Past Life
FOX | Release Date: February 9, 2010
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
10
Negative:
8

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Baltimore SunDavid Zurawik
Season 1 Review: All in all, it's a pleassant enough series. Just don't think too hard about it, or it will deconstruct into psycho-goofiness before you get out the door of the Talmadge Institute and onto the first case. Read full review
67
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesChuck Barney
Season 1 Review: With her Texas twang and feisty demeanor, Giddish is instantly engaging, and she and Bishop share a nice on-screen chemistry that make them worth our time. As for the Past Life cases, they are adequately compelling. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesPaige Wiser
Season 1 Review: Me, I struggled with the whole reincarnation thing--and kept rooting for someone to turn out to be Napoleon. It's hooey. But it's fairly well done hooey. Read full review
63
New York PostLinda Stasi
Season 1 Review: This lukewarm hybrid should have been much better than it is. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker
Season 1 Review: Star Kelli Giddish is so distractingly pretty and charming, even to other characters, that it adds a layer of deconstructive interest to a silly series. Read full review
50
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 1 Review: Past Life is a straight-down-the-middle cop procedural--"Cold Case" with a gimmick--when quirkiness, humor and even some bogus science or crackpot theology would have given it some heft or at least a sense of fun. Read full review
50
People WeeklyMichelle Tauber
Season 1 Review: It's standard murder-of-the-week type stuff with just a hint of pseudo spirituality. Trouble is, characters who speak in cliches don't deserve to be in your living room.
50
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: It all begins to feel like forced gobbledygook--like "Without A Trace" had a bad date with "Ghost Whisperer." Read full review
42
Boston HeraldMark A. Perigard
Season 1 Review: Reincarnation, recycling, rip-off. On network TV, it’s all the same. Whatever you did in a past life, you don’t deserve this drivel. Read full review
40
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: The bottom line is that while the show tackles its spooky subject matter earnestly enough, for those expecting to enjoy a mere single life, time's simply too precious to squander on this. Read full review
40
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: Past Life feels overly formulaic from the first moments of the first episode. It’s the kind of procedural that’s stuffed with lightning-bolt revelations and convulsive tears by guest-of-the-week actors and yet still seems bland. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: There is some undeniable chemistry between McGinn and Whatley, but it isn't enough to rescue Past Life. Not in this life. Read full review
40
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: Whatley’s quick conversion to the cause takes away what little tension there is in the partnership, and is emblematic of a larger problem. McGinn needs the people that she meets to buy into the idea of reincarnation, or else she can’t get anything done. Read full review
40
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: Past Life has neither [heart nor energy] and leaves us only with hope that it will reincarnate next season into something better. Read full review
30
The New York TimesMike Hale
Season 1 Review: A crime drama doesn’t need soft edges if it has crisp plotting and interesting characters, but the first two stories on Past Life are startlingly generic, and Kate, in lieu of a personality, is given a dog and a wacky mother. Read full review
30
Deseret NewsScott D. Pierce
Season 1 Review: It's bad writing. It's lazy storytelling. It's ridiculous. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamara
Season 1 Review: Past Life is created by David Hudgins ("Friday Night Lights"), who certainly knows his way around a script, so it is literally shocking how bad the writing is, with Whately grinding out such illuminations as "You can't get DNA from a memory" or "It's like all your life you've been playing this game and then someone changes the rules" until you want to scream. Read full review
30
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: Past Life begins with a fairly ridiculous premise, and the show's bland leads don't make it anymore watchable. Read full review
30
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 1 Review: Past Life is so glum, lugubrious and blandly cast I felt I had temporarily regressed into someone who in a past life hated television. Read full review
30
PopMattersCynthia Fuchs
Season 1 Review: Even as you’re hoping that she won’t have to conjure up variations on this explication theme every week, she does it a few more times in this episode alone. Read full review
25
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: The weakness of the plot might matter less if the regular characters had something special to offer, but Past Life's are standard-issue blanks. Read full review
25
Slant MagazinePeter Swanson
Season 1 Review: As it is, Past Life is just a bad premise executed badly, and very unlikely to be given a second [life] season. Read full review
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