Alfonso Cuarón and Cate Blanchett made a television series. ‘Disclaimer’ is already a triumph

AP Film Writer

VENICE, Italy (AP) — “Disclaimer” pulls the rug out from the audience before they’ve had the chance to get settled. There’s no building of empathy for its central character, Cate Blanchett’s Catherine Ravenscroft. All we know at the beginning of the series, which begins rolling out on Apple TV+ Friday, is that she’s an acclaimed documentary filmmaker. But almost immediately her life starts to spiral when she receives an anonymous, self-published book about a young mother on vacation in Italy with her toddler son that’s shockingly familiar, a memory of a long-buried secret. Told in seven chapters, the psychological thriller comes from Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón.