Man With a Plan
CBS | Release Date: October 24, 2016
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
36
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
11
Negative:
12

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
0
Washington PostHank StueverOct 31, 2016
Season 1 Review: Imagine that this particleboard sitcom is in fact part of a lost season of Showtime’s “Episodes,” in which “Matt LeBlanc” (played by LeBlanc, in a nicely meta turn) winds up landing yet another sitcom that exists mainly to employ actors, writers and producers--and thus consciously squanders all the critical goodwill he gained by playing a version of himself on an ironic premium cable comedy. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineKatie DysonOct 28, 2016
Season 1 Review: Man with a Plan is unable to render its primary characters’ internal frustrations or anxieties as anything other than an engine for tired sitcom plots. Read full review
25
IndieWireBen TraversOct 25, 2016
Season 1 Review: Not only is the series uncomfortably dated and anti-equality, but it’s also criminally unfunny. The canned laughter is almost entirely unearned and usually revolves around predictable wordplay instead of, you know, jokes. Read full review
45
Under The RadarZach HollwedelOct 24, 2016
Season 1 Review: A show that offers few laughs and just as much entertainment. Read full review
30
The WrapAmber DowlingOct 24, 2016
Season 1 Review: Chemistry wasn’t the problem with either version of the pilot. Indeed both actresses are fine in the role, as is LeBlanc; it’s the show itself that could use some work. Read full review
30
CNNBrian LowryOct 24, 2016
Season 1 Review: Less charitably, it's as if CBS has been sucked into a time warp -- delivering the fourth best sitcom of the 1989 season. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Jen ChaneyOct 24, 2016
Season 1 Review: It is by no means a great sitcom out of the gate, and it’s about 8 billion light-years away from anything that could be described as cable-y. But there are worse ways to spend a half-hour. Read full review
40
The New York TimesJames PoniewozikOct 24, 2016
Season 1 Review: After the pilot, Man With a Plan dials back the concept. All that leaves, though, is a standard extended-family sitcom. The characters are too generic to make that work. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandOct 24, 2016
Season 1 Review: It’s a very traditional and very safe sitcom. Read full review
40
Yahoo TVKen TuckerOct 24, 2016
Season 1 Review: The show is well-staged; it’s just that there’s not much of a show. Read full review
37
USA TodayRobert BiancoOct 24, 2016
Season 1 Review: There is something wrong with the most popular and prosperous broadcast network churning out work that is this witless and lifeless. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydOct 24, 2016
Season 1 Review: Neither [Man With a Plan or The Great Indoors] is groundbreaking or particularly exciting; both are quite likable and solidly constructed. Read full review
30
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenOct 24, 2016
Season 1 Review: Uninspired, obvious and just not that humorous, there’s little reason to make a plan to watch CBS’s latest in a string of disappointing new sitcoms. Read full review
42
The Detroit NewsTom LongOct 24, 2016
Season 1 Review: Man with a Plan just makes you wish he’d take his sincere befuddlement elsewhere, someplace that mattered. Simply put, Matt LeBlanc is too good to be this irrelevant. Read full review
0
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardOct 24, 2016
Season 1 Review: This is one of the least authentic family sitcoms on TV, right down to the horrible home set, which looks like it was cribbed from the scraps of canceled shows. Read full review
40
Reason.comGlenn GarvinOct 22, 2016
Season 1 Review: LeBlanc is a talented comedian—his Episodes, which will wind up a five-season run on Showtime early next year, is the most scabrously funny Hollywood self-examination ever—but there's no way he could have saved this generic, mailed-in show, in which the tepidity of the jokes is exceeded only by the depth to which they're driven into the ground. Read full review
30
We Got This CoveredJon NegroniOct 21, 2016
Season 1 Review: Man with a Plan is not a good show, even by low sitcom standards, and far away from the effective multi-cam format CBS has become used to employing in its massive hit lineup. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubErik AdamsOct 21, 2016
Season 1 Review: The show places a tremendous amount of faith in LeBlanc, but in spite of the occasional flash of Joey Tribbiani panache, he’s always outshone by Snyder, Nealon, or the analogy-loving dialogue of husband-and-wife creators Jeff and Jackie Filgo. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterDaniel FienbergOct 20, 2016
Season 1 Review: LeBlanc is on Joey autopilot here, sometimes landing a punchline with his well-honed comic timing, but more frequently unable to commit to exactly how dumb Adam is supposed to be, an obliviousness that varies by scene. Read full review
42
NewsdayVerne GayOct 20, 2016
Season 1 Review: A wan, weary network-sitcom-by-committee--oh, and Matt LeBlanc, too. Read full review
16
TVLineDave NemetzOct 20, 2016
Season 1 Review: The whole enterprise just feels very phoned-in. LeBlanc appears mostly disinterested during his scenes, and the script doesn’t bother to give Adam any character traits beyond “a slightly less dumb version of Joey.” Read full review
67
Uncle BarkyOct 20, 2016
Season 1 Review: It’s a shopworn premise to be sure, but the delivery system overcomes much of that. LeBlanc fine-tunes his doofus Joey persona and smoothly rolls with it at home, at school and in the workplace he shares with older brother Don (a serviceable Kevin Nealon). Read full review
40
VarietySonia SaraiyaOct 11, 2016
Season 1 Review: As far as comfortable, mediocre family sitcoms go, Man with a Plan appears to be finding a nice groove, establishing a patter between easy stereotypes and incrementally encouraging Adam to grow. Read full review
20
ColliderAllison KeeneOct 11, 2016
Season 1 Review: There are opportunities here for something more interesting than what develops, which is laced with needlessly crass jokes (and no real humor), but Man with a Plan clearly has no plans to explore that. Read full review
42
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertSep 16, 2016
Season 1 Review: The writers deliver a stale idea. Read full review
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