Accidentally on Purpose
CBS | Release Date: September 21, 2009
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
11
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd
Season 1 Review: Everything in the pilot, written by executive producer Claudia Lonow, is a hair or three too strenuous; Billie has been knocked down to a few easy-to-grasp impulses, and almost all the other roles are filled by stereotypes--Jensen's most wastefully--in stereotypical relationships. Nevertheless, the premise is full of interesting possibilities about love and age and unconventional parenting. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterRandee Dawn
Season 1 Review: This is an utterly predictable comedy (what, you don't think Zack and Billie will fall in love in Season 2, right after he starts dating another chick and Billie has an epiphany?) that's got a few fun lines. Read full review
50
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: Accidentally on Purpose doesn't have the smarts to be the salvation of a genre, but neither does it look like the torpedo to sink the ship. Not great, but nothing heinous. Read full review
50
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 1 Review: Accidentally feels like a show that's nearly been focus-grouped into oblivion--with lines, beats and a cultural resonance that's so familiar you can almost see the baseball bat of predictability descending upon your head. So be it. Elfman's fine, as usual. This could be worse. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: The stereotypes in play on Accidentally on Purpose are flat, if harmless, from the get-go. Read full review
50
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: It's not as funny as either of those hits ["The Big Bang Theory" and "Two and a Half Men"]--and certainly not as good a show as the superior "Bang"--but it is more enjoyable than "Rules of Engagement," which returns at mid-season (unfortunately). Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: CBS can turn a lot of tired fluff into sitcom hits, so who knows about Accidentally on Purpose? There are laughs here and there, but mostly it's all so very familiar and not remotely as funny as "Modern Family" or "Cougar Town." Read full review
50
The New York TimesMike Hale
Season 1 Review: Accidentally on Purpose, with its matching sets of friends for Billie and Zack, its bland jokes, its lack of any sort of topicality, its Jenna Elfman, feels as if it could have been on any time in the last two decades. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 1 Review: A newspaper writer whose one-night-stand with a baby-faced young-un leads to predictable complications when she gets, you guessed it, knocked up. Read full review
50
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: The pilot is breezy enough, and there are solid supporting players, including Ashley Jensen and Grant Show. Those ingredients, however, are thus far more promising than what first comes out of the oven Read full review
40
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: Zack (Jon Foster) also very sweet, which leaves Elfman as the sour (sort of) grown-up, a thankless job made only more thankless by the writing, which takes a bad situation and only makes it worse. Read full review
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