In Case of Emergency
ABC | Release Date: January 5, 2007
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
27
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
5
Negative:
18

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: You get the feeling that if this show is given enough time to find its strengths and understand its characters, it could be around for quite some time. Read full review
50
People WeeklyTom Gliatto
Season 1 Review: It's a good cast, and Arquette's peculiar charm is always welcome. But I'm tired of comedies about the desperate infantilism of panicked adults. [8 Jan 2007, p.35]
50
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: "In Case of Emergency" is uneven, more antic than witty. Read full review
50
Detroit Free PressMike Duffy
Season 1 Review: A haphazard farce that fails to find a consistently funny groove. Read full review
40
Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker
Season 1 Review: In Case of Emergency puts these characters through sadistic slapstick. Read full review
37
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: It's kind of like Friends if every character had been outlandishly contrived, every situation had been stripped of every humorous moment, and every attempt at sentiment had felt cheap and unearned. Read full review
30
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 1 Review: Its writers are clearly addicted to the tired conceit of giving us three jokes per script page, no matter how played-out the jokes, no matter how predictable the pratfalls. Read full review
30
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: Where The Class is warm and charming, Emergency is crude and overdrawn. Read full review
30
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: Lori Loughlin co-stars as an emergency room doctor who's dragged into their lives in ways so sitcommy they make robbing Mick Jagger look like a halfway decent idea. Read full review
30
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: Germann [is] the only good thing in the show. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: It becomes clear rather quickly that there's nothing funny going on here and, by the second episode, the show seems out of ideas for its paper-thin premise. Read full review
20
Los Angeles TimesPaul Brownfield
Season 1 Review: [It] instantly displays a commitment to slapstick in direct proportion to a state of comedic denial. Read full review
20
Newark Star-Ledger
Season 1 Review: There's a desperation to the whole affair, a sense that if the creators just keep the pace fast and the jokes tasteless, everything will be fine. Read full review
20
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 1 Review: "Emergency" is sodden, forbidding, a waste of 22 good minutes. Read full review
20
Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland
Season 1 Review: "The Class," not a terrific sitcom by any stretch of the imagination, trades in this quarterlife crisis nonsense each week far better than "Emergency" does. Read full review
20
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: Somewhere trapped inside this shrill, irritating comedy is a better show that emerges only in fleeting glimpses, amid the manic tone and Catskills-comic humor. Read full review
20
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: A peculiar piece of work that's a whole lot creepier than it means to be. Read full review
20
Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart
Season 1 Review: It’s not well-cast.... It’s not well-written. Read full review
20
SalonHeather Havrilesky
Season 1 Review: There doesn't seem to be a point to the madness here, and that gives this one the expected life span (and the charms) of a housefly. Read full review
10
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: Never thought a TV comedy would leave me wistful for Silverman's NBC bomb "The Single Guy," but "In Case of Emergency" manages to do just that. Read full review
10
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 1 Review: [A] shapeless, pointlessly annoying comedy. Read full review
10
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: Dreadful... unwatchable... There's nothing unlikable about the rest of the cast [other than Arquette], but their attempts at farce make you just want to get away from them. Read full review
0
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesCharlie McCollum
Season 1 Review: [It] may be the worst, most annoying comedy to turn up on the networks this season. Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 92 The Pitt: Season 2
2 90 The Celebrity Traitors UK: Season 1
3 88 Rivals
4 87 Hacks: Season 5
5 87 Industry: Season 4
6 87 Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal:...
7 85 The Beatles Anthology
8 85 The Traitors [UK]: Season 4
9 85 Bait: Season 1
10 84 Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!
11 83 Lord of the Flies
12 83 Riot Women: Season 1
13 83 For All Mankind: Season 5
14 81 The Muppet Show (2026)
15 80 Outlander (2014): Season 8
16 80 The Other Bennet Sister: Season 1
17 80 The Mighty Nein: Season 1
18 80 The Comeback: Season 3
19 80 One Piece (2023): Season 2
20 80 Dark Winds: Season 4
SEE ALL