Ironside (2013)
NBC | Release Date: October 2, 2013
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
44
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
14
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Washington PostHank StueverSep 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: There's an interesting psychological drama to explore here, if Ironside's writers and its seasoned cast can resist the easy, repetitive lure of cop-show pro-forma. Read full review
70
Zap2it (Inside the Box)Terri SchwartzOct 2, 2013
Season 1 Review: It's Detective Ironside who carries this entire show. No other character is especially memorable in the pilot, with the two characters who stick out the most being Ironside's jerk former partner (Brent Sexton as Gary Stanton) and blonde fellow detective (Spencer Grammer as Holly). Fortunately Underwood lives up to the hype and delivers a flawed, wounded man who is simultaneously a fantastic cop while also being very troubled. Read full review
67
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardOct 2, 2013
Season 1 Review: Underwood’s Ironside rolls over everyone in his life, figuratively and literally.... As flashbacks show, Ironside was shot in the back two years ago while pursuing a suspect. His ex-partner Gary (Brent Sexton) has never recovered emotionally from what happened that night.... Their prickly relationship now is the most daring part of the show. Read full review
63
New York PostMichael StarrOct 3, 2013
Season 1 Review: It’s well-shot, professionally acted and adequately paced--but, at least to me, it’s missing that spark of originality that will keep viewers coming back week after week. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleyOct 1, 2013
Season 1 Review: This Ironside starts out as a good cop show that Underwood could turn into a very good one. Read full review
58
NewsdayVerne GayOct 1, 2013
Season 1 Review: A competent, connect-the-dots procedural that never offers much of a case for why a remake was needed. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydOct 2, 2013
Season 1 Review: Apart from Underwood, who has class-A TV-star appeal, the show is nothing special. No worse than or much different from your average character-driven cop show. Read full review
50
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen GrayOct 2, 2013
Season 1 Review: If Ironside is going for more than cop-show-with-a-gimmick, it needs to go even bigger. Read full review
50
Uncle BarkyEd BarkOct 1, 2013
Season 1 Review: Underwood tries hard throughout and is still a small-screen presence. But that doesn’t save Ironside from being thoroughly overcooked and stuffed with convoluted deductions on how the featured wrongdoing went down. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerDavid HiltbrandOct 1, 2013
Season 1 Review: Despite Underwood's compelling presence and a good-looking cast, this is a rather standard police procedural. Handsome looking, but unremarkable. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandSep 30, 2013
Season 1 Review: Ironside might be a better show if it didn't follow the "rules" of standard police procedurals quite so faithfully. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Matt Zoller SeitzSep 24, 2013
Season 1 Review: The show is partly redeemed by Underwood’s snitty charisma and The Killing co-star Brent Sexton’s affecting work as the hero’s self-loathing former partner, who blames his inaction for Ironside’s condition. Overall, though, this is weak stuff. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubDavid SimsOct 1, 2013
Season 1 Review: If Ironside becomes a serialized fantasy drama exploring the mystery behind the fountain of youth, which Underwood must have discovered, then it will definitely be worth watching. Otherwise, it’s eminently skippable. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyJessica ShawSep 26, 2013
Season 1 Review: Too bad [Blair Underwood's] talent is wasted on this Raymond Burr reboot, which casts him as a wheelchairbound cop who dangles bad guys over buildings and delivers hacky dialogue. [4 Oct 2013, p.60] Read full review
40
Under The RadarLily MoayeriOct 2, 2013
Season 1 Review: Underwood always plays overconfident characters, and Ironside is no exception, but the wheelchair aspect makes it feel like he is trying too hard. None of the other characters are defined enough to balance out anything Underwood is doing. The stories are textbook cop fodder. Read full review
40
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertOct 1, 2013
Season 1 Review: It’s a thoroughly uninspired remake.... The only promise of entertainment comes from Blair Underwood, who brings some slight layering to the role of Detective Robert Ironside. Read full review
40
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenOct 1, 2013
Season 1 Review: The relationship between Ironside and his ex-partner, Gary (Brent Sexton), is somewhat interesting but everything else in Ironside is a well-worn cop show cliché, from Ironside’s tough guy routine to the dialogue. Read full review
40
VarietyBrian LowrySep 27, 2013
Season 1 Review: It’s all so tired and warmed over that the show feels like it’s stuck in a rut almost from the get-go, which doesn’t bode well for it either commercially or creatively. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineMike LechevallierOct 2, 2013
Season 1 Review: Being confined to a wheelchair might someday teach Ironside some humility, diminishing his round-the-clock animosity as the series progresses, but for now all it's apparently done is turn him into even more of a jerk. Read full review
37
USA TodayRobert BiancoOct 1, 2013
Season 1 Review: An atrociously clunky [revival] that keeps only the rough outline--a wounded detective confined to a wheelchair--while jettisoning whatever wit and intelligence the original possessed makes no sense at all. Read full review
30
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushOct 2, 2013
Season 1 Review: [Ironside's] handicap has nothing to do with a wheelchair but with a preposterous attitude that's in your face and laughably over-the-top. When the show isn't being a thuddingly ordinary procedural, it's mawkish, wasting The Killing's Brent Sexton as Ironside's shattered partner--yes, an emotional cripple. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanOct 2, 2013
Season 1 Review: All this Ironside does is talk tough and spout exposition endlessly. Yak, yak, yak. There's more talking and less action in Ironside than there is in The Newsroom. Oh, and when there is action, it's just ridiculous. Read full review
30
PopMattersLesley SmithOct 2, 2013
Season 1 Review: Ironside is an exercise in cynicism, a safety-first raid on the vaults with not a shred of respect for either the its prospective audience. Read full review
30
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerOct 1, 2013
Season 1 Review: Blair Underwood makes the title character an unpleasant combination of macho and brusque. That’s how you get people to go looking for something else to watch.... As independent as this new Ironside is, thanks to the plodding writing here, he is being defined by his disability, the exact opposite of what someone in his condition would want. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesLori RacklOct 1, 2013
Season 1 Review: While it’s better than getting stung by a bee, I’d rather watch fingernails dry. Read full review
20
Miami HeraldGlenn GarvinOct 2, 2013
Season 1 Review: It is a dank and ugly affair, with Underwood playing a dour, Nietzschean superhero who is encumbered neither by his paralyzed legs (rendered useless by a criminal’s bullet) nor petit bourgeois considerations of law and morality. Read full review
20
HollywoodChicago.comBrian TallericoOct 1, 2013
Season 1 Review: It’s just manipulative drama that hopes to make you stand up and cheer by reminding you over and over again how tough its title character remains. Read full review
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