Manhattan
WGN America | Release Date: July 27, 2014
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Lincoln Journal StarJeff KorbelikAug 11, 2014
Season 1 Review: This is the best new show of the summer. Read full review
100
St. Louis Post-DispatchGail PenningtonJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Manhattan is in other class entirely, the kind of series that is so good, it lifts a network into a whole new tier. What “Mad Men” did for AMC, Manhattan could do for WGN. Read full review
91
HitfixAlan SepinwallOct 13, 2015
Season 2 Review: This is a very smart show about incredibly smart people, and it's only gotten better as it's gone along. Read full review
91
Uncle BarkyEd BarkJul 29, 2014
Season 1 Review: John Benjamin Hickey’s point man performance leads the way, with his character’s demons and dilemmas already etched like fissures in his face. Carrying the weight of the world can be heavy lifting. Manhattan so far shows every sign of being able to shoulder the load. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyJeff JensenJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: A megawatt start to a show crackling with megaton ambition. Read full review
90
Vox.comEmily VanDerWerffOct 13, 2015
Season 2 Review: The series is stronger and more fully realized through four episodes of season two than it was at a comparable point in season one. Read full review
90
The Daily BeastKevin FallonJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: In a summer that’s offered new programs that pretty much all sit on the spectrum from “silly, but still curious” (Extant, The Strain) on one end to “just plain silly” (Dating Naked) on the other, Manhattan is the most grown up, worth-watching new series we have. Read full review
90
Denver PostJoanne OstrowJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: A beautifully executed 1940s period drama about the men and women involved in the top-secret Manhattan Project is at once transporting and provocative. Read full review
88
RedEyeCurt WagnerJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: History tells us what the Manhattan Project unleashed on the world, but Manhattan conjures a compelling (fictional) journey for the men and women who made it happen. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubSonia SaraiyaJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Ultimately it’s that frisson of complication that makes Manhattan worth watching--the performances are good, the writing is good, and the premise is good, but the complication of our own history is involving and fantastic. Read full review
80
Yahoo TVKen TuckerOct 13, 2015
Season 2 Review: In a TV world with so many choices, Manhattan is at least worth seeking out, to see if its kind of tense smartness appeals to you. Read full review
80
The New York TimesJames PoniewozikOct 12, 2015
Season 2 Review: Manhattan has a feel both for the rush of scientific discovery and for the often-difficult personalities drawn to it. In this war story, the most fascinating battles are among allies. Read full review
80
Denver PostJoanne OstrowOct 12, 2015
Season 2 Review: Season 2 of Manhattan gets off to a slow start and may require catch-up work. But the high-minded story about the creators of the atom bomb soon picks up the pace. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDaniel FienbergOct 9, 2015
Season 2 Review: Manhattan returns to WGN America on Tuesday (October 13) for its second season and it hasn't made one of those leaps that might cause critics to yell into the void that this is a classic drama that viewers are missing out on, but it still features a superb and growing ensemble cast, a textured commitment to period detail, the smooth execution of some of TV's best directors and the looming potential of atomic detonation to give it all some dramatic juice. Read full review
80
VarietyMaureen RyanOct 9, 2015
Season 2 Review: In the first four episodes of Manhattan’s second season, the atomic-age drama contains quite a bit of fruitful conflict and meaty character development, all of which amp up the show’s energy level and move it into much more compelling territory. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalDorothy RabinowitzJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Just two episodes of this 13-part series have been made available—enough to indicate the enormous care devoted to the look of the '40s, to the primitive living quarters. We get an immediate sense, as well, of the characters likely to command attention. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Created and written by Sam Shaw (Masters of Sex), and directed superbly by veteran Thomas Schlamme (The West Wing), Manhattan kicks off with two gripping episodes that highlight a strong cast. Read full review
80
The New York TimesAlessandra StanleyJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Manh(a)ttan provides a cleverly imagined portrait of the men and women who were at the epicenter of that peculiar sovereignty. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: WGN America's bold new period drama Manhattan goes even further [than AMC's Mad Men], eschewing the romantic veneer altogether in a gritty story of scientific mavericks operating in extreme circumstances. Read full review
80
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: The first hour is a little slow, somewhat pacey at times--it clocks in at 56 minutes, not the usual 42 minutes, and will run one hour and 10 minutes with commercials--but it does a fine job of setting up the story and introducing the characters. Read full review
80
Kansas City StarSara SmithJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Every time the 1943 of Manhattan begins to feel like 2014, it returns to the nostalgia of movies like “The Right Stuff,” where brains and grit make the peace, back to a time when America trusted its fate to the smartest guys we could find. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleyJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Manhattan dramatizes with a little extra dab of soap, but generally quite engagingly life in the secret World War II compound where the country's most brilliant scientists were tasked with creating a superbomb before the bad guy could. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyJeff JensenOct 12, 2015
Season 2 Review: CSI'S William Petersen is the new military honcho. He's crisp, commanding, a bit bland, but effective--just like the premiere. [16 Oct 2015]
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Manhattan brings legitimate class to WGN's nascent original content project. Read full review
75
HitfixAlan SepinwallJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Overall, Manhattan makes its intentions fairly plain, including its desire to evoke other historical dramas about brilliant but prickly men. Read full review
70
SlateWilla PaskinJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: As a thriller, Manhattan mostly works. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: The script can seem both a little precious and a little obvious at times, dropping references to Pandora's box, the golem, Einstein's definition of insanity and Schrödinger's cat. But all in all, it works. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Margaret LyonsJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: hat's tough on Manhattan is that things really are substantial, which means the show can find itself at a moment of dramatic excess very quickly.... And yet that's what Manhattan is going for, and it often succeeds, particularly in the second episode, as the emotional, personal side of things starts taking hold. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian LowryJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Manhattan certainly isn’t a bomb creatively speaking, nor is it yet the bomb, in latter-day vernacular. And perhaps appropriately, as admirable as some of its elements are, what’s missing in the opening hours is the elusive spark necessary to make them genuinely pop. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniOct 13, 2015
Season 2 Review: [A] well-executed, edge-of-your-seat drama.... It reduces a unique story to a typical genre entry.... [Shaw's] characters are ruinous, emotionally stunted creatures. Read full review
50
Washington PostHank StueverJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: From the writing to the performances to some overly artistic visuals and camera cuts, the first episode could not be more crammed with self-seriousness if it tried.... Some strong performances peek through anyhow, especially from Manhattan’s star, John Benjamin Hickey. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerDavid HiltbrandJul 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Manhattan is awfully overwrought, stocked with personalities as volatile as the radioactive isotopes they're trying to tame. Its melodramatic tone makes it resemble Lifetime's Army Wives more than it does A Beautiful Mind. Read full review
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