Free Ride

NewsdayDiane Werts

The best thing about "Free Ride" is the lack of pressure to be about something. Trusting its talented cast to embody their own truths, it ambles and weaves, leaving space for the characters, even folks briefly bumped into, to nail a specific attitude or situation.

Washington PostTom Shales

The results are often wickedly amusing.

Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart

A goofy and likable new comedy.

TimeJames Poniewozik

Good-hearted, eccentric and wry, Ride goes nowhere fast, but it has a fine time getting there.

VarietyBrian Lowry

There's a breezy charm to the show.

Los Angeles TimesPaul Brownfield

"Free Ride" is a bit more than passably good, but like "Arrested [Development]" it feels hard to love.

New York PostAdam Buckman

Portions of "Free Ride" show promise, due mainly to the show's star -- Dean -- whose character remains grounded and sane, against all odds.

Village VoiceJoy Press

Everything about Free Ride is slightly exaggerated and artificial, including the odd facial expressions.

Detroit Free PressMike Duffy

[It has] just enough funny, semi-improvised moments to make you wish it was better.

Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron

When the show clicks, as it does in several scenes, the improvised performances have a more natural look and feel than typical sitcom scripts. Elsewhere, the comedy feels forced and staged.

Entertainment WeeklyAlynda Wheat

Free Ride can't milk any fresh laughs from this fish-back-in-water tale. [3 Mar 2006, p.96]

Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen

More of an amusing diversion than a laugh riot.

People WeeklyTom Gliatto

The show... is partly improvised, a stunt used to richer effect on ABC's upcoming Sons & Daughters. [6 Mar 2006, p.41]

Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert

It's made of familiar slacker material that's slightly freshened with an improvisatory feel as the actors um-and-ah their way to their punch lines. And it's blissfully missing the canned laughs that make the likes of ''That '70s Show" so obnoxious. Still, ''Free Ride" is far from essential TV viewing.

The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley

Mr. Dean is appealing as Nate and Mr. Sheridan is amusing as Dove, but the tone of the series is uneven.

USA TodayRobert Bianco

What you get from this sometimes outlandish family comedy is a sweet Ride, but one that is neither funny nor believable enough to command your loyalty.

SalonHeather Havrilesky

It's not that bad, which leads me to believe that it could actually be good, if it weren't so neutered and lovable.

TV GuideMatt Roush

A fresh approach can take you only so far when the material is this tired.

New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley

This "Free Ride," I suspect, will be over very soon.

Chicago TribuneSid Smith

Harmless and intermittently amusing, winning points by letting its actors indulge in improvisation, "Free Ride" is nevertheless about as unpromising as its lead character's aimless career goals.

San Jose Mercury NewsCharlie McCollum

"Free Ride" is crude, mean-spirited, and not nearly as fresh and innovative as the producers think it is.

Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland

"Free Ride," though improvised, feels like every other Fox comedy that has come and gone: It has generic young stars stuck in a stale boy-pines-for-girl story line.

San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman

This is a series that shimmers with potential -- until Dove shows up. Someone at the network must have thought "Free Ride" was too irreverently weird and creatively nuanced, so they made Dove as annoyingly cartoonish as possible.

Chicago Sun-TimesDoug Elfman

Tonight's premiere episode doesn't have a single laugh in it.

Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin

This kind of comedy only stands a dim ghost of a chance if it has a lot of gratuitous nudity and substance abuse, along with the words ''National Lampoon'' in the title.

Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm

Everything's so shrill and flat, it's hard to tell when the writing stops and the improvisation begins.