Sioux City Journal's Scores

  • TV
For 342 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 58% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 38% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4.5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average TV Show review score: 72
Highest review score: 100 The Bear: Season 4
Lowest review score: 25 Almost Family: Season 1
Score distribution:
  1. Mixed: 0 out of 243
  2. Negative: 0 out of 243
243 tv reviews
  1. The concept is interesting, but it would have been more fun to show Valerie in a less high-stakes setting.
  2. Clearly, there's a new camp experience to be mined. Early on, though, Camp doesn't do much digging.
  3. Pennette’s mission, though, is to keep Ashford in the fold no matter what it takes. She’s the A+ in this fairly middling comedy.
  4. Considering the money that must have been spent on it, “Bridgerton” should be better. It has all the trappings of a 1980s network miniseries but none of its sizzle. More humor -- and an appearance by Andrews -- would help immensely.
  5. Like a YouTube channel, “Muppets Now” needs to figure out what it does best and proceed. This isn’t “America’s Funniest Muppet Videos.” It’s “The Miss Piggy Show” with a few distracting bits thrown in for surprise.
  6. Rich and company show the gears, the ingredients and the packaging. More mystery, as Radcliffe knows, is always a good thing.
  7. There’s a supernatural feel to it, but the series also has a serialized format that makes you wonder who can hang in longer – the network or the viewers.
  8. [Paris Jackson and Kaia Gerber] hew closely to “Scream Queens” and push the envelope with scenes that explore their sexuality. Their acting abilities may be similar to their parents’ at the same age, but they pair well with McCormick, who seems more mature than anyone in the house. Bomer and Creel, oddly, don’t seem to fit in this setting. They embrace the humor but can’t quite promote the terror. ... Tveit does a much better job of straddling the “AHS” worlds.
  9. Two siblings steal the show.
  10. It doesn’t stir that many emotions. It doesn’t provide stunning insight into her character. It doesn’t even talk about setbacks (or her relationship with other Olympic gymnasts). Instead, The Gabby Douglas Story is a tribute to the power of positive thinking.
  11. Director Jeffrey Reiner gives this a ‘90s soap patina that works--to a point. The intelligence that Britton and Bana provide gets shoved aside in favor of scenes that look like they couldn’t possibly be true (but are). When “Dirty John” begins to unravel, we lose interest and feel as duped as Debra.
  12. What is a given is the surprise element. The costumes are quite elaborate and they, alone, would be worth an episode. ... Ken Jeong seems like the wild card, since no one has associated him with music. (At least Jenny McCarthy’s husband is one of the New Kids on the Block.) He tries to be funny but, often, it’s Scherzinger’s surprised looks that get the laughs.
  13. It’s not about a “bad” teacher, just a slightly irreverent one.
  14. Co-creators Bill Prady and Bob Kushell have given the gang the right setting. Now, they just need to figure out how they fit in a selfie-driven world. Newer Muppets like Pepe the King Prawn do better than veteran ones.
  15. Sedgwick breezes through the scenes as if she has been playing something like this for years but Lizer doesn’t give much motivation for her characters’ moves. ... Throwing in a few more Iowa references (we’ve got plenty of them) would help “Mother” distinguish itself from dozens of similar comedies. “Bless This Mess” took its “Green Acres” plot, infused it with a big helping of Nebraska and found a way to thrive. “Call Your Mother” could do the same thing.
  16. [Anna Shay's] a fun one to watch and, easily, a forgiving friend. The others don’t get the same pass. ... It’s one more reality show that gives rich people a chance to build brands and foster careers without having to do any heavy lifting. It’s an escape. But without Anna, it’s not an escape we’d want to take.
  17. It's a safe bet he’ll get his legs here in a matter of weeks. Now, though, it’s very much a shake-down cruise. The boat is loaded. It just needs to get up to speed.
  18. Cute conceptually, the comedy falls short when director Jake Szymanski searches for ways to fill the time. Dumb on-court antics (including sex with two streakers) don’t really live up to the Christopher Guest ambitions of the rest of the film.
  19. It’s just another sitcom set at a television show.
  20. Spacey did a great job explaining why he was host (using riffs on the nominated musicals to make his point), but he was playing to a home crowd. If you didn’t know anything about “Dear Evan Hansen” (and you should), you wouldn’t understand why he had a cast on his arm (and, later, on his leg).
  21. “The Jinx” constantly surprised. Trial & Error seems like it’s just going through the motions.
  22. While I Am Cait appears determined to be a noble endeavor, its producers shouldn’t feel obligated to teach every time out.
  23. Because it’s like some 1950s melodrama, “Ratched” is quite attractive initially. ... Instead, it's just a shirttail relative of "American Horror Story," another series that isn't always sure what it wants to do.
  24. Occasionally, it reaches its potential but, all too often, its delivery falls short of our expectations.
  25. With a different cast, it might actually work. Because she’s so immediately likable, it’s hard to buy Garner as woman with misplaced sympathies. ... Only Lewis (who’s outrageously good) and Arturo De Puerto as her new beau Miguel seem ideal. They cause much of the drama and don’t really care what the others think. When they’re around, Camping is more fun than fireside ghost stories. ... Gems drip out, but they don’t come often enough.
  26. Both actors [Al Pacino and Helen Mirren] could thrive with this story (Pacino's a ringer for Spector) but Mamet speculates a bit too much. Had he eliminated the title character entirely, it might have been more intriguing.
  27. Robinson is still appealing, but he’s surrounded by a gaggle of sitcom stereotypes.
  28. In the eight-episode Netflix series, there’s plenty of action but all of it isn’t that interesting.
  29. It’s a 1960s medical drama in a 2020 world. ... “Nurses” isn’t the medical series you’ve been longing to see. It’s just the one that happens to be here.
  30. All too often, though, this looks like a “Saturday Night Live” skit that doesn’t quite land.
  31. While “FUBAR” gets the ‘80s superstar back in the saddle, it should have been attached to a different horse – one that hadn’t already been put out to pasture. This takes too much time to get up to speed.
  32. Danson does a bit of the goofiness we saw to better effect in “The Good Place” and Hunter is so stern it’s surprising someone didn’t pull her aside and point out this is a comedy. Stray bits of information (like a straw ban in Los Angeles) bring a smile; direct steals (how to spell “syzygy” was a plot point in “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”) suggest someone didn’t do due diligence.
  33. More attention to the construction of his set and less to the spontaneity and it might actually be fun. Saturday’s offering suffers from attention deficit.
  34. Dull, sluggish and frequently lost, Walken had none of the spark you’d expect from the “swiniest swine in the world.”... Allison William’s Peter Pan was more successful but only because she took a very straightforward approach to a role that should have been bubbling with life.
  35. “Brave New World” looks like something NBC might have programmed in the 1980s. The sex and swearing are a stretch, of course, but there’s a lot of “Stepford Wives” to this that doesn’t really work.
  36. Modern Dads has an opportunity to enlighten. Now, in a half-hour format, the show barely flips a switch.
  37. “Shifting Gears” plays into the hands of audiences who loved its two stars. Neither goes too far afield from the personalities they helped create. While Dennings often seems like she’s on an uphill climb, Allen seems to be idling.
  38. If you fly often enough, this might hold your interest--but only if you’re strapped in a seat and unable to pay for a movie because you forgot to bring a credit card.
  39. Because “Monarch” (which is the name of the family company) doesn’t really dig beneath its “Dallas”/”Dynasty” trappings, there are plenty of moments that ring false. When the performers are on stage, they seem real. When they’re insulting each other at home, they look phony.
  40. Filled with predictable jokes, stereotypical characters and situations that wouldn’t have been fresh two decades ago, the new comedy wastes its premise and all but deserts star Patrick Warburton, the only one who appears to be making an effort.
  41. This is an odd, odd show.

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