The Wrap's Scores

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For 256 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 55% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 42% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average TV Show review score: 66
Highest review score: 100 All The Way (2016)
Lowest review score: 10 Bad Judge: Season 1
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 159 out of 159
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 159
  3. Negative: 0 out of 159
159 tv reviews
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  1. DC's Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1
    [Arthur Darvill's Rip Hunter is] definitely the best part of the show. Which is all the more aggravating when he gets sidelined for long stretches in favor of the more familiar characters.... Some things work great, though. A 1975-set bar fight involving Lotz, Miller and Purcell is quite fun, and the action in general scenes genuinely work, helping the fledgling series come together. But when the characters stand around and talk, things start to feel silly.
  2. 11.22.63: Season 1
    That the limited series squeaks by as just entertaining enough is a disappointment considering the pedigree of everyone involved and the reputation of its source material.
  3. Madam Secretary: Season 1
    Madam Secretary has the pedigree and potential to be a great show. It just has to be more original.
  4. Kevin From Work: Season 1
    On one hand, the microscopic nature of Kevin from Work is fresh and daring in a millennial-friendly sort of way as are Reid and Spara’s attractive visages and tangible chemistry. On the other hand, the webby approach and the caricature heavy supporting cast erode the show’s legitimacy.
  5. Supergirl (2015): Season 1
    An intriguing debut is marred by silly missteps, rough dialogue.
  6. The Returned (2015): Season 1
    A serviceable but mostly by-the-numbers remake of a brilliantly nuanced French series.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Zoo: Season 1
    While the pilot script excels in efficient plot building, it lags in dialogue and character development.
  8. Inside Amy Schumer: Season 4
    [Amy Schumer] remains a potent original, torpedoing gender inequality and smartly dissecting cultural and sexual norms. And yet, Season 4 of the show also unconsciously struggles with heightened expectations.
  9. Roadies: Season 1
    Maybe over time Roadies will settle into a groove, but as of now it’s yet to find its rhythm.
  10. The Spoils Before Dying: Season 1
    Most characters are reduced to a single joke repeated endlessly, under the assumption that the repetition of words or phrases constitutes comedy.
  11. Party Over Here: Season 1
    Only mildly amusing and tending toward broad, obvious gags, this Fox late-night program, which is executive produced by the Lonely Island, could develop and grow in confidence over time. But for now, there’s not much life to this Party.
  12. Red Oaks: Season 1
    Almost every episode trades on our familiarity with the type--the heavy sidekick, the dumb, bullying jock, the knockout who wonders if she should be with the heavy sidekick instead of the dumb, bullying jock--but that familiarity too often comes perilously close to breeding contempt.
  13. Dig: Season 1
    There’s plenty of action, but it comes across as muddled and at least so far is failing to serve the intrigue.
  14. Forever: Season 1
    [There's] a lot of dying and when that's added to the death or deaths of the week--this is a one-note procedural after all--the morbidity starts to mount on a series that's already weighed down by clumsy mythology and storytelling.
  15. The Art of More: Season 1
    Meanwhile, there’s Bosworth, throwing glacial glares and selling her soul to impress her father and compete with upstart Connor, giving a beautifully restrained, imminently watchable performance that conveys depths with very little. Too bad there’s not more of her and less of everything else.
  16. Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce: Season 1
    Finding the proper balance for dramedy isn't easy and Girlfriends’ Guide fails miserably at that task.
  17. Crisis in Six Scenes: Season 1
    An overly jokey screenplay that lacks the sharpness of Allen’s best work. And the problem is also Allen, who has largely stopped acting in his own movies. As Sidney, he can be lovably doddering and still delivers the occasional quip with style. But more often, he’s the least compelling character on screen.
  18. Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B
    Despite a handful of great performances, this small-screen drama is a forgettable, overly publicized splash in the pan unworthy of the woman it earnestly but clumsily attempts to honor.
  19. The X-Files: Season 10
    The result is a clunky hour of bad one-liners and exposition.... The narrative tightens up in Episode 2, at least, as the series settles into a Monster-of-the-Week format. That allows Duchovny and Anderson to play to their respective strengths, but it also feels like the show is marking time.
  20. Intelligence (2013): Season 1
    The attempt to ground the show in reality feels unnecessary and not fun, because nothing here is all that unbelievable.
  21. Blood & Oil: Season 1
    Both Johnson and Valleta recognize the script for what it needs--a quirked eyebrow here, a glower held a bit longer than usual there--and tip the story in their favor as the down-and-dirty version of Frank and Claire Underwood. Crawford and Rittenhouse are so busy trawling for sympathy that they barely register.
  22. Flesh and Bone: Season 1
    Unfortunately the end result is a cast of supporting characters that fall flat without the proper development, and a lead that never quite opens up to the audience.
  23. Impastor: Season 1
    The bits of writing with real teeth are crowded out by a generally broader and more winking comedy style and pacing that seems to be anticipating more laughter than the material could reasonably expect.
  24. Dr. Ken: Season 1
    The show’s other players gently orbit Jeong’s bright star and are sometimes scorched by his flares of humor in an otherwise formulaic sitcom with its canned laughter and bright, uniformly lit set.
  25. Mr. Robinson: Season 1
    For every charming and genuinely funny moment--and there is a fair amount--there is a lazy sitcom trope that stunts Mr. Robinson and depletes it of its promise.
  26. Hand of God: Season 1
    Watching the first hour of Hand of God, the performances are solid but the shocking moments fail to connect dramatically.
  27. Baskets: Season 1
    The surrealness almost disguises the repetitive plot of returning home as a manchild. But as a series, Baskets is more bleak than amusing.
  28. CSI: Cyber: Season 1
    The machine behind this effort needs to invest in even its smallest moving parts whose misfires can snatch a savvy “CSI” viewer right out of the Cyber realm; weak performances from bit players, leaps in logic or just plain by-the-numbers writing à la “This is where we introduce the character by providing some expository dialogue that the lead character will dismiss with ‘You always say that’ in words or actions.”
  29. MacGyver (2016): Season 1
    Comfort food television is a necessary and worthwhile product, but MacGyver is so bland it’s not even fun for a Friday night in.
  30. The Player: Season 1
    Though it has some slick car chases, The Player lacks the wit, ingenuity and originality to inspire curiosity about what’s going to happen next.
  31. Heartbeat (2016): Season 1
    Unfortunately, by the end of the first hour, viewers may find themselves looking for a pulse rather than committing to future installments, let alone pondering the state of female medical practitioners in the industry and their work-home life balance.
  32. Bordertown (2016): Season 1
    The show is satirizing smug, middle-class white folks who resent any threat to their status quo, but the only viewpoints presented on Bordertown are those of smug, middle-class white folks and smug, middle-class liberals who resent the white folks’ resentment.
  33. Cristela: Season 1
    Everything about this comedy felt canned, artificial and forced. The dialogue was awkward enough that the actors didn't look comfortable delivering their lines, the audience wasn't always sure when and how to react, and I wasn't sure how much longer I could take it.
  34. The Great Indoors: Season 1
    While there may be some hidden truths in the intended comedy, the scenes often come across as judgemental and ill-conceived.
  35. Crossbones: Season 1
    While [John Malkovich] does indeed dig into the pirate role with relish, it's not enough to save the show.
  36. Code Black (2015): Season 1
    Harden’s unfortunate typecasting is the least of the ailments afflicting Code Black. When blood isn’t flying everywhere and the doctors aren’t rushing from one disaster to the next, derivative characters bombard the screen with familiar tropes.
  37. Man With a Plan: Season 1
    Chemistry wasn’t the problem with either version of the pilot. Indeed both actresses are fine in the role, as is LeBlanc; it’s the show itself that could use some work.
  38. Life in Pieces: Season 1
    Separately, the Short family members are worthy of a glimpse and can garner a chuckle. Together, they’re abrasive and unlikable.
  39. Notorious: Season 1
    It’s like the writers are just throwing ideas on a wall to see what sticks. Nothing about this pilot feels finely tuned or carefully constructed. It’s a shame, actually, given the great chemistry between Perabo and Sunjata in the first place.
  40. The Lizzie Borden Chronicles: Season 1
    Sumptuous costuming and a believable period setting aren’t enough to make up for weak storylines that intend to make more of killer Lizzie than she actually was.
  41. Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris: Season 1
    Most of what has made Harris a beloved fixture of live telecasts has been eradicated in this misguided attempt at revising the variety show format.
  42. Conviction (2016): Season 1
    [Conviction] is a mess from beginning to end, full of clichéd characters and confusing rules.
  43. Wicked City: Season 1
    Despite noticeable efforts to play Kent and Betty as wounded, troubled people with murderously kinky bedroom predilections, Westwick and Christensen’s stunted, one-note characters seem better suited as reenactments on an Investigation Discovery true-crime program than a prime-time series.
  44. Heroes: Reborn: Season 1
    By the sixth or seventh time someone ominously intones, “It’s coming,” you’ll be just about exhausted. Some things shouldn’t necessarily be reborn.
  45. The Leisure Class
    It is difficult to separate The Leisure Class from "Project Greenlight," and that’s probably to the film’s benefit, since it can’t stand up on its own. It’s a farce that’s not particularly farcical, a dark comedy with little humor, a screwball caper that wants to suggest great films of yesteryear without giving its own plotting and details the attention they need to work in that style. Everything feels undercooked.
  46. Mulaney: Season 1
    The live studio audience is just in your face laughing at the most unfunny, hit the ground with a thud, jokes being thrown left and right by a cast that should know how to deliver their lines better.... It doesn't really get funny until the third episode
    • 61 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Around the World in 80 Days: Season 1
    In the end, this “Around the World” is more cringeworthy than fun.
  48. Truth Be Told (2015): Season 1
    Unfortunately, the pilot is awkwardly written, so the cast doesn’t quite mesh.
  49. State of Affairs: Season 1
    The writing does no one any favors, failing even to make the most of Alfre Woodard as president.
  50. Rosewood: Season 1
    At its worst, Rosewood plays like the kind of ridiculous, over-the-top drama with which a sitcom character becomes obsessed. At its best, it offers its audience the chance to feel smarter than its characters.
  51. Second Chance: Season 1
    Other than presenting Kazinsky with the late holiday gift of a starring role, there’s not much else to Second Chance. The twins feel as if they’ve been grafted onto the plot from another series, while DeKay’s sole note for much of the first few episodes is pissed off. Other shows have tackled estranged fathers and sons better.
  52. Shadowhunters: Season 1
    Not fun enough to be trashy and not resonant enough to make you care.... Lordy, is it silly--and worse, it lacks the wit or sharp self-awareness to own up to its campiness or help make its melodramatic elements more palatable.
  53. Stalker: Season 1
    Sure, one could argue that other primetime series such as Criminal Minds and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit dabble in what is best described as torture porn. But there is something especially nihilistic about Stalker ... and the way it handles violence against women.
  54. The Unauthorized Full House Story
    The bar for quality is set pretty low. But this entry, unlike the previous “Save by the Bell” exposé, does nothing to justify its own existence.
  55. Bad Judge: Season 1
    Walsh is a fantastic actress with a wide range of talents, including comedy, but none of them were on display here. While there is potential in the concept of a respected judge on the bench who is a hard-partying reprobate in her personal life, NBC failed to find it in this dud.
  56. Fuller House: Season 1
    There are so many self-satisfied references to the off-screen lives of the stars and what’s happened to them in the intervening years, you might sometimes think you’re watching a “Saturday Night Live” skit version of the show.
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