Cop Rock

:

Season 1
  • Network: ABC
  • Series Premiere Date: Sep 26, 1990
Metascore
61

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 15
  3. Negative: 2 out of 15

Critic Reviews

  1. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: John Haslett Cuff
    May 16, 2016
    60
    This is as slick as prime-time gets, a clever amalgam of TV drama and Broadway musical. ... Still, it seems a shame that so much writing, acting and musical talent is being devoted to such tired and simplistic polemics. [26 Sep 1990]
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  2. San Diego Union-Tribune
    Reviewed by: Robert P. Laurence
    May 16, 2016
    60
    Certain scenes are powerful, even exhilarating. Others don't work at all. [23 Sep 1990]
    All this critic's reviews
  3. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Hal Boedeker
    May 16, 2016
    50
    Cop Rock is neither a realistic police drama nor a convincing musical. It's an experiment that's rarely arresting. [26 Sep 1990, p.D1]
    All this critic's reviews
  5. People Weekly
    Reviewed by: David Hiltbrand
    May 16, 2016
    50
    If the musical element seems this strained in the pilot, when the vastly talented Randy Newman is the composer of all of the songs, one dreads to think how bad it will be after the show has settled in for a few weeks and is struggling for viable melodies.
  6. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ken Tucker
    Jun 7, 2013
    50
    The songs in the pilot weren't top-notch [Randy] Newman — if you heard them on one of his albums, you'd think he had lost his touch. And if a songwriter as gifted as Newman can't redeem Bochco's concept, how will any of the other, probably lesser, talents that Bochco will employ on future episodes fare any better? It's too bad, because without the music, Cop Rock is a solid cop show.