| 100 |
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen
Another edge-of-your-seat thriller. |
| 90 |
The New York Times Alessandra Stanley
The second season of “Sleeper Cell” burrows even deeper into the mind-set of Muslim extremists than the first and is all the better and more troubling for it. |
| 88 |
New York Daily News David Hinckley
Powerful. |
| 80 |
San Jose Mercury News Charlie McCollum
"Sleeper Cell" is a compelling, kinetic ride that matches "24" in its power and is far more realistic and topical. |
| 80 |
Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron
As exciting as the original. |
| 80 |
Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray
If you can make the time in a season where most programmers think we're all too busy shopping to be watching anything heavier than "Miracle on 34th Street" (the Natalie Wood version, of course), then "Sleeper Cell" delivers. |
| 80 |
Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker
Ealy and Fehr give fierce performances that will keep fans hooked. |
| 80 |
Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert
The action is intense in "Sleeper Cell," and each episode includes at least one stunning moment of violence or betrayal. But character depth isn't sacrificed to keep the pace moving, and there are valuable calms between the storms. |
| 75 |
People Weekly Tom Gliatto
The quickened pulse is a plus: The violence registers as sharp, stinging slaps. [11 Dec 2006, p.41] |
| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times Doug Elfman
The acting, writing and directing are subtle and graceful. |
| 70 |
Newsday Verne Gay
"Sleeper Cell" is nicely acted, produced, written, directed, but is still so deeply rooted in the conventions of the medium, that no matter how hard it tries, or how hard it wants to be something else, this still ends up Just TV. |
| 70 |
TV Guide Matt Roush
Reminiscent of 24 but about a dozen times more realistic (though dramatically more uneven). |
| 70 |
Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
The series would fall apart if Al-Farik were a cardboard cutout villain. Who’d want to watch eight hours of this man’s journey if he were just a shallow action-movie bad guy? But thanks to Fehr’s brave, layered performance, it’s impossible to ignore Al-Farik or the ideas that motivate him. |
| 70 |
Newark Star-Ledger Alan Sepinwall
The new edition delivers many of the same thrills and intelligent debate that made the original so exceptional. But the mere act of bringing it back creates problems the original never had to deal with. |
| 70 |
Los Angeles Times Paul Brownfield
The show isn't brilliant, but it is audaciously alive. |
| 70 |
Philadelphia Inquirer Jonathan Storm
Violent and sometimes sexually tawdry, as only pay cable can be, Sleeper Cell is not for the faint of heart, but it provides well-constructed thrills with its tour of the morally ambiguous land of counter-terrorism. |
| 70 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Melanie McFarland
A significant improvement in the sequel is its keener sense of urgency and alarm, achieved by down-scaling the exposition and character development that bogged down the first hours of the original. |
| 70 |
Time James Poniewozik
While not perfect, [it] manages to be both exciting and--if not exactly realistic--then at least reality-grounded. |
| 50 |
Entertainment Weekly Gillian Flynn
It hardly enlightens, and it never feels urgent. It feels like a decent cop drama pretending to be something more important. |
| 20 |
Washington Post Tom Shales
A dreary thing it is, and depressing, too. |
