Newark Star-Ledger's Scores

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For 511 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 50% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 48% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average TV Show review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 The Handmaid's Tale: Season 1
Lowest review score: 0 In the Motherhood: Season 1
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 270 out of 270
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 270
  3. Negative: 0 out of 270
270 tv reviews
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  1. Wallander: Season 1
    As wonderfully played by Kenneth Branagh, Wallander is a fine addition to the tradition of PBS' "Mystery!"
  2. Son of the Beach: Season 1
    Son of the Beach is everything you'd expect from a TV comedy executive produced by Howard Stern - and more. It's unbelievably vulgar - and one of the best bits of dopey humor television has featured since "Police Squad!" [13 March 2000, p.15]
    • Newark Star-Ledger
      • Posted Dec 1, 2019
  3. Big Love: Season 2
    The show feels cold, like it's holding the audience at arm's length.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Californication: Season 1
    Californication doesn't have the courage of those movies' ["Shampoo" and "Blume in Love"] convictions. It acts like it wants to tell the story of Hank's comeuppance, his growth from obnoxious man-child to real man, but it can't bear the thought of the audience not liking Hank (and, by extension, Duchovny) right out of the gate.
  5. Entourage: Season 5
    It's still not more than disposable fluff, and I expect Vince to get his stardom back by season's end, but by making his career a metaphor for what the show had become, Entourage for the first time is more entertaining than Vince's life must be.
  6. Penny Dreadful: Season 1
    The macabre, marvelous Penny Dreadful does nothing halfway. As the saying goes, in for a penny, in for a pound.
  7. Ashes to Ashes: Season 1
    Ashes to Ashes has a cheekier energy that the original "Life on Mars," one that carries the show even when the police procedural stories are relatively bland.
  8. Outcast: Season 1
    Outcast is incredibly visceral, both in its scenes of demonic possession and in the punch-happy tactics of the titular amateur exorcist. But it's also a tense, meditative psychological drama about trauma, redemption and belief, with nuanced performances throughout and a grim but arresting visual style that is not without flashes of humor.
  9. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season 2
    The three episodes of the new season that I've seen are almost entirely flat. [29 Jun 2006]
    • Newark Star-Ledger
      • Posted Jul 15, 2013
  10. In Treatment: Season 1
    You get out what you put into it--even in the episodes that are weaker, I was rarely bored--and it's a consistent scripted oasis in a sea of shows where people take lie detector tests on camera.
  11. Oz: Season 1
    For the most part, Oz is an awesome achievement - an alternately crude and elegant attempt to expand the boundaries of the one-hour drama. If it can avoid an over reliance on prison movie clichs, stay focused on the redemption theme and give its powerhouse cast more room to breathe, it could be one of the most important works ever aired on American television. [12 July 1997, p.29]
    • Newark Star-Ledger
      • Posted May 15, 2013
  12. The Path: Season 1
    "Breaking Bad" fans will thrill to the second coming of Jesse Pinkman, and there are Job-like similarities in Paul's tormented Eddie. But Dancy, taut as an ascetic and grimly magnetic, is the one to watch as Cal.
  13. Medium: Season 5
    In an episode like next week's, in which Allison spots the ghost of a recently deceased man watching a murder, the twistiness works; in one like tonight's, featuring a complicated web of affairs, betrayals and possible reincarnations, things become so tangled that the story and Arquette can't keep up.
  14. The Middle: Season 1
    It’s a solid meat-and-potatoes family comedy; next to "Hank," it’s the next "Malcolm in the Middle."
  15. Quantico: Season 1
    Pacing is a problem for most pilots--so many characters to introduce, meaningful stakes to establish--but Quantico, from "Gossip Girl" producer Joshua Safran, does this effortlessly, with at least one deadly effective twist you won't see coming. Just don't come looking for subtlety.
  16. Nip/Tuck: Season 1
    Nip/Tuck is the right show at the right time, a pointed, funny attack on the body biz and another winner from the cable channel that brought us "The Shield" and "Lucky." [21 July 2003, p.25]
    • Newark Star-Ledger
      • Posted Jan 21, 2014
  17. Weeds: Season 1
    "Weeds" isn't nearly as shocking or hilarious as it clearly thinks it is. [5 Aug 2005]
    • Newark Star-Ledger
      • Posted Jul 11, 2013
  18. Billions: Season 1
    Billions is a mostly engrossing but occasionally tiresome tale of financial and legal brinkmanship between Bobby "Axe" Axelrod (Damian Lewis), a blue collar kid turned hedge fund manager with a chip the size of the Bronx on his shoulder, and Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti), an ambitious (and silver-spooned) U.S. Attorney known his no-mercy prosecution of financial crimes.
  19. Community: Season 1
    I've seen the pilot episode at least four times already, in whole or in parts, and I laugh just as hard at the jokes now as I did the first time.
  20. Human Target: Season 1
    In that way, he's not unlike the super-competent Michael Westen from "Burn Notice," and "Human Target" has the same fun, retro-chic vibe as that USA series. But because it's on a broadcast network, the show works on a broader scale.
  21. Public Morals: Season 1
    Public Morals is engaging enough, with a jazzy pace, assured direction and a number of fine performances.
  22. Southland: Season 1
    It looks great, makes good use of Los Angeles locations and has a solid ensemble cast (including Regina King and Tom Everett Scott as detectives). But it feels emotionally empty in the same way "Third Watch" so often did.
  23. Boston Legal: Season 1
    Unfortunately, too much of the show is taken up by the usual Kelley stupidity. [1 Oct 2004]
    • Newark Star-Ledger
      • Posted Jul 23, 2013
  24. The Riches: Season 1
    Despite two fine leading performances by Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver and a premise that's not like anything else on television, there's something missing in the execution.
  25. Life Unexpected: Season 1
    Life Unexpected turns out to be a warm, sweet, fun family dramedy. The three leads are very likable, the stakes just high enough for the show to not seem inconsequential
  26. Soul Food: Season 1
    While it's great that series like these can find a home on pay cable, it's a shame they feel the need to live up to the adult reputation most cable series have. "Soul Food" the series continues the unfortunate R-rated tradition of "Soul Food" the movie. [26 Jun 2000]
    • Newark Star-Ledger
      • Posted Jun 10, 2014
  27. Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce: Season 1
    What makes a marriage work, and what sacrifices are worth its maintenance and upkeep, are plumbed here with surprising dexterity.
  28. Burn Notice: Season 1
    It wants to be a smart-aleck comedy/thriller hybrid in the spirit of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen, but the jokes are rarely clever enough and the thrills rarely exciting enough.
  29. Pitch: Season 1
    The show feels realistic in the locker room, on the field and in the media circus that surrounds her. (The synergy with real-life Fox Sports commentators and on-screen graphics provides more verisimilitude.)
  30. 11.22.63: Season 1
    Franco dials down his signature smarm, and as Sadie Dunhill, the vibrant small-town librarian whom Epping courts in the small Texas town in which he waits outs Oswald, Sarah Gadon is a real find. Their stirring romance carries with it the same whiff of doom as Epping's visits to Dealey Plaza, and gives what could be merely an interesting and handsomely-made take on the conspiracy thriller genre more texture and depth, resonating across the ages.
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