- Network: CBS
- Series Premiere Date: Mar 1, 2015
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Critic Reviews
- Critic score
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This one’s super funny, especially the scenes featuring Winters and Duhamel together. Talk about chemistry.
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Judging only the pilot episode, the banter between them (Dean Winters and Josh Duhamel) can be fun and Gilligan’s influence lends a nice, creepy sheen to the notion that menace lurks anywhere, even (or especially?) in the upper Midwest.
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There’s a lot of lying going on in this police headquarters. A lot of smart, superbly sustained entertainment, too.
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Battle Creek may be a little low-boil compared to other network mysteries, which I don't account a fault; even when it runs to caricature, it stays convincing. And if it doesn't break any new ground, it nevertheless feels fresh and genuine.
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Aspects of Battle Creek seem familiar, to be sure, yet it registers high on the giddy scale thanks to energetic direction, clever writing and the comic chemistry generated by Duhamel and Winters.
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It's definitely a smart, clever spin on the old opposite-personalities buddy-cop formula, with a terrific ensemble cast and immensely likable characters.
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Battle Creek is a whimsical, even genial, cop show.
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It helps that Mr. Winters and Mr. Duhamel give performances that add some glints of complexity to their surface charm, and that the writers avoid many of the usual clichés. This is an engaging series about a likable bunch of co-workers that isn’t too sweet or predictable.
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Duhamel and Winters were born to share the screen as the odd couple who must solve a seriously strange series of crimes.
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The cases-of-the-week here are not groundbreaking but some are a bit wacky (death by maple syrup), and Battle Creek promises at least one grand mystery--if Duhamel's FBI agent is such an ace, what did he do to rate a posting in beleaguered Battle Creek? Agnew is chomping at the bit to find out, and so are we.
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A classic buddy dramedy about mismatched people forced to work together, Battle Creek is fast-paced and clever.
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The five episodes I’ve seen have enough small pleasures to carry them to their finish lines. Just don’t expect to be blown away.
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f you go in looking for another "Breaking Bad," you'll be sorely disappointed--even if the second episode contains several visual nods to the work of Heisenberg--but if you're looking for a snappy cop show, you should do okay.
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Shore has written this adroitly enough and Winters and Duhamel are two good and seasoned actors who easily locate what's most endearing, or at least what's most amusing about their respective characters.
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Russ's obsession with Milt's past overwhelms some of the upcoming episodes, and sentiment derails a few others. Still, the cast is strong, and in a season where so many series (some of them excellent) lean toward the grim, Creek's sunnier approach makes for a nice change.
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Other episodes seem fairly standard fare, entertaining and involving enough on their own, but lacking the offbeat quirkiness of maple syrup drownings. If the “straightforward” episodes weren’t so well written and directed, this could be a problem of consistency, but as it is, the series is fun and only slightly flawed.
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Once Duhamel and Winters settle into a rhythm and begin showing more nuanced aspects of their characters, I began to enjoy "Battle Creek" for the light, reasonably well-constructed crime drama that it is, and as the season develops, Shore is able to do a few interesting things with the question of whether people can truly change.
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Battle Creek works best when it lays on the quirkiness and sputters a bit when it gets too coy or sappy about the crimes the detectives are solving. But the series, thanks to Winters and Duhamel, is very entertaining and kills an hour with ease (as most good CBS procedurals do).
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Judging by the first handful of episodes, Battle Creek is a tad more eccentric than the usual CBS drama, a refreshing step beyond the procedural format. Not a challenging series, but a watchable one.
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As CBS procedurals go, Battle Creek is smarter and a little funnier than average.
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While it by no means reinvents the concept, it is an entertaining-enough diversion that has sufficient fresh--or freshly recycled--elements to differentiate it from its ubiquitous procedural brethren.
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While Battle Creek hews relatively close to CBS’ procedural comfort zone, the series also exhibits the wry, slightly jaundiced view of the world that has always characterized Gilligan’s work.
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With engaging lead performances by Josh Duhamel and Dean Winters, along with a crisp, witty script, the premiere of “Battle Creek” is entertaining, it just doesn’t feel as essential as the previous programs from its creators
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Think of Battle Creek not as Milt’s tricked out FBI SUV or Russ’ dying compact, but as the car Gilligan once gave Walter White: Reliable, kind of dorky and a little bit funky, Battle Creek is the Pontiac Aztek of cop shows.
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This show fits perfectly into the network's mystery/cop-heavy schedule and audiences should be able to blur right through it comfortably. As comfortable blurs go, Battle Creek is indeed a success.
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CBS' newest cop show has ambition and potential. It just needs a few sparks to ignite.
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Battle Creek is unlikely to inspire the same kind of praise and devotion as Breaking Bad, but it’s an entertaining exercise in typical TV crime-solving.
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In the aftermath of Breaking Bad, which revolutionized the crime drama, Battle Creek still feels today like a procedural from 2002.
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At its best, Battle Creek reaches for the witty whimsy of another out-of-the-way-location CBS series such as Northern Exposure. But most of the time, Battle Creek just seems like an only slightly jauntier police procedural than the ones that overrun network TV.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 52 out of 72
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Mixed: 15 out of 72
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Negative: 5 out of 72
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May 9, 2015
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Mar 16, 2015
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Mar 12, 2015