What About Brian
ABC | Release Date: April 16, 2006
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
41
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
6
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Chicago Sun-TimesDoug Elfman
Season 1 Review: There's peril in traveling the well-worn path of unrequited love and adulterous wives. But what makes this beginning of "Brian" work is that the characters are nicely drawn archetypes, not stereotypes. Read full review
75
Detroit Free PressMike Duffy
Season 1 Review: It's styled as a sort of laid-back Gen X updating of "thirtysomething," replacing that show's neuroses-fueled, East Coast edge with a more casual, lighthearted California vibe. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyGillian Flynn
Season 1 Review: Brian's writing, while witty, tends to be oversize. [21 Apr 2006, p.64]
70
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: Most of the actors make their characters zesty and likable, if on occasion too glib for their -- and our -- own good. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: Ironically, the differences among the characters that make the show interesting and even, at times, compelling, also test its credibility. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: While "What About Brian" strikes some of the familiar chords about love, angst and the terror of young adulthood that have viewers swooning over "Grey's Anatomy," the show does so in a more laid-back tone, which should make its leap from a post-"Desperate Housewives" launch to its regular Monday moorings a commercial challenge. Read full review
60
Chicago TribuneSid Smith
Season 1 Review: "Brian" is easy, harmless viewing, sliding down the gullet as smoothly and reassuring as a glass of California merlot. Read full review
50
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesCharlie McCollum
Season 1 Review: There's not a lot wrong about "Brian.'' But there's not a lot right about it, either. Read full review
50
People WeeklyTom Gliatto
Season 1 Review: This is all nicely produced with mild offbeat tweaks along the way... But none of this is original either. [24 Apr 2006, p.39]
40
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: "What About Brian" isn't a terrible show, it just doesn't offer enough unique reasons to make a weekly appointment with this gang of friends. Read full review
38
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: The dialogue ranges from ridiculous to tiresome. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: It's not only unimpressive. Parts of it are uncomfortable. Read full review
30
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 1 Review: Like a sunnier version of thirtysomething, lacking only the inspired casting, the insightful writing and the wrenching realism. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesPaul Brownfield
Season 1 Review: "What About Brian" is "Prison Break," except the prison is a man's feelings and escape involves eluding the warden of his doubts, and we're talking maximum-security misgivings. Read full review
30
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: The series is sentimental in a sleek way, and there are surface glints of humor in the script, but mostly, "Brian" is a blander, less distinctive version of "Thirtysomething." Read full review
20
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 1 Review: "What About Brian"... wants to be "thirtysomething" for twentysomethings, but it is clichesomething. Read full review
20
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: [It] looks like a TV commercial with plots. The people are pretty, their homes are pretty, their problems are pretty, and it's all pretty shallow. Read full review
20
Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker
Season 1 Review: What About Brian traffics in flimsy liaisons, soapy squabbles and sophomoric sexuality. Read full review
20
Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland
Season 1 Review: Beautiful people, perky and unrealistic dialogue and male characters who have all dropped their huevos in jars of vinegar. Read full review
10
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
Season 1 Review: It [is] such a cloying, annoying mess you can barely expend the effort to hate it. Read full review
0
New York PostAdam Buckman
Season 1 Review: [The] characters are so charmless, it's as if they were created on purpose to actually repel viewership - a TV first. Read full review
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