In the Motherhood
ABC | Release Date: March 26, 2009
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
36
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
9
Negative:
10
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: Long story short: These girls are golden. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesPaige Wiser
Season 1 Review: It's got snappy writing and superior stars, but treat yourself by looking up the original shows. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: Even though In the Motherhood may have universal appeal, overly familiar premises can lead to lameness, so ABC better hope the rest of the episodes play more like the one on Thursday and less like the one a week later. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterRandee Dawn
Season 1 Review: While the premiere episode holds together well (Emily's son learns there's no Santa and shares that with his fellow kindergarteners, sparking a riot; Jane has a date; Rosemary fakes pregnancy), the follow-up episode--featuring a nanny strike, bad teeth and Jane getting locked out of her house--doesn't hold together. Read full review
50
SlateTroy Patterson
Season 1 Review: The show rises to mediocrity on the strength of the occasional snappiness of the dialogue. Read full review
42
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 1 Review: It's bright! It's energetic! It has that sort of dialogue that zips, zaps and zings! It's even ironic! Yet, at its very core, Motherhood is completely vacant. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker
Season 1 Review: Flat and obvious, Motherhood stars a trio of superior funnywomen--Will & Grace's Megan Mullally, Curb Your Enthusiasm's ?Cheryl Hines, and Jessica St. Clair of Best Week Ever and Worst Week--as moms who pal around and joke about the stresses in their lives. Read full review
40
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: To stand out from the pablum of domestic sitcoms, the series needs to lose the working-mom cliches and be more willing to be mean. Read full review
40
Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart
Season 1 Review: I hate to say it, but if it weren’t for Sanz and Mullally, there would be no reason at all to watch this sitcom. Read full review
40
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: It’s an impressive cast and a perfectly good premise, but for some reason, Thursday’s pilot episode is not very funny. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamara
Season 1 Review: In the Motherhood worked as a Web series based on real-life stories but not, it would seem, as a television series based on overused stereotypes. Read full review
30
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: The ABC sitcom, which runs what seems like an excruciating 21-22 minutes, it's a trio that deserves better. Read full review
30
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: The result is tonally uneven, too-rarely funny and rehashes material that isn't as relatable as it should be to the average parent. Read full review
30
Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker
Season 1 Review: In the Motherhood represents ABC's feeble attempt to transform a successful Web series into a sitcom. The main problem: The three moms are mighty annoying. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily Nussbaum
Season 1 Review: If series like In The Motherhood are designed as Trojan horses for product placement, they won’t have much impact if they’re as weakly written as this Frankensteinian mulch of mommy-war cliches and "Santa is dead" gags. Read full review
25
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: What you get from Motherhood are witless, barely connected vignettes about three unpleasant, unbelievable women. Read full review
25
New York PostLinda Stasi
Season 1 Review: With jokes so bad, they make Carrot Top look funny, it's a tough haul for all--all around. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: It's stunning that ABC's new sitcom In the Motherhood, built on stories of life as Mom, manages to come off as stiff, disjointed and curiously unlikable. Read full review
20
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: The show is so bad, it might be gone anyway, quickly canceled as ABC scrambles to recover from an 0-for-2 comedy start on its new spring schedule. Read full review
10
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: The tedium and unoriginality of this new ABC sitcom, the latest entry in the vastly overworked motherhood-as-martyrdom genre, has to be seen to be believed, though my strong and sincere suggestion is that you just take my word for it. Read full review
0
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: It is really, really atrocious. Not so-bad-it's-good. Just bad. Plain bad. Why am I watching this?-level bad. Read full review
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