Catfish: The TV Show: Season 1
Metascore
56 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 8 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
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  1. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Matthew Gilbert
    Nov 12, 2012
    80
    Despite the occasional artificial reality flourish, Catfish: The TV Show is a timely, engaging, and often poignant addition to MTV's lineup.
  2. Slate
    Reviewed by: Troy Patterson
    Nov 12, 2012
    40
    A document of cruel self-delusions, an index of unusual realities, virtually a postscript to the body of Western literature about romantic love, and an extraordinarily fine opportunity to exult in the suffering of your fellow human beings, Catfish is a TV show.
  3. Philadelphia Daily News
    Reviewed by: Ellen Gray
    Nov 12, 2012
    40
    Schulman seems desperate to extract meaning from the situation, but this isn't "Undercover Boss": The only prize available for the deceived is the attention for which they may already have proven a little too hungry.
  4. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: John Anderson
    Nov 12, 2012
    50
    The veracity of this series is, in the end, less important than what it says about a culture in which people blithely create online worlds on a collision course with the truth. Schadenfreude may be the lifeblood of reality television, but in "Catfish," it's fairly guilt free.
  5. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: David Hinckley
    Nov 12, 2012
    40
    Catfish has value as a cautionary tale, and documentation of one way the Internet has affected lives. That makes it sociology, not entertainment.
  6. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Mike Hale
    Nov 12, 2012
    50
    "Catfish" was a clever riff on a found-footage thriller, Catfish: The TV Show is a standard reality series mixing elements of the dating and rehab-therapy genres.
  7. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Gail Pennington
    Nov 12, 2012
    75
    Catfish: The TV Show is riveting entertainment, but it's also potentially the most important series MTV has aired.
  8. Variety
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    Nov 9, 2012
    80
    The producers do a shrewd job of not just building toward the reveal, but then following its aftermath, with the emotions of the previously unseen party brought into the equation.

User Reviews

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User Score
6.1 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 18 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 8
  3. Negative: 2 out of 8
  1. Palfrei
    7
    Catfish is a MTV show about online relationships; specifically, about people that pretend to be other people by the means of a fake internet persona [a catfish] to lure real persons into a friendship that usually develops itself into a love relationship.

    However the more interesting part about the show is not the catfish's true identity because one would unavoidably judge him or her for being dishonest from the very beginning yet I can’t help thinking about their victims and their naivety. The fact that they do not research deeply the people with whom they have fallen in love. In some of the episodes, the victims tell that they have sustained the online relationship for more than a year without knowing personally nor on live camera the person for whom they have developed a close emotional attachment, a friendship or even love. They eventually suspect that there’s something odd with the other person and contact the show hosts to ask for their help in order to ease their suspicions and finally check whether the person they like/love truly exist or not.

    Thus it makes me wonder how far is the human being capable to go in the land of permissiveness just to get some emotional retribution that might not be honest at all in the end. Why are humans so desperate to be emotionally attached to a peer so as to tolerate elusiveness, doubts and a final and potentially absolute dishonesty? Is it desperation? One could think that the victims do not really know about the way anonymity works on the internet despite the fact that they are using it regularly to keep in touch with their catfish. If people are willing to compromise their emotional stability, which is not a small trade at all, just for the sake of feeling loved and needed by somebody that is not probably real then we could think that there is something extremely wrong going on with us; something really wrong about the ways we connect to each other in the hopes to develop emotional reciprocity. Catfish is, in its core, a show based on emotional desperation, its most relevant feature.    … Full Review »
  2. wesker2012
    10
    Awesome show. Keep doing great shows like this MTV.
  3. DillonBudde1
    2
    I believe that this show could make a few minor adjustments, and be more watched. I feel that most of it is staged though. It is definitely entertaining when they meet each other, but leading up to that seems a little too far fetched for me.… Full Review »
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