Bad Teacher
CBS | Release Date: April 24, 2014
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
10
Negative:
6

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
People WeeklyPatrick GomezApr 18, 2014
Season 1 Review: The team behind Bad Teacher has successfully reconfigured the raunchy comedy into a heart warming sitcom starring Ari Graynor that is still bad in all the right ways. [28 Apr 2014]
83
Uncle BarkyEd BarkApr 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: It’s bright, sharp, without a laugh track and with a very well assembled ensemble cast headed by Ari Graynor in the Diaz role of a gold-digging, dumped divorcee looking to land another big fish. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamaraApr 24, 2014
Season 1 Review: All in all, it's a pleasant, sunny and well-played ephemeral farce; Gilbert, Grier, Hansen and Davis are all good to see again, and Graynor inhabits her character with verve and increasing grace. Read full review
70
The WrapDiane GarrettApr 24, 2014
Season 1 Review: Its kindly spirit and those performances [from Graynor, Hansen and Grier] help prevent Bad Teacher from falling into the increasingly raunchy trap of its network predecessor, “Two and a Half Men.” Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyKaren ValbyApr 24, 2014
Season 1 Review: Meredith is a gold-digger, but when push comes to shove she chooses her students’ welfare over her ambition to become someone’s new wife. That is a pat resolution in a movie but not enough to sustain a series. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubEmily VanDerWerffApr 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: Despite the structural problems, there are considerable delights in each one of these episodes. All of them contain a handful of belly laughs, and the dialogue is sharp and pointed even when it’s not riotously funny. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleyApr 24, 2014
Season 1 Review: There’s warmth and some humor here. It’s also been tweaked so that, unlike the movie, it isn’t only for teens. But Bad Teacher has a tough test ahead. Read full review
60
The New York TimesAlessandra StanleyApr 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: As is so often the case, the premiere episode tries too hard and isn’t as funny as it could be. The writing loosens up later on, and has some charm. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian LowryApr 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: Adapted by Hilary Winston from the movie, the show quickly falls into a predictable pattern.... Still, taken on its own terms, the series is pretty amusing. Read full review
58
HitfixAlan SepinwallApr 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: On the whole, Bad Teacher is a pleasant, unremarkable adaptation of a middling Cameron Diaz vehicle that, in the translation from standalone film to series television (and, specifically, to CBS), loses whatever teeth the movie had. Read full review
50
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardApr 24, 2014
Season 1 Review: Bad Teacher is like a comedy club on a Sunday morning. No fun. Read full review
50
Sioux City JournalBruce MillerApr 22, 2014
Season 1 Review: It’s not about a “bad” teacher, just a slightly irreverent one. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesLori RacklApr 21, 2014
Season 1 Review: It’s decent material to mine for laughs in a two-hour movie, but it wears thin on a weekly basis despite solid performances by the rest of the cast. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandApr 21, 2014
Season 1 Review: The show has its funny moments, and the cast is pretty good, especially the younger actors. Read full review
40
Boston GlobeSarah RodmanApr 24, 2014
Season 1 Review: Perhaps “Mediocre Teacher” would be a better title for this so-so comedy about trophy wife Meredith Davis (Ari Graynor), who suddenly finds herself replaced by a shinier trophy. Read full review
40
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenApr 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: Bad Teacher relies on a one-joke premise that's funny enough in the premiere but seems like it will wear poorly over time. Read full review
37
USA TodayRobert BiancoApr 24, 2014
Season 1 Review: Unfortunately, it takes Bad Teacher less than 30 minutes to feel as exhausted and repetitive as Men does after 11 years. Read full review
30
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen GrayApr 24, 2014
Season 1 Review: Bad Teacher has its moments, with dialogue that's sometimes sharper than the situations. It isn't nearly funny enough, though, to make me want to spend another period--much less the rest of the school year--watching Graynor vamp her way through American history. Read full review
30
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushApr 24, 2014
Season 1 Review: Graynor is so obviously vulgar a man-eater that there's no charm to her bawdy smarm. The stereotypes surrounding her (David Alan Grier as the gullible soft-touch principal, Sara Gilbert as a desperately nerdy teacher and Kristin Davis as her prim nemesis) are little help. Read full review
25
NewsdayVerne GayApr 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: As expected, the transition from big screen to small doesn't exactly work. What this Bad Teacher really needed to do was outsmart the source material--make this version more clever, or sharper, or funnier, or (above all) make it for adults. Read full review
20
Washington PostHank StueverApr 24, 2014
Season 1 Review: Bad Teacher is a comedy--barely--that reinforces an unfortunate message that teaching is a career wasteland. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineMatt BrennanApr 22, 2014
Season 1 Review: Leached of the original's tart sense of humor, the series quickly settles into lowest-common-denominator boilerplate, an unintended critique of the declining sitcom formula. Read full review
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