Dads
FOX | Release Date: September 17, 2013
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
15
METASCORE
Overwhelming dislike based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
2
Negative:
26
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
58
NewsdayVerne GaySep 16, 2013
Season 1 Review: Yes, offensive, but the second episode loses that element, which suggests Fox got the message. Not surprisingly, it's the better of the two. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleySep 17, 2013
Season 1 Review: While there’s the potential for a nice, relatable human situation here, almost all the dialogue feels like setups for punch lines. Too often this leaves the actors, even skilled veterans Riegert and Mull, stranded. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydSep 17, 2013
Season 1 Review: Some jokes are just tired and bad. Read full review
30
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen GraySep 17, 2013
Season 1 Review: Dads just isn't very funny. A cast this good--Martin Mull and Peter Riegert are loser fathers to business partners played by Giovanni Ribisi and Philly's Seth Green--deserves more than the raucous studio laughter that warmed-over bigotry generates. And, honestly, there are glimpses at times of a better show. Read full review
30
The New York TimesAlessandra StanleySep 16, 2013
Season 1 Review: There are some funny lines, but not nearly enough. Material that is meant to be anarchic mostly comes across as obvious and boorish. Read full review
25
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardSep 17, 2013
Season 1 Review: Everyone associated with this show--with the exception of MacFarlane--deserves better. Read full review
25
USA TodayRobert BiancoSep 16, 2013
Season 1 Review: If the two whiny sons and their equally unlikable fathers aren't enough to push you away, the boorish childishness of the show's obvious efforts to offend should do the trick. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandSep 15, 2013
Season 1 Review: Even with such dreadful scripts and the phony noise of canned laughter, the four reasons to kind of watch maybe a little of Dads are the core actors. You don't have to watch more than a couple of minutes to know they deserve much, much better, and so do we. Read full review
25
People WeeklyTom GliattoSep 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: The pilot has come under fire for racist jokes, but at Cheap Laffs there's not enough of a creative sensibility for that to matter. [23 Sep 2013]
20
HollywoodChicago.comBrian TallericoSep 26, 2013
Season 1 Review: The writing on Dads is so straight-up horrendous that one wouldn’t be surprised to see it in the middle of a “Family Guy” episode as an attempt by MacFarlane to satirize bad sitcom writing. Read full review
20
Under The RadarLily MoayeriSep 26, 2013
Season 1 Review: With such a superior comedy cast, it's deplorable how far this badly written and directed show has dragged them down. Read full review
20
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertSep 17, 2013
Season 1 Review: The show isn’t exactly “reprehensible,” but it is definitely “tired,” “forced,” “predictable,” “lazy”--choose your own critical adjective that means “bad.” Read full review
20
VarietyBrian LowrySep 10, 2013
Season 1 Review: The truth is, Dads merits condemnation less for such outrages [low-brow and racially questionable gags] than because the tone is so broad and slapdash. Read full review
16
Uncle BarkyEd BarkSep 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: Dads is just a senseless pounding of sensibilities, a beat-down without any saving graces. Read full review
16
Entertainment WeeklyMelissa MaerzSep 11, 2013
Season 1 Review: Friends Warner (Giovanni Ribisi) and Eli (Seth Green) have clueless dads (Martin Mull and Peter Riegert) who might be racist, or maybe it's just the show. [20/27 Sep 2013, p.141] Read full review
12
Slant MagazineMike LechevallierSep 16, 2013
Season 1 Review: It's the sitcom equivalent of "Pull my finger": crude, outdated, and immodestly proposed. Read full review
10
Zap2it (Inside the Box)Rick PorterSep 17, 2013
Season 1 Review: It's the kind of sitcom writing that gives sitcoms a bad name. Read full review
0
The Huffington PostMaureen RyanSep 19, 2013
Season 1 Review: Creatively speaking, Dads comes off as if it were a much-resented homework assignment for all involved. Read full review
0
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanSep 17, 2013
Season 1 Review: Talking any more about Dads is more wearying than actually watching it. Which was torture. Read full review
0
New York Magazine (Vulture)Matt Zoller SeitzSep 17, 2013
Season 1 Review: Just don't watch it. For real. Read full review
0
Miami HeraldGlenn GarvinSep 17, 2013
Season 1 Review: A crass generation-gap sitcom with the wit if not the intelligence of an elementary-school flatulence contest. Read full review
0
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenSep 17, 2013
Season 1 Review: Dads insults all viewers with its lowest common denominator humor. The sitcom, created by Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, offers a greatest hits list of time-worn, tired gags. Read full review
0
TimeJames PoniewozikSep 17, 2013
Season 1 Review: Dads is the new season at its worst: dated, cheaply provocative, and laboriously unfunny. Read full review
0
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushSep 17, 2013
Season 1 Review: Dads would love to be as offensive as its promos promise (tweaking critics who took an early stand against it), but what's most off-putting about the show is how lazy and stale it all is. Read full review
0
St. Louis Post-DispatchGail PenningtonSep 17, 2013
Season 1 Review: Dads is so unfunny that we have plenty of time to contemplate how distasteful the show really is. Read full review
0
SlateWilla PaskinSep 16, 2013
Season 1 Review: Dads is the worst new comedy in quite some time. Read full review
0
The A.V. ClubEmily VanDerWerffSep 15, 2013
Season 1 Review: At all times, Dads feels assembled by people who have sniveling contempt for their audience, figuring that this is just the stupid bullshit people who watch network TV might want. They may be proved right by that, but the American public rarely embraces shows as transparently awful as Dads. Read full review
0
Washington PostHank StueverSep 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: What’s galling is the utter absence of originality, spirit or even new jokes. ... The poor actors look like they’re serving mandatory sentences for the creators’ crimes of laziness. Read full review
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