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In Case of Emergency: Season 1
  • Network: ABC
  • Series Premiere Date: Jan 3, 2007
  • Season #: 1
Metascore
27 out of 100

Generally unfavorable - based on 23 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 23
  3. Negative: 18 out of 23
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  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Barry Garron
    60
    You get the feeling that if this show is given enough time to find its strengths and understand its characters, it could be around for quite some time.
  2. People Weekly
    Reviewed by: Tom Gliatto
    50
    It's a good cast, and Arquette's peculiar charm is always welcome. But I'm tired of comedies about the desperate infantilism of panicked adults. [8 Jan 2007, p.35]
    All this critic's reviews
  3. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Alessandra Stanley
    50
    "In Case of Emergency" is uneven, more antic than witty.
  4. Detroit Free Press
    Reviewed by: Mike Duffy
    50
    A haphazard farce that fails to find a consistently funny groove.
  5. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Hal Boedeker
    40
    In Case of Emergency puts these characters through sadistic slapstick.
  6. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Robert Bianco
    37
    It's kind of like Friends if every character had been outlandishly contrived, every situation had been stripped of every humorous moment, and every attempt at sentiment had felt cheap and unearned.
  7. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Maureen Ryan
    30
    Its writers are clearly addicted to the tired conceit of giving us three jokes per script page, no matter how played-out the jokes, no matter how predictable the pratfalls.
  8. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Glenn Garvin
    30
    Where The Class is warm and charming, Emergency is crude and overdrawn.
  9. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Storm
    30
    Germann [is] the only good thing in the show.
  10. Philadelphia Daily News
    Reviewed by: Ellen Gray
    30
    Lori Loughlin co-stars as an emergency room doctor who's dragged into their lives in ways so sitcommy they make robbing Mick Jagger look like a halfway decent idea.
  11. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Tim Goodman
    25
    It becomes clear rather quickly that there's nothing funny going on here and, by the second episode, the show seems out of ideas for its paper-thin premise.
  12. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Paul Brownfield
    20
    [It] instantly displays a commitment to slapstick in direct proportion to a state of comedic denial.
  13. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Melanie McFarland
    20
    "The Class," not a terrific sitcom by any stretch of the imagination, trades in this quarterlife crisis nonsense each week far better than "Emergency" does.
  14. Variety
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    20
    Somewhere trapped inside this shrill, irritating comedy is a better show that emerges only in fleeting glimpses, amid the manic tone and Catskills-comic humor.
  15. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Matthew Gilbert
    20
    A peculiar piece of work that's a whole lot creepier than it means to be.
  16. Kansas City Star
    Reviewed by: Aaron Barnhart
    20
    It's not well-cast.... It's not well-written.
  17. Newsday
    Reviewed by: Verne Gay
    20
    "Emergency" is sodden, forbidding, a waste of 22 good minutes.
  18. Salon
    Reviewed by: Heather Havrilesky
    20
    There doesn't seem to be a point to the madness here, and that gives this one the expected life span (and the charms) of a housefly.
  19. Newark Star-Ledger
    20
    There's a desperation to the whole affair, a sense that if the creators just keep the pace fast and the jokes tasteless, everything will be fine.
  20. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Matt Roush
    10
    [A] shapeless, pointlessly annoying comedy.
  21. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Tom Shales
    10
    Dreadful... unwatchable... There's nothing unlikable about the rest of the cast [other than Arquette], but their attempts at farce make you just want to get away from them.
  22. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
    Reviewed by: Rob Owen
    10
    Never thought a TV comedy would leave me wistful for Silverman's NBC bomb "The Single Guy," but "In Case of Emergency" manages to do just that.
  23. San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa Times
    Reviewed by: Charlie McCollum
    0
    [It] may be the worst, most annoying comedy to turn up on the networks this season.
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User Reviews

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User Score
6.9 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 18 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 16
  3. Negative: 4 out of 16
  1. LinW
    3
    The writing is ok, the acting is nickelodeon level and the concept could be interesting if it wasn't such a dishoveled mess. the jokes which could have been funny were all over-acted and fell flat. just wait for thursday and watch my name is earl instead. i can't imagine this show generating any positive buzz and sticking around.… Full Review »
  2. PeggyF
    0
    Stupid and trashy. Lousy writing;not funny. Uncomfortable to watch.
  3. AndrewS
    6
    The show has it's moments, especially with the situational comedy and the outlandish ways things are resolved. I didn't mind myself enthralled with the series, but it's decent.… Full Review »
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