Advanced Search Beta »
Basic Search Fields
Sons & Daughters: Season 1
  • Network: ABC
  • Series Premiere Date: Mar 7, 2006
  • Season #: 1
Metascore
68 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 26 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 26
  3. Negative: 3 out of 26
view
per page
  1. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Hal Boedeker
    100
    Sons & Daughters offers such a fresh, funny take on family life that it could be a landmark comedy.
  2. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Storm
    90
    This sparkling saga of an extended dysfunctional family has more laughs than regular characters.
  3. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Matt Roush
    90
    When a new comedy shows up as fresh, original and painfully hilarious as Sons & Daughters, at first I want to cheer. And then I start to worry if it can survive. Call it Arrested Development syndrome.
    All this critic's reviews
  4. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: David Hinckley
    88
    It has a sprawling cast, but even before the pilot is over, because of the clever way it's written, directed and acted, you'll know, and like, every single character.
  5. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Robert Bianco
    88
    There's something terribly real and awfully funny about this engaging little sitcom, which takes the sweetness of Parenthood and adds its own slightly bitter touch.
  6. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Robert Abele
    80
    The looseness of the interchanges gives the humor an anti-writers'-room freshness without losing the harshness we've come to expect in this Everybody Loves Raymond/Arrested Development age of clashing relatives.
  7. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Paul Brownfield
    80
    It's very well-acted and meanwhile, when it can stand it, kind of tender, although it's far more interested in "Curb"-like moments of uncomfortable confrontation.
  8. San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa Times
    Reviewed by: Charlie McCollum
    80
    Definitely worth your time.
  9. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Doug Elfman
    75
    It starts out a little cutesy but quickly finds laughs in crisp writing and really strong (and blessedly not-overblown) acting.
  10. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Glenn Garvin
    70
    This sitcom is a loving embrace of convulsive domestic eccentricity.
  11. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Melanie McFarland
    70
    "Sons & Daughters" is supposed to feel like a heightened version of your own family, and in many ways it succeeds.
  12. Time
    Reviewed by: James Poniewozik
    70
    The show's conversational improv rhythms and realistic, documentary style make Sons and Daughters worth adopting.
  13. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Nancy DeWolf Smith
    70
    Some viewers, accustomed to less-original TV fare, may miss having stock gags and situations rammed down their throat. "Sons & Daughters" is a savory for more discerning palates.
  14. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Tom Shales
    70
    "Sons & Daughters" turns the banalities of family life upside down and inside out and finds something new, and even something cherishable, in many of them.
  15. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: Nancy Franklin
    70
    Compelling, if not quite riveting.
  16. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Matthew Gilbert
    70
    "Sons & Daughters" is a sitcom whose method -- a script embellished by actors at play -- celebrates the unexpected comedy that can emerge among talented people.
  17. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Barry Garron
    70
    The improv style when done well, as it is here, doesn't generate sidesplitting laughter, but it does produce a steady stream of deliciously enjoyable moments.
  18. PopMatters
    Reviewed by: Maura McAndrew
    60
    Those who enjoy Sons & Daughters enjoyed Arrested Development more, and the same viewers put off by the latter's off-the-wall humor will also be put off the new show.
  19. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Sid Smith
    60
    Crowded, confusing and unafraid to be dull, "Sons & Daughters" also holds tremendous promise.
  20. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Alessandra Stanley
    60
    "Sons & Daughters" is a milder, more humane version of Fox's canceled "Arrested Development" -- it milks the humor of absurd people and brutally frank conversation.
  21. Variety
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    60
    A half-hour firmly ensconced in the "witty" zone that seldom crosses all the way over into funny.
  22. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
    Reviewed by: Rob Owen
    60
    Personally, I found "Arrested" funnier, but "Sons & Daughters" has its moments.
  23. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Henry Goldblatt
    50
    For a show that's supposed to be all loosey-goosey, too many of S&D's visual and aural cues are rigidly staged. [10 Mar 2006, p.53]
    All this critic's reviews
  24. Salon
    Reviewed by: Heather Havrilesky
    30
    The improvised dialogue is sometimes smart, but it often leads to scenes where the main characters repeat their intentions over and over again -- you know, like in a really bad improv class.
  25. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Linda Stasi
    25
    Vulgar and incomprehensibly unfunny, "Sons & Daughters" is a clear attempt to be a hip hybrid of "Arrested Development," "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "The Office." Instead, it's just a mostly superb cast being thrown to the wolves with ugly dialogue.
  26. Newsday
    Reviewed by: Diane Werts
    20
    Most of the cast stammers its way through sentences as if awaiting a lightning strike of inspiration. When it doesn't come, the actors have to say something anyway, and that meandering search for structure is what winds up filling 30 shapeless minutes.
prev next
Page:
  • 1