Eleventh Hour
CBS | Release Date: October 9, 2008
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
9
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: Sewell radiates the kind of fascination you can't buy off the rack at the TV drama store, and that alone gives Eleventh Hour a strong start. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 1 Review: A bit generic, despite the creepy particulars of this series’ science-based mysteries--think a more mainstream "Fringe." Read full review
70
Washington PostDebra Leithauser
Season 1 Review: Jerry Bruckheimer of "CSI" fame is behind this series, and it shows. The production is slick; the storylines are paced and told well; and the talent is top-notch. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd
Season 1 Review: While supercool science may be the hook, the real draw of Eleventh Hour is Sewell. Read full review
70
Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart
Season 1 Review: The show is entertaining enough, but the American Hood, played by Rufus Sewell, won't remind anyone of Patrick Stewart. Read full review
70
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: The plot of tonight's pilot, which involves cloning, hews closely to the original's first, dark episode. A second, included for review, seems more like a CBS show, a murder mystery I'd like to think any of the network's three "CSIs" could've knocked off as easily. Read full review
70
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: Both ABC's "Life on Mars" and CBS's Eleventh Hour have the comfortable feel of many shows that have come before them and lasted a long, long time. Read full review
67
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 1 Review: Tonight's premiere may seem like ridiculous twaddle, and it may feel like a major downer (and kinda sloooow), too, but maybe that's just Bruckheimer playing with our heads. In fact, Hour deserves a second look (next week is definitely better). Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesMisha Davenport
Season 1 Review: Hood comes across as brilliant but aloof. Young, meanwhile, seems to be angry, but the source of her anger isn't really explored (we can only assume that babysitting a scientist, no matter how brilliant, is not the job people sign up for when they go to work for the FBI). Read full review
63
New York PostLinda Stasi
Season 1 Review: Taken from a British series (although there is enough cribbing off American shows to make it seem all too familiar), this less-than-compelling knock-off follows Hood, who like House makes house calls--or in this case, crime calls. Read full review
63
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: As it is, Hour arrives as yet another import procedural on a schedule that is already awash in both. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 1 Review: Eleventh Hour does what it sets out to do: It puts a talented actor (Rufus Sewell) through his crime-solving paces on rain-slicked streets, in dark warehouses and in spooky labs that look almost identical to the rain-slicked streets, dark warehouses and spooky labs on almost every other CBS drama. Read full review
60
Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker
Season 1 Review: Dynamic Sewell plays brilliance with offbeat flair. The second episode, about 11-year-olds dying of heart attacks, is chilling. [But] the premiere is far-fetched yet predictable. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: Not nearly as ambitious as "Life on Mars" but entertaining nonetheless. Read full review
50
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: Hour fits comfortably, if unimaginatively, among CBS's other crime procedurals, but with only two regular cast members, it seems like it will have less character development than any of the "CSI" series. Read full review
50
PopMattersCynthia Fuchs
Season 1 Review: Hood’s methods are unconventional, Eleventh Hour insists, but still, he’s strangely bland. Read full review
50
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: Pizazz is what’s missing from CBS’s new drama, Eleventh Hour, in which Rufus Sewell plays Dr. Jacob Hood. Read full review
50
SlateTroy Patterson
Season 1 Review: Eleventh Hour is ambitiously shameless in patterning its counterintuitive crank of an ill-socialized hero on the Hugh Laurie character. We sent it down after nine minutes as yet another generic detective drama. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyGillian Flynn
Season 1 Review: It's a procedural procedural. Read full review
40
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: Unlike "Life on Mars," the concept seems elastic enough that the show could run for a long time, but first its American producers would need to work on storytelling basics like pacing and developing interesting characters. Read full review
40
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: A little old-fashioned police brutality may seem downright appealing compared to the pseudointellectual runamok of CBS' cop drama Eleventh Hour, in which British actor Rufus Sewell plays a scientist who has regrettably turned his genius to fighting crime Read full review
30
TimeJames Poniewozik
Season 1 Review: Simultaneously gross and sanctimonious, this histrionic science procedural is mainly a warning against the cloning of TV concepts. Read full review
30
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: Unfortunately, there's not a test tube's worth of difference between this and CBS' other new drama, "The Mentalist" (that one features an advisor to the California Bureau of Investigation)--or the Eye net's procedural dramas in general. Read full review
30
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: This new CBS series is just too silly, as it tries to mix up science and crime-solving like a sloppy kid with a chemistry set. Read full review
30
SalonHeather Havrilesky
Season 1 Review: I’d like to say that this crappy show is sure to bomb, but my faith in the intelligence of the American people is hanging in the balance right now, and since there seems to be enough dumbassery afoot to cheer on almost any half-witted scheme, I don’t want to make any assumptions. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)John Leonard
Season 1 Review: I’m tempted to suggest that Eleventh Hour will only be worth watching if it acquires a sorely needed sense of humor, but maybe I’m missing some laughter in the dark. Read full review
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