SHOWTIME | Release Date: August 14, 2005
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
90
NewsdayDiane WertsApr 20, 2014
Season 1 Review: There's a vibrancy here, and a clarity, that we haven't seen in network sitcoms in ages. The way ABC's "Lost" reconfigured dramatic storytelling, Showtime's Barbershop so invigorates the humor format that we hate to call it a sitcom. It's entirely its own animal. And that's evolution of a kind everyone can get behind. [12 Aug 2005, p.]
90
Cleveland Plain DealerMark DawidziakApr 19, 2014
Season 1 Review: It’s raucously funny in its own right and in its own way. If the first season’s remaining nine episodes are anywhere near as laugh-out-loud hilarious as tonight’s opener, Barbershop: The Series will be nothing less than Showtime’s strongest entry yet in the comedy field. [14 Aug 2005, p.J1]
83
Dallas Morning NewsEd BarkApr 16, 2014
Season 1 Review: Barbershop is inventively edited, consistently funny and decidedly not for kids. [14 Aug 2005, p.3]
75
Detroit Free PressMike DuffyApr 19, 2014
Season 1 Review: Raucous, bawdily good-natured. [14 Aug 2005]
70
VarietyBrian LowryApr 20, 2014
Season 1 Review: Messy, unruly but occasionally quite funny, "Barbershop" doubtless could use a trim here and there, and perhaps a little extra styling. Yet in its unassuming way, the series breezily picks up where the movie and its sequel left off. [12 Aug 2005, p.2]
60
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesChuck BarneyApr 16, 2014
Season 1 Review: The humor in the pilot is anything but razor-sharp: The writers too often confuse coarse language for jokes, and a subplot in which Calvin coaches a Nigerian co-worker on the finer points of the booty call sputters badly. Still, there is promise here, thanks mainly to a collection of intriguing characters. [14 Aug 2005, p.F4]
50
Chicago Sun-TimesDoug ElfmanApr 20, 2014
Season 1 Review: [It] isn't awful. Mostly, it's just too tightly packed, like those peanut cans kids open and giant toy snakes spring out. [11 Aug 2005, p.49]
50
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardApr 20, 2014
Season 1 Review: Barbershop's tarty makeover - surprising, because three of the films' producers, including star Ice Cube, are behind this - does more than just sex it up for premium cable. The good will has been snipped from the franchise. [11 Aug 2005, p.53]
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydApr 20, 2014
Season 1 Review: Though the TV version catches some of the tone and replicates the topicality of the big-screen originals, and shares executive producers, it lacks their grounded reality -- not too surprising, really, for a work of fiction based on a work of fiction -- as well as their warmth. [12 Aug 2005, p.E2]
40
Miami HeraldConnie OgleApr 19, 2014
Season 1 Review: In its first episode, Barbershop drops the ball, mistaking mere profanity for edginess and digging for laughs in dull, typical sitcom fashion. [14 Aug 2005, p.5]