• Network: NBC , PBS
  • Series Premiere Date: Oct 7, 1991
Season #: 3, 2, 1
Metascore
72

Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 14
  2. Negative: 1 out of 14

Critic Reviews

  1. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: John Engstrom
    Jul 19, 2013
    100
    A stunning, wonderful show. Here is network TV at its best, as it's almost never done. [7 Oct 1991]
  2. Newsday
    Reviewed by: Marvin Kitman
    Jul 12, 2013
    100
    "I'll Fly Away" is a drama of substance, a big subject, a show about real people with great acting, great writing and strong emotion. [7 Oct 1991]
  3. Reviewed by: Ken Tucker
    Jun 9, 2013
    100
    [A] beautifully crafted, tough-minded hour ... I'll Fly Away has already lived up to its hype as the season's strongest new drama.
  4. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Greg Dawson
    Jul 19, 2013
    90
    I'll Fly Away, set in the South in the late '50s, is all about ideas and values, about the clash of human nobility and imperfection. Sometimes - not as often as it could be - it is a drama as compelling as its material and actors. [7 Oct 1991]
  5. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: John J. O'Connor
    Jul 19, 2013
    90
    The year's most substantial new series. [7 Oct 1991]
  6. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Hal Boedeker
    Jul 19, 2013
    80
    In any season, I'll Fly Away would stand out for its sensitive writing and acting. [7 Oct 1991]
  7. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Eric Mink
    Jul 19, 2013
    80
    I think 'I'll Fly Away' richly deserves the 'quality' label. That's not to say it has sprung full grown and perfect from the forehead of its creators. [7 Oct 1991]
  8. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Matt Roush
    Jul 19, 2013
    80
    This is a very special, terribly fragile, series. [7 Oct 1991]
  9. Reviewed by: Richard Zoglin
    Jul 2, 2013
    70
    The echoes of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Member of the Wedding are hard to miss, and the show's two-hour pilot moves as slowly as, well, molasses in January. Yet producers Joshua Brand and John Falsey (St. Elsewhere, Northern Exposure) have created a drama of rich texture, few tricks and much truth.
  10. Reviewed by: David Hiltbrand
    Jun 25, 2013
    67
    It's painful to criticize a show that has intelligence and depth, but there's no getting around the fact that overarching earnestness and a subtle but troubling air of fatalism combine to make this a dolorous hour.