• Network: ABC
  • Series Premiere Date: Sep 20, 1996
Season #: 3, 2, 1
Metascore
53

Mixed or average reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 18
  2. Negative: 4 out of 18

Critic Reviews

  1. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Hal Boedeker
    May 20, 2014
    60
    Fans of the movie should beware. Tonight's opener feels like a vague replay of the film. [20 Sept 1996, p.E1]
  2. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
    Reviewed by: Robert Bianco
    May 20, 2014
    60
    The painfully blank Blanchard may look like Silverstone, but she has none of her flair or personality. It's like watching a copy of a copy of a copy. All she does is make you appreciate how good Silverstone was in the original. [20 Sept 1996, p.28]
  3. Reviewed by: Jeremy Gerard
    May 20, 2014
    60
    The kids are allowed to be smart, one consequence of which is that the show features the most literate p.c. kids, black and white, on TV; their references are as likely to be to John Keats as to Jim Carrey (often in the same sentence).
  4. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Matt Roush
    May 20, 2014
    50
    It's slight, but sweet. Maybe that's all that's necessary. [20 Sept 1996, p.3D]
  5. Detroit Free Press
    Reviewed by: Mike Duffy
    May 20, 2014
    50
    It's unfortunate that while Clueless looks fabulous, much of the fizzy comic energy of the film's bright teenybopper satire has been lost. [20 Sept 1996, p.9D]
  6. Reviewed by: David Bianculli
    May 20, 2014
    50
    Anyone who thinks Silverstone's charm wasn't the major factor in the movie has only to watch the TV version. With Blanchard at the center, Clueless doesn't have the same flair and in this appearance-is-everything Beverly Hills comedy, flair is everything.
  7. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Lon Grahnke
    May 20, 2014
    50
    Blanchard was witless and charmless in the original -- and so far unaired -- pilot program. But her performance as pampered Cher has improved in "As If a Girl's Reach Should Exceed Her Grasp,' tonight's debut episode. [20 Sept 1996, p.39]
  8. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    May 20, 2014
    50
    Cute, but frothy, and not nearly as charming as it thinks it is (or as the movie was). Rachel Blanchard tries as Cher, but she's no Alicia Silverstone...This one could grow on you, but I doubt it. [20 Sept 1996, p.8E]
  9. Dallas Morning News
    Reviewed by: Manuel Mendoza
    May 20, 2014
    40
    The insights, the connections to Jane Austen's Emma are lost in this watered-down version. As if! [19 Sept 1996, p.1C]