Tag Archives: Metacritic

Cooper’s Guide – Post #3

Posted on by

Although, as I mentioned last week, the social media presence of Cooper’s Guide is lacking, the show does have the support of a solid website for fans to visit.  On the show’s section of the FOX website, fans have access to full episodes that have aired as well as individual clips.  Other available clips include behind-the-scenes interviews with the actors and previews of upcoming episodes.  There is also a tab on the site titled “Barry’s Grandma’s Hangover Cure” which encourages fans to tweet their preferred hangover cures using the hashtag #CBHangover (perhaps the producers took notice of my previous blog post which was critical of the lack of hashtags for the show).  This is an effective method of keeping fans involved while the show is still on its hiatus.

 

Cooper’s Guide still boasts average scores on most sites on which fans can rate it, with the lone outlier being TV.com, on which it boasts a significantly higher rating.  The numbers are as follows:

5.8/10 – IMDb

51% – Metacritic

8.6/10 – TV.com

50% – Rotten Tomatoes

Second Chance Post #2

Posted on by

second-chance-fox

This past week was the first with Second Chance’s new spot at the last bastion of close-to-being-canceled television shows: Friday evenings. We know that shows are typically moved to Fridays as a result of low ratings, and Second Chance made its move after only two episodes. In its new time slot, its numbers were even worse pulling a 0.7 rating in the demo with a paltry 2.22 million total viewers. Its cancellation is imminent. After this past week, TV By The Numbers deemed it “sure to be cancelled by May 2016.” Important to note, however, is that Second Chance is owned by FOX Studios and as such does have a better shot at renewal than a show from an outside producer might.

Second Chance is receiving mixed/average reviews on Metacritic, pulling a score of 47. Most reviews didn’t have great things to say, and even the more positive ones cited tired cliches and unoriginal content. RogerEbert.com gave the show a score of 10 (out of 100) and stated that “The writing is atrocious, the production values are subpar, and there’s not a single good performance.” It would seem clear, then, that not only are viewers not tuning in to watch Second Chance, critics seem wholly unimpressed with the program.

The Odd Couple: What the Critics Are Saying…

Posted on by

Well, after a less than triumphant return from its NCAA imposed hiatus, CBS has yet to announce whether The Odd Couple will make it on to the Fall 2015 schedule. Apart from losing three million viewers from before and after the hiatus, The Odd Couple has received overwhelmingly mixed reviews, leaning towards the negative side. In order to take a closer look at the reviews for The Odd Couple, I have consulted the online review aggregator, MetaCritic (http://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-odd-couple-2015).

According to MetaCritic, The Odd Couple has received 20 mixed reviews, 5 negative reviews and 1 positive review. Based upon the reviews of 26 professional print critics, MetaCritic has given The Odd Couple a score of 42. Here are some highlights from the critics:

Newsday’s Diane Werts best shared my sentiments, writing “Their [Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon’s] Odd Couple feels like the kind of time-filling time killer that’s chasing viewers to other options.”

Entertainment Weekly’s Jeff Jenson wrote, “There is a kind of bad show that might be the saddest kind of bad show. It’s the show that strands talented actors known for being funny on a sitcom that isn’t funny at all.” This confirms a number of the reviews which seem to feel that The Odd Couple has all of the elements of a successful series, but they all fail to come together in the end.

TV Guide’s Matt Roush, also felt that the show is an example of mediocrity, “There’s not a lot to love in this strained, often deafening update of the Neil Simon perennial.”

Therefore, coupled with the critics’ reaction and the low ratings, it looks like CBS should replace The Odd Couple with something that has more originality and substance, as well as the potential to become another 10 year-wonder like How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men.

Secrets and Lies – Post Eight

Posted on by

            Secrets and Lies was preempted on Sunday, April 5 for ABC’s annual airing of The Ten Commandments. It is the first time since the show began that a new episode was not aired. The show returns to its regularly scheduled 9:00 p.m. time slot on Sunday, April 12.

ABC is yet to renew Secrets and Lies for a second season. The show seems to have a solid following, as week in and week out the viewership remains at about 5 million people. Much like the expert reviews, which greatly vary, audience opinion does too. The show has a Metascore of 48 on Metacritic based on 22 critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the Secrets and Lies has a 36% score, with 21 people deeming the show rotten.

Battle Creek: Dispatches From the Field

Posted on by

This past Sunday, March 15th, Battle Creek premiered its third episode on CBS, which means critics have had plenty of time to digest the not-so-buddy-cop dramedy as part of the Sunday night lineup at 10pm EST.

Survey Says? It’s pretty good! Metacritic, the web’s favorite criticism aggregator (after Twitter of course) gives the show a robust score of 73 with 25 positive reviews and 4 mixed.

The consensus: Critics applaud the acting performances of leading men Josh Duhamel and Dean Winters and appreciate the show’s departure from the well worn treads of CBS procedural predecessors CSI and NCIS. Strengths also include a light-hearted tone and “real” story lines, while the show’s weakness lies in occasionally being “too coy or sappy”.

User reviews on the Metacritic site echo these sentiments, with one user noting that the show has gotten better with every episode, a trend that could bode well for the show. Rotten Tomatoes also has rated the show as 95% fresh, tying Tina Fey’s Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt as the top score for new shows. It’s worth noting that the show’s creator, Vince Gilligan, has had success with atypical shows that start a little slowly… Ok, Breaking Bad is only one show and totally different, but you get the point.