American Dreams

:

Season 1
  • Network: NBC
  • Series Premiere Date: Sep 29, 2002
Season #: 3, 2, 1
Metascore
68

Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 20
  3. Negative: 0 out of 20

Critic Reviews

  1. Cleveland Plain Dealer
    Reviewed by: Mark Dawidziak
    Mar 28, 2022
    60
    American Dreams will need to change and develop if it has any hope of mimicking the success of American Bandstand. But tonight's opener has a nice beat and is easy to dance to. [29 Sep 2002, p.2]
    All this critic's reviews
  2. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Hal Boedeker
    Mar 28, 2022
    60
    NBC's American Dreams, opening in 1963, too often plays like a sentimental journey or a clumsy history lesson. [29 Sep 2002, p.4]
    All this critic's reviews
  3. People Weekly
    Reviewed by: Terry Kelleher
    Mar 25, 2022
    60
    Bottom Line: Good beat, weak drama.
  5. Salon
    Reviewed by: Carina Chocano
    Mar 25, 2022
    50
    American Dreams is as soft-focused and jelly-bellied as a close-up of Shelley Winters, and the message gets a little garbled in the nostalgia.
  6. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Caryn James
    Mar 25, 2022
    50
    American Dreams is a frustrating mix, often sensitive and winning in its treatment of the Pryor family, and hackneyed in its reach for historical relevance.
  7. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: John Doyle
    Mar 25, 2022
    40
    An icky exercise in nostalgia, this series is set in Philadelphia in the early 1960's and is about the evolving problems and joys of a big Catholic family.