- Network: CBS
- Series Premiere Date: Apr 1, 2011
Critic Reviews
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
It's "The A-Team" meets ... really good writing.
-
Rule-breaking law enforcers! Wherever have we seen this before? But it sure works Friday, seasoned with devil-may-care brio from a cool cast.
-
I found little to object to in the pilot for Chaos, a mostly male action-adventure hour that is energetic and mildly amusing from time to time.
-
Chaos can be amusing in spots, although it's hard to envision it as a long-distance runner. It might be housing a breakout star, though [in James Murray].
-
As is the case with pilots, the seams tend to show--the bountiful expository dialogue makes no effort to veil its purpose, and the production is a tad too insistent that we find these scamps charming. But they are fairly charming at that, and though the spy stuff is all unconvincing hokum, the company is easy to bear.
-
There's a promising show here, and with time maybe Chaos can figure itself out.
-
It's a not always comfortable mix of action, drama and comedy, and if it's far from the worst new series to hit the airwaves this season, it's also not at the top of the list. It's a little too middle of the road for its own good.
-
Like so many networks shows this season, it asks us to settle for "not bad" when what we want is "good."
-
The show's jarring shift in tone suggests a touch of the film "Syriana," as well, all of which leaves us with a hard-to-digest influence soup. It's as if a novelist were telling you that she wrote while under the spell of both Salinger and Nancy Drew.
-
Filled with familiar faces, from Eric Close to Tim Blake Nelson to Kurtwood Smith, the show aims for breezy fun, but to sell the premise of eccentric spooks tracking terrorists, the humor has to be better than the jabbering wisecracks and frenetic sight gags here.
-
More often, though, the laughs range from tepid to nonexistent.
-
This one pushes the zany aspects too hard, trivializing the missions while neglecting such elements as grit, wit and heart.
-
Maybe it will work. Maybe it will sort itself out in time for viewers to figure out what they like. For now, it feels chaotic.
-
I didn't hate the pilot, though it veers from silly to serious so quickly a girl could get whiplash, but I didn't for a minute buy it as a serious contender for next fall on CBS, either.
-
CBS's new spy spoof, CHAOS, which premieres Friday at 8 p.m., starts out in the hole by knocking the amiable and amusing "The Defenders" off the schedule, and it never crawls out all the way. At least, it's something different, unless you count a show that was on 47 years ago, or a lot of the ones on USA.
-
If you're at all discerning, it's like getting peanut butter on your steak. You'd rather have that separate. And on different nights.
-
FX's spy parody Archer is funnier, and AMC's short-lived Rubicon was a more sharply realized fantasy of work life in a shadow bureaucracy. This is a botched mission. [4 Apr 2011, p.50]
-
The show's acting offers no respite. Scenes unfold very slowly, as characters talk quickly but pause at the end of each speech, often holding a self-satisfied smirk as if listening to an inaudible laugh track.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 11 out of 18
-
Mixed: 6 out of 18
-
Negative: 1 out of 18
-
Jun 22, 2011
-
Apr 22, 2011
-
Apr 9, 2011