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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
9
Mixed:
17
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews
IndieWireSep 26, 2018
Season 1 Review:
It’s all anchored by these well-defined characters played by true veterans of the genre, who bring an ease to their scenes while also maintaining the original show’s energy. ... Easily the best aspect of Murphy Brown is how it acknowledges the meta elements of its existence without sacrificing the quality of its comedy or breaking the fourth wall.
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Sep 28, 2018
Season 1 Review:
Ford and Regalbuto aren’t given enough new things to do and Charles Kimbrough (who played Jim Dial) checks in long enough to let you know he’s still around. The mother/son angle is the show’s best. ... But it’s English’s smart writing that will keep them [viewers] around.
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Sep 26, 2018
Sep 25, 2018
Season 1 Review:
The ensemble has held together nicely in the two decades since. ... When it comes time to take aim at today’s political landscape, Murphy Brown misses its target. ... The revival’s strongest asset, actually, is Murphy’s relationship with her now-adult son Avery (Jake McDorman).
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Sep 27, 2018
Sep 25, 2018
Season 1 Review:
This new “Murphy Brown” is it at its best when the show is most topical, when Murphy is at her most outspoken as Ms. Bergen still delivers a zinger-filled rant flawlessly. ... There’s an obvious fire-in-the-belly for these scenes, but they’re surrounded by a lot of dated sitcom cliches.
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ColliderSep 27, 2018
Season 1 Review:
The new iteration gets off to an uneven start. There are some bright spots, like original cast members Bergen, Faith Ford (Corky), Joe Regalbuto (Frank) and Grant Shaud (Miles) slipping effortlessly back into their roles. And Jake McDorman is an excellent choice to play Murphy’s now-28-year-old son Avery. ... But what doesn’t work as well, at least in the first two episodes, is how topical the show is trying to be.
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Sep 27, 2018
Season 1 Review:
English and company's writing is fairly sharp and Bergen's barbed tongue is still impeccable. Some people are going to come away from these episodes wondering why Murphy Brown has become so political and those people are strange and never watched the original show. A more legitimate complaint, though, is that even with a production window reportedly tightened to allow the show to be more timely, Murphy Brown can't begin to keep up with the genuine news cycle and the best the show can do is be specific, which isn't the same as being current.
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Sep 26, 2018
Season 1 Review:
Technically, English and her writing staff have done everything they can to preserve the style of the “Murphy Brown” of yore. As such, these new episodes aren’t terrible, or even middling. But they’re not outstanding, either. ... The good news is, thanks to Bergen, that Murphy is still there even though the world around her has transformed. Bergen’s scenes with McDorman coax forth the character’s best qualities, lending a fresh chemistry to a show too heavily reliant on the nostalgia for the old Murphy Brown.
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Sep 27, 2018
Sep 26, 2018
Season 1 Review:
Fans of the show, and they were legion, are going to be thrilled to have everyone back--a possible romance between Jim and Phyllis is a welcome story line--and that may be enough for some loyal viewers. But as great as it is to see the cast reassembled and to witness Brown’s righteous fury, the show’s rhythms are creaky and lines are stale by the time they make it to air.
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Sep 26, 2018
Season 1 Review:
On the positive side, the natural chemistry between the core cast members is still alive. ... That said, there’s still a lot that doesn’t quite work--or at least not yet--in this new Murphy-verse. The first episode is definitely the bumpiest of the three provided to critics, mainly because it’s fixated on setting up the circumstances that bring the FYI team back into each other’s orbit, and also on introducing a couple of additional new characters.
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Oct 9, 2018
Season 1 Review:
The characters gripe about aging and its indignities, with Corky Sherwood, the Miss America alumna (played by Faith Ford), unsettled by menopause, for instance. Her jokes about hot flashes are so dated that they seem plucked from the original show’s discarded drafts.
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Sep 27, 2018
Season 1 Review:
The only part of the new Murphy Brown that’s truly promising is the relationship between Murphy and her now-adult son, Avery, well-played by Jake McDorman. ... Their moments together have all the unforced chemistry and good humor that’s in short supply elsewhere on the show.
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Sep 27, 2018
Season 1 Review:
They’re not good. I didn’t laugh, the jokes are mostly easy potshots at Trump. ... Every so often, there’s a flash of the old show’s panache, or a line-reading that Bergen knocks dead, or a flicker of terror at how bad things have gotten and how bad they could still get, and the show comes to life, for a moment at least. It’s not good, but it’s comforting.
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Sep 27, 2018
Season 1 Review:
Though there's comedy potential in watching Murphy and her co-workers try and function in a media world that includes a conservative cable news channel whose spin apparently influences the president's policy ideas, we hardly need a sitcom to shove it down our throats. Murphy Brown doesn't demonstrate a light hand in subsequent episodes, either. ... So much lecturing. So few laughs.
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Sep 26, 2018
Sep 26, 2018
Season 1 Review:
The show makes sure that Murphy soundly and satisfyingly wins their argument, but it undercuts the stakes. Maybe the best aspect of the new version is Murphy’s relationship with Avery. ... But somewhere in translation, “Murphy Brown” has become the kind of sitcom you laugh at, not because you can’t help it, but because you feel you should.
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Sep 25, 2018
Season 1 Review:
The revival, again run by Emmy-winning creator Diane English, is conscious that the world has changed in the 20 years since we last saw Murphy and friends. The problem is that Murphy Brown itself really hasn’t, and that does more to tarnish the real show’s legacy than anything else.
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Sep 26, 2018
Season 1 Review:
The show that once took specific news anchors--even ones from CBS!--to task now defaults to a portrait of “the Wolf network” so generic as to have no bite at all. Murphy, meanwhile, uses her easily won platform as a morning-show anchor to deliver absolutely nothing that will surprise anyone. ... The supporting characters, once quirky and helpful pals to Murphy, now seem drained.
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