My Own Worst Enemy

:

Season 1
  • Network: NBC
  • Series Premiere Date: Oct 13, 2008
Metascore
61

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 25
  3. Negative: 3 out of 25
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Critic Reviews

  1. Newsday
    Reviewed by: Verne Gay
    100
    Far, far, far and away NBC's best new pilot of the season and one of the best new shows of the season, on any network -- commercial or cable.
  2. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Glenn Garvin
    90
    My Own Worst Enemy is by far the best drama of the fall season, a bold and brainy spy thriller that practices a sort of armed existentialism.
  3. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Andrew Herrmann
    75
    If you can buy into the fantasy, Slater delivers on his part of the deal, playing both characters with just enough unique quirks so viewers can tell them apart. Usually.
  5. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Linda Stasi
    75
    The action is pretty non-stop, the stars terrific and, if you're willing to do the work to follow the complicated plot, the show can be lots of fun.
  6. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Ray Richmond
    70
    My Own Worst Enemy holds our interest despite its utter preposterousness because if there is anything Slater knows how to do, it's present a believable head case.
  7. Kansas City Star
    Reviewed by: Aaron Barnhart
    70
    Surprise! It’s not nearly as bad as I thought.
  8. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
    Reviewed by: Rob Owen
    70
    My Own Worst Enemy sets up what could be an overly complicated premise and miraculously makes it all seem perfectly acceptable and clear by the end of the first hour.
  9. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Alessandra Stanley
    70
    Worst Enemy has a convoluted premise that is cleverly wrought and holds up well, and Mr. Slater does a remarkable job of only subtly signaling each personality
  10. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Mary McNamara
    70
    [Christian] is in rare form here. Which is a good thing since the show's success or failure rests solely on his dramatic agility and general appeal.
  11. Salon
    Reviewed by: Heather Havrilesky
    70
    While you do have to wonder where the show will go from here, since it has the plot of a two-hour movie, not a 20-hour series, it has the benefit of being far more original and unpredictable than 90 percent of the new shows to hit the airwaves this fall.
  12. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Robert Abele
    70
    The show’s biotechnological twist on the double life of spies--or any superhero/alter ego construct--certainly satisfies the popcorn-thriller needs of My Own Worst Enemy, but I wasn’t expecting it to be as thematically resonant as it was.
  13. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: John Leonard
    70
    Slater, whose career has gone pretty much downhill since "Heathers" (1989) and "Pump Up the Volume" (1990), is surprisingly perfect as both of them, adjusting not much more than the brow of an eye, the curl of a lip, and the hiss of a sibilant to indicate the seismic shift from James Bond to Willy Loman.
  14. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Maureen Ryan
    63
    The first episode of Enemy ended up being a relatively compelling hour of television. As competent as it is, though, it’s hard not to think that the premise contains some holes.
  15. Variety
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    60
    The pilot gingerly lays out most of the elements My Own Worst Enemy will need to survive--leaving it to the show to either make its strange case or live down to its name.
  16. PopMatters
    Reviewed by: Marisa LaScala
    60
    My Own Worst Enemy looks like it’s been assembled from the leftovers of other pop-culture heavyweights.
  17. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ken Tucker
    58
    Slater plays out spy-story clichés that were campy on "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." 40 years ago.
  18. Slate
    Reviewed by: Troy Patterson
    50
    The show's success may depend on whether the public's fascination with Slater trumps its collective attention-deficit disorders.
  19. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Hal Boedeker
    50
    The two halves don't add up to an engrossing whole. The show's worst enemy? The perplexing, cynical writing.
  20. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Tim Goodman
    50
    Bad, then decent, then confusing. That's not exactly the trajectory you're looking for in a pilot.
  21. Philadelphia Daily News
    Reviewed by: Ellen Gray
    50
    It's a subject that was explored more deeply, and even a touch more believably, in BBC America's "Jekyll," a nail-biter of an update in which James Nesbitt inhabited both personalities so completely they barely even looked alike. Slater, by contrast, just seems like a guy in need of a good night's sleep.
  22. TV Guide Magazine
    Reviewed by: Matt Roush
    50
    Reminiscent at times of "The Bourne Identity" or "Face/Off," to name a few movie influences it does not improve upon, the beyond-high-concept Enemy asks us to believe Christian Slater as a cold-blooded assassin named Edward who doubles, when a switch in his brain is flipped, as a milquetoast family man named Henry.
  23. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Storm
    40
    My Own Worst Enemy's worst enemy is all the murky mumbo-jumbo mechanics the writers have introduced to support their stupid split-personality thesis.
  24. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Robert Bianco
    37
    You might be able to forgive the sloppiness of the premise if something else in the episode worked, but it's all a contrived, derivative mess.
  25. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Tom Shales
    30
    My Own Worst Enemy can be recommended only to people who can imagine themselves saying, "I'm in the mood for a mediocre version of a fairly good spy movie."
  26. Newark Star-Ledger
    Reviewed by: Alan Sepinwall
    30
    There isn't a series here; just the pitch meeting for a very expensive, very loud, very dopey action movie.

Awards & Rankings

64
#64 Best TV Season of 2008
21
#21 Most Discussed TV Season of 2008
23
#23 Most Shared TV Season of 2008

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 55 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 49 out of 55
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 55
  3. Negative: 4 out of 55
  1. Tss5078
    Jan 11, 2015
    4
    My Own Worst Enemy was one of the critics picks to be the big winner of the 2008 Prime time TV line up, but was cancelled after just nineMy Own Worst Enemy was one of the critics picks to be the big winner of the 2008 Prime time TV line up, but was cancelled after just nine episodes. Despite gaining a cult following, and being released on DVD, the show was very expensive to make and just wasn't that interesting. Christan Slater plays Henry Spivey, a simple businessman with a wife and two kids. Every day when Henry goes to work at his Insurance office, he looks into the elevators retinal scanner and is transformed to another person, Edward Albright, a top spy for an unknown U.S. Government agency. The first problem I had with this show is that the whole family situation could have been copied and pasted right from the film True Lies. If that was the only issue, I could have gotten passed it, but the truth is the every episode in the series was nearly identical and the show just went around in circles. Something breaks in Edward/Henry's brain and he keeps switching back and fourth at the most inopportune times. The two are made aware of each and often have to take each others place. They even leave digital messages for one another. That fact is that this show just wasn't that original, not to mention it was very predictable and extremely frustrating to watch. You had to know that almost every time Edward went on a mission Henry would appear and have to do something he wasn't trained for. It was cute the first time, but by the fourth or fifth time, I had more than enough of it. The same is true with the Edward showing up during family time and seeming strange to his wife and kids.The bottom line, My Own Worst Enemy had a great cast, but a mediocre, predictable story, that just went around in circles. All the guns, explosions, and special effects in the world would have been enough to save this show.… Full Review »
  2. Sabrinna
    Dec 14, 2010
    10
    Christian Slater delivers a brilliant performance portraying two characters who are a split personality. They are the same man but differentChristian Slater delivers a brilliant performance portraying two characters who are a split personality. They are the same man but different to one another, so there are parallels between the characters which makes for a difficult job for the actor who somehow makes this look easy. One of the supporting cast has the same job to do; two connected characters in one man and unfortunately doesn't pull it off. one character is complete while the other is too emotionally dead and without personality. It's only toward the very last two episodes that he begins to 3 dimensionalize the spy character. Sadly, this is another brilliant series that has been cancelled. I am beginning to get annoyed with the networks lack of follow through.… Full Review »
  3. TrudiF
    Aug 6, 2009
    10
    Fantastic show. At last something intelligent on tv. Exciting, origional and amazingly gripping. Are all the people who decided to cancel it Fantastic show. At last something intelligent on tv. Exciting, origional and amazingly gripping. Are all the people who decided to cancel it temporarily insane...?… Full Review »
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