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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed shows.
The Unusuals
EMAILPRINTSERIES: ABC, Wednesday 10:00p (60 minutes)

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 63 votes
Read user comments
Rate this show >
Show Info
Genre(s): Drama
Created By: Noah Hawley
First Air Date: April 8, 2009
Summary
Starring Amber Tamblyn, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau, Adam Goldberg, Josh Close, Monique Gabriela Curnen, Kai Lennox, and Terry Kinney
Vice cop Casey Shraeger (Amber Tamblyn) is transferred to a quirky and sometimes unusual homicide squad.
Episode Guide & More Info: More about this show at TV.com
Also On The Web: Official Show Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Sun-TimesMary Houlihan
A refreshing dramedy that captures the hard-boiled world of New York City homicide investigators and their twisted sense of humor
Read Full Review >Entertainment WeeklyJeff Jensen
The oddball overload bugs at first, but the incredibly likable cast makes The Unusuals unusually promising.
Read Full Review >SalonHeather Havrilesky
Look a little closer, though, and what you'll find is a truly strange cop dramedy with lots of sharp dialogue, jocular banter and offbeat scenarios.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
The first episode is entertaining and promising enough that viewers may get excited about seeing the second one.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd
The cast is excellent, and there's potential here, even though tonight's opening episode, as pilots will, tries a little too hard.
Read Full Review >Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Shraeger is played with breezy, cynical wit by Amber Tamblyn (who may have her own secrets; she's looking rather more bosomy than she did a few years back as God's BFF in in "Joan of Arcadia"). And she gets capable backup from a cast that includes Adam Goldberg and Harold Perrineau.
Read Full Review >Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
What The Unusuals lacks in cinematic sheen, it compensates with humor and a more interesting group of characters.
Read Full Review >Hollywood ReporterRandee Dawn
That's a lot of eccentricity, but creator/writer Noah Hawley meshes humor and pathos with deft plotting and dialogue.
Read Full Review >New York MagazineEmily Nussbaum
Everygirl Amber Tamblyn is miscast as a cop with a fancy Upper East Side pedigree, but the rest of the ensemble is great, including Harold Perrineau as a paranoid cop and Adam Goldberg as his self-destructive partner. Quirky feels like a curse word, tainted forever by the legacy of David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal, etc.), but The Unusuals might actually turn the word back into praise.
Read Full Review >USA TodayRobert Bianco
Clearly the show is trying to contrast humor with murder, lightening the mood with cat kidnappers and plushie hot dogs. But like too many ABC shows, it pushes the quirkiness too hard.
Read Full Review >Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
The Unusuals doesn’t have the balance between the comedy and the serious stuff right yet, but Terry Kinney lends a welcome acerbic note as the station’s seen-it-all leader, Sgt. Harvey Brown.
Read Full Review >New York PostLinda Stasi
The series--a replacement of sorts for "Life On Mars" as the strange, spiritually-infused cop show--definitely has its moments, and they aren't as few and far between as I'd imagined.
Read Full Review >PopMattersCynthia Fuchs
It’s not new or challenging or even very strange. It is, however, plenty quirky.
Read Full Review >New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
ABC'S latest police drama, The Unusuals, manages to tap into both the dark tension and the zany absurdity of a cop's life in New York. If you're looking for a show that captures the best of both those worlds, however, call Wednesday night's premiere episode a work-in-progress.
Read Full Review >The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
The Unusuals, which begins on Wednesday, isn’t nearly as thrilling [as "Southland"]. But it isn’t bad, just more predictable.
Read Full Review >Time
It's the kind of setting that befits a cop show more focused on characters than cases, and The Unusuals delivers there. The problem is the policing; after one episode, it doesn't really grab me as a cop show yet--partly, perhaps, because the show is so whimsical its stakes don't yet feel real.
Read Full Review >VarietyBrian Lowry
The series has assembled a promising cast, including Perrineau, Goldberg and Terry Kinney as the unit's snarling captain. In addition, there are vague hints at more sober storylines to come--if, thus far, little reason to emotionally invest in them.
Read Full Review >Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
The show is neither here nor there, neither amusing nor affecting. It doesn't really call out for further viewing, which is not so unusual at all.
Read Full Review >NewsdayVerne Gay
The Unusuals is not a good show; it is a messy, uneven, silly, inconsequential show.
Read Full Review >Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
The Unusuals offers an odd combo platter of tones that don't allow the show to jell in its premiere episode.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Hawley, who cited two of the best cop shows ever, "Hill Street Blues" and "NYPD Blue," as models, might want to hold off on the patent application. The one episode I've seen of The Unusuals felt unreal and unoriginal. Too bad, because Hawley's assembled some terrific players to populate his precinct of supposed misfits.
Read Full Review >San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
The series is flat-out tone deaf; a limp drama and a grating, messy misfire as a comedy.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this show is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 63 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Shaun V gave it a9:
TO all the critics out there who were under a 60 rating, you all were upset because the show didn't match up to something else you had in mind, and didn't base your reviews on the merit of what the show was. This show is intelligent, fun and has some great lines every episode... if you want something that isn't the same old formula, with a great, quirky sense of humour, give the Unusuals a try.
Allie A gave it a10:
My family and I loved this show!!! We're so disappointed that it was cancelled!!! We thought Amber Tamblyn was GREAT!! The show had just the right amount of humor and was edgy also. Even our kids (who are in their twenties) like it.
Billy M gave it a10:
ABC what are you thinking? there are other shows that reallly suck, and this was a good one! you're losing me
brian o gave it a10:
I can not believe they cancelled this. No wonder I don't watch ABC anymore!
Renee B. gave it a9:
Disappointed that this show was canceled.
Taunya B gave it a10:
I was hooked from the first episode. Quirky, twisty, funny, sometimes thought provoking, but mostly entertaining. When they canceled it before even half way through the season, i felt seriously robbed !! My husband didn't like it at all. Go figure.
Alan G gave it a9:
I love the show. Great cast, interesting characters and fun and quirky story lines. What a shame it's been canceled.
