Partners (2014)
FX | Release Date: August 4, 2014
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
44
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
9
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Lincoln Journal StarJeff KorbelikAug 4, 2014
Season 1 Review: The joy here is watching Grammer and Lawrence trade barbs (and there are a bunch of them). Read full review
67
Uncle BarkyEd BarkAug 1, 2014
Season 1 Review: Partners has its share of clunkers, but Lawrence and Grammer retain their comedic timing while also pairing up nicely. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleyAug 4, 2014
Season 1 Review: While Jackson will feel some genuine hesitation and wariness about Grammer's pit-bull personality, it doesn’t feel yet like the chemistry between the actors has fully developed. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyMarc SnetikerJul 31, 2014
Season 1 Review: The Partners are well matched, but they deserve better material. Read full review
50
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardAug 4, 2014
Season 1 Review: Grammer throws himself into the material, but Lawrence seems deflated. Perhaps he recognizes these scripts seem like somebody’s first drafts. Partners doesn’t make much of a case. Read full review
50
Denver PostJoanne OstrowAug 1, 2014
Season 1 Review: Kelsey Grammer gives his pompous-windbag act another whirl, this time opposite Martin Lawrence on the predictably old-school comedy Partners. Read full review
50
New York PostMichael StarrAug 1, 2014
Season 1 Review: The standard-sitcom format of Partners, with its forced laugh track and cookie-cutter supporting players--Alan’s spoiled step-daughter (McKaley Miller), Marcus’ bow-tie-wearing gay paralegal (Rory O’Malley)--makes it difficult to really invest too much time in the Partners premise. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandAug 1, 2014
Season 1 Review: There is great chemistry between old pros Lawrence and Grammer, even if the scripts are spotty and feel about 20 years old, same-sex marriage references notwithstanding. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydAug 4, 2014
Season 1 Review: It's funny at times, as it would almost have to be. But it's more often vexing, like an out-of-tune guitar. Read full review
40
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenAug 1, 2014
Season 1 Review: Partners is your basic odd couple comedy with Mr. Grammer attacking his part with his trademark zeal and Mr. Lawrence wandering through the motions in somnambulant fashion. It’s a stark energy contrast but a secondary problem for Partners, which mostly stumbles on predictable plotting that flows from pedestrian writing. Read full review
40
VarietyBrian LowryAug 1, 2014
Season 1 Review: The goal of establishing them as a mismatched pair in the pilot (written and run by sitcom veterans Robert L. Boyett and Robert Horn), as well as a subsequent episode, proves stale and weakly defined from the get-go. Read full review
30
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerAug 4, 2014
Season 1 Review: It’s an opposites-attract dynamic, something Mr. Grammer should be familiar with from Frasier, but it fails to click, at least in the first two episodes. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesLori RacklAug 19, 2014
Season 1 Review: Some of the jokes are criminally bad, the supporting characters are tired tropes, and Lawrence seems to be dialing it in. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineChris CabinJul 31, 2014
Season 1 Review: Partners is bad even by most lawyer-joke standards, and the writing's falseness and laziness carries over to the performances. Read full review
0
NewsdayVerne GayAug 4, 2014
Season 1 Review: Get past the genuine awfulness of this--and it is awful--and a strange melancholy begins to settle in. Read full review
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