly Is Alley Cats?
Picture a run-down house occupied by a crew of feral British strays who’d rather argue about mortality than chase a laser pointer. This is idea behind Alley Cats, a six-part “slacker sitcom” that Gervais wrote, directed, and created. Blink Industries, a London studio that produced the delightfully unsettling Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, is the production company.
The story begins in a straightforward manner: the group sets out on a hunting expedition, anticipating rodents, but instead discovers a lost cat.As the cats balance friendship, poverty, rioting, veterinary visits, and family strife while being, well, quite unpleasant to one another, what follows is equal parts survival humor and low-key tearjerker.
The entire is essentially the duration of a single romantic comedy, with each episode lasting less than 20 minutes. If you swear a lot during your lunch break, this is ideal.
Meet Gang and Discover Why Every Voice Is Recognizable
This cast truly the “Avengers of British comedy,” as Gervais has been referring to them. In order to improvise in the recording booth, he has ransacked his own back history of partners. The outcome is a cast list that resembles a highlight reel from the Best of British Sitcoms:
- Ricky Gervais as Gus – the self-appointed leader of the gang. A cocky, wheeler-dealer tomcat who acts fearless but is secretly terrified of spiders and getting wet. Basically your uncle who insists he’s “not that old” while refusing to climb a ladder.
- Tom Basden as Ponce – the posh one with actual owners, playing the reasonable voice of the group (a very After Life energy).
- Andrew Brooke as Fang – the muscle, and the resident one-liner machine.
- David Earl as Puke – exactly as charming as his name suggests. Think his Derek character, but with fewer table manners and more fleas.
- Diane Morgan as Olive – sweet, a little dim, and giving heavy Philomena Cunk vibes on purpose.
- Rounding out the cast: Jo Hartley as Kitten, plus Kerry Godliman, Tony Way, and EastEnders favorite Natalie Cassidy.
Several of these names shared the screen in After Life, so if that show wrecked you emotionally, prepare for round two – just with more fur and fewer human problems (allegedly).
Is It Actually Funny?
Depends who you ask, and that’s kind of the point. As critics have noted, cat people and cat haters describe the same behavior completely differently – one calls it “jerk behavior,” the other calls it personality. Alley Cats leans hard into that duality: one minute the gang is casually vicious, the next they’re unexpectedly tender, and the show never quite decides which mode it prefers. Reviews so far have landed somewhere between “gleefully filthy” and “a bit shaggy around the edges” – which, let’s be honest, is exactly how most actual alleys look too.
Diane Morgan has admitted David Earl’s Puke lines got so filthy the cast constantly had to double-check what could actually air. If that doesn’t sell you a ticket, nothing will.
Should You Watch It?
If you’re a fan of Gervais’s brand of humor – brutal honesty wrapped in surprising sweetness, à la After Life and Derek – Alley Cats is basically that formula with whiskers. It won’t reinvent adult animation, but for a quick, quotable, occasionally moving binge about strays finding their people (er, cats), it more than earns its litter box.
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