• 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. Newsday
    Reviewed by: Diane Werts
    Apr 20, 2014
    90
    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.]
  2. Cleveland Plain Dealer
    Reviewed by: Mark Dawidziak
    Apr 19, 2014
    90
    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]
  3. Dallas Morning News
    Reviewed by: Ed Bark
    Apr 16, 2014
    83
    Barbershop is inventively edited, consistently funny and decidedly not for kids. [14 Aug 2005, p.3]
  4. Detroit Free Press
    Reviewed by: Mike Duffy
    Apr 19, 2014
    75
    Raucous, bawdily good-natured. [14 Aug 2005]
  5. Variety
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    Apr 20, 2014
    70
    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]
  6. Reviewed by: Rob Owen
    Apr 19, 2014
    70
    Pretty funny. Pretty profane, too, but still funny, and a better-realized weekly program than last week's Showtime comedy premiere, "Weeds."
  7. Reviewed by: David Bianculli
    Apr 20, 2014
    63
    It's a crossover series that works, and has the strong potential to lure crossover audiences as well. Expect this "Barbershop" to stay open for quite a few years.
  8. Reviewed by: Robert Bianco
    Apr 20, 2014
    63
    What it lacks, unfortunately, is style -- some sense of smart, well-executed, up-to-date design. You can almost see the corners being cut, from the inconsistent casting to the cheap reliance on sex to the blatantly fake back-lot sets that are trying to pass for Chicago. You may not expect originality in a movie transfer, not when familiarity is what's selling the show. But you do expect Barbershop to display enough style of its own to avoid looking like a cheap knockoff.