• Network: SHOWTIME
  • Series Premiere Date: Aug 14, 2005
Metascore
64

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 15
  2. Negative: 0 out of 15

Critic Reviews

  1. San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa Times
    Reviewed by: Chuck Barney
    Apr 16, 2014
    60
    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]
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Doug Elfman
    Apr 20, 2014
    50
    [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]
  3. Boston Herald
    Reviewed by: Mark A. Perigard
    Apr 20, 2014
    50
    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]
  4. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Robert Lloyd
    Apr 20, 2014
    50
    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]
  5. Reviewed by: David Wiegand
    Apr 20, 2014
    50
    Funny in places, but after three viewings of Sunday's debut episode, I'm still trying to figure out if and how the series will advance the original film.
  6. Reviewed by: Teresa Wiltz
    Apr 19, 2014
    40
    Its rhythms are off, from the hyperactive handheld camera to the hyper dialogue. The actors come across as Shakespearean thespians pontificating on life in Da Hood.
  7. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Connie Ogle
    Apr 19, 2014
    40
    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]