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Critic Reviews
- Critic score
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- By date
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Sins of fathers and mothers not only visit each of the characters, but infest them; the show shimmers with an inner core of volcanic anger that makes it far more interesting than your average family soap.
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Only Julianna Margulies on "The Good Wife" is carrying a comparable load, and though Roughness is a more fanciful construction than that CBS show, with more obvious emotional victories, it feels just as honest. It worked on me as intended.
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Despite some cliched dialogue and scenes (she tosses her lecherous husband's designer duds and pricey suitcase out their bedroom window--fresh!), her presence is reason enough to watch--and reason enough to hope this series turns out to be something worth watching week after week.
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USA's newest series, Necessary Roughness is a charming and clever dramedy.
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Thankfully, Thorne's feisty charm mostly overcomes the show's familiar-feeling concept. [1 Jul 2011, p.68]
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A fine summer show is launched, slick but with feeling, and all the orange-and-red football-season foliage on-screen contributes to a diverting brisk breeziness.
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The Necessary Roughness pilot was enjoyable enough, but half the fun may have come from seeing Dani's adjustment to the big money, high-stakes world of professional sports. Can this show go the distance? It isn't clear yet, but at this admittedly early stage, the latest addition to the USA roster appears to be a promising rookie.
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As USA dramas go, Necessary Roughness is about halfway between "In Plain Sight" and "White Collar" on the believability scale, but it's summer and I like Thorne, whose character is feisty and funny and shrill only when shrillness is absolutely justified.
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The show is just an undemanding, entertaining, and sometimes whimsical ride. Yup, it's likable.
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Over all, Necessary Roughness is enjoyable, a lighthearted look at football that takes a therapist in suburban Long Island seriously.
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Written by Liz Kruger and Craig Shapiro and directed by Kevin Dowling, Roughness smoothly exploits the winning combination of Thorne--who practically oozes sex appeal, while still conveying an approachable vulnerability--with the macho NFL setting.
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Necessary Roughness hasn't scored a touchdown yet, but it's early in the game.
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Like all mothers on TV dramas, Angela starts out annoying. That means we can probably count on her to say something wise at just the moment we least expect it. In the end, though, this is Thorne's show, and she carries the lead well. Now the writers and Dr. Donna have to find enough interesting places she can go.
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If plot is incidental to your enjoyment of a show--and especially if you're already a fan of Ms. Thorne's all-in acting style--then Necessary Roughness offers OK entertainment.
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Basic cable is known for carving out niche audiences, but it's hard to imagine this "Friday Night Lights Shrink" will score with many.
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My heart tells me that any show that revolves around an honest-to-goodness native of Commack deserves an A+. My head tells me this one deserves a C.
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The problem with Roughness is that the characters and their interactions ring totally, ridiculously false--which is kind of funny, because unlike those other shows [Covert Affairs or White Collar], this one was inspired by a true story.
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[Thorne's] a likable, charming actress, surrounded by a bunch of familiar, appealing performers (Cohen in particular is someone I've liked a long time, even if the business hasn't known quite what to do with him), and I think there's potential in this idea. But the execution and/or the network aren't right for the idea.
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Thorne has the right bristling, combative energy for all this commotion, but the pilot is hard to swallow. [4 Jul 2011, p.38]
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Thorne's performance occasionally threatens to rise above this mess. But it's tough to overcome a narrative opening line that goes like this: "My dad used to say life is like a football game. There's winners and there's losers."
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Created by Liz Kruger and Craig Shapiro ("Miami Medical"), the writing is amateurish, the premise as thin as watery gruel, the emotions generally inauthentic, and the cast only minimally engaging.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 11 out of 27
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Mixed: 11 out of 27
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Negative: 5 out of 27
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Jul 9, 2011
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Sep 8, 2011
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Jan 14, 2016