• Network: NBC
  • Series Premiere Date: Sep 15, 1986
Season #: 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Metascore
83

Universal acclaim - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 7
  2. Negative: 0 out of 7

Critic Reviews

  1. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Steve Sonsky
    Apr 29, 2013
    100
    This is L.A. Law, which not only is the best offering of the new television season, but the best pilot for a new show since Hill Street Blues' debut six TV seasons ago. It will, as they say, make you laugh; it will make you cry. It brandishes a superior cast and a wit and style that elevate it immediately into the rarefied Hill Street/St. Elsewhere atmospheres -- shows whose structure of interwoven story lines that dangle from episode to episode it shares. [14 Sept 1986, p.K1]
  2. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Tom Shales
    Apr 29, 2013
    100
    So rousingly well done that it seems to come from a different solar system than most contemporary episodic television shows, and yet too many rapturous panegyrics could spoil some of the fun. The two-hour pilot for the series...is so terribly and industriously entertaining that you hate to see the program lumped in with things that are supposedly "good for you." This isn't a John Chancellor commentary. This is living, breathing matter -- clever, thoughtful, ribald and hard-boiled. [15 Sept 1986, p.B1]
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Howard Rosenberg
    Apr 29, 2013
    100
    It's high-pitched, unforgettable, knockout, electrifying TV...There should be a law requiring more series like NBC's new L.A. Law. [15 Sept 1986, p.C1]
  4. San Diego Union-Tribune
    Reviewed by: Robert P. Laurence
    Apr 29, 2013
    100
    Looks like the best new TV series of the fall season, filled with fascinating people, ingenious turns of plot, strong, offbeat drama, an unmistakable air of realism and some delicious bits of black comedy. [15 Sept 1986, p.C-1]
  5. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Clifford Terry
    Apr 29, 2013
    90
    A sharp, intelligent, splendidly entertaining venture that deftly draws upon a world of callousness and commitment, long hours and short fuses. [15 Sept 1986, p.5]