Free Ride
FOX | Release Date: March 1, 2006
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
14
Negative:
8

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
NewsdayDiane Werts
Season 1 Review: The best thing about "Free Ride" is the lack of pressure to be about something. Trusting its talented cast to embody their own truths, it ambles and weaves, leaving space for the characters, even folks briefly bumped into, to nail a specific attitude or situation. Read full review
70
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: The results are often wickedly amusing. Read full review
70
Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart
Season 1 Review: A goofy and likable new comedy. Read full review
70
TimeJames Poniewozik
Season 1 Review: Good-hearted, eccentric and wry, Ride goes nowhere fast, but it has a fine time getting there. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: There's a breezy charm to the show. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesPaul Brownfield
Season 1 Review: "Free Ride" is a bit more than passably good, but like "Arrested [Development]" it feels hard to love. Read full review
50
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: More of an amusing diversion than a laugh riot. Read full review
50
People WeeklyTom Gliatto
Season 1 Review: The show... is partly improvised, a stunt used to richer effect on ABC's upcoming Sons & Daughters. [6 Mar 2006, p.41]
50
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: It's made of familiar slacker material that's slightly freshened with an improvisatory feel as the actors um-and-ah their way to their punch lines. And it's blissfully missing the canned laughs that make the likes of ''That '70s Show" so obnoxious. Still, ''Free Ride" is far from essential TV viewing. Read full review
50
Detroit Free PressMike Duffy
Season 1 Review: [It has] just enough funny, semi-improvised moments to make you wish it was better. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: When the show clicks, as it does in several scenes, the improvised performances have a more natural look and feel than typical sitcom scripts. Elsewhere, the comedy feels forced and staged. Read full review
50
New York PostAdam Buckman
Season 1 Review: Portions of "Free Ride" show promise, due mainly to the show's star -- Dean -- whose character remains grounded and sane, against all odds. Read full review
50
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: Mr. Dean is appealing as Nate and Mr. Sheridan is amusing as Dove, but the tone of the series is uneven. Read full review
50
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: What you get from this sometimes outlandish family comedy is a sweet Ride, but one that is neither funny nor believable enough to command your loyalty. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyAlynda Wheat
Season 1 Review: Free Ride can't milk any fresh laughs from this fish-back-in-water tale. [3 Mar 2006, p.96]
50
Village VoiceJoy Press
Season 1 Review: Everything about Free Ride is slightly exaggerated and artificial, including the odd facial expressions. Read full review
40
SalonHeather Havrilesky
Season 1 Review: It's not that bad, which leads me to believe that it could actually be good, if it weren't so neutered and lovable. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 1 Review: A fresh approach can take you only so far when the material is this tired.
38
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: This "Free Ride," I suspect, will be over very soon. Read full review
30
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesCharlie McCollum
Season 1 Review: "Free Ride" is crude, mean-spirited, and not nearly as fresh and innovative as the producers think it is. Read full review
30
Chicago TribuneSid Smith
Season 1 Review: Harmless and intermittently amusing, winning points by letting its actors indulge in improvisation, "Free Ride" is nevertheless about as unpromising as its lead character's aimless career goals. Read full review
30
Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland
Season 1 Review: "Free Ride," though improvised, feels like every other Fox comedy that has come and gone: It has generic young stars stuck in a stale boy-pines-for-girl story line. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesDoug Elfman
Season 1 Review: Tonight's premiere episode doesn't have a single laugh in it. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: This is a series that shimmers with potential -- until Dove shows up. Someone at the network must have thought "Free Ride" was too irreverently weird and creatively nuanced, so they made Dove as annoyingly cartoonish as possible. Read full review
10
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: This kind of comedy only stands a dim ghost of a chance if it has a lot of gratuitous nudity and substance abuse, along with the words ''National Lampoon'' in the title. Read full review
10
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: Everything's so shrill and flat, it's hard to tell when the writing stops and the improvisation begins. Read full review
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