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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
7
Mixed:
9
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews
Jul 12, 2013
Season 1 Review:
With the mix of bizarre cases and believably goofy characters, I found already I never wanted the show to end. It's great stuff working on three levels at once. [17 Sep 1992]
Jun 19, 2013
Season 1 Review:
The pilot premiere of Picket Fences is so deliciously, unpredictably enjoyable - save for one unpardonably sick scene - that it has to rate as the best new drama of the season...But the second episode, which is kicked into gear when a child discovers a body part in a jar alongside a highway, is so tastelessly remindful of the repulsive vision of "Twin Peaks" that the fear is the creators will push the series too far and kill it. [17 Sept 1992]
Jun 18, 2013
Season 1 Review:
Although some may find this creation of David E. Kelley, the wizard behind "L.A. Law," too weird, I think it's wonderful. [18 Sept 1992, p.1]
Jun 19, 2013
Season 1 Review:
The tone can be darkly comic, even nasty, also sweetly sentimental, even corny. Picket Fences is idiosyncratic, unpredictable and fun fun fun to watch. Our Town gone ga-ga. Put it this way: When in Rome ... sit back and enjoy. [18 Sept 1992, p.1D]
Jun 19, 2013
Season 1 Review:
A rather bent sense of humor -- woven into a nice little whodunit -- is what lifts the flawed-but-engaging premiere of Picket Fences above the ordinary, raising expectations for the future. [18 Sept 1992, p.F1]
Jun 18, 2013
Season 1 Review:
I'll cautiously recommend the series because I have faith in the talents of Kelley, Skerritt and Baker. [18 Sept 1992, p.63]
Jun 19, 2013
Season 1 Review:
So many scenes work so wonderfully well in the first episode of Picket Fences. Trouble is, the show has nearly as many sappy, melodramatic scenes, the kind of cloddy clunkers that ultimately weigh down the entire affair. [13 Sept 1992, p.TV-16]
Jun 19, 2013
Season 1 Review:
Often engaging, inventive, well acted and wickedly funny, Picket Fences keeps shooting itself in the foot with tastelessness disguised as daring. Irritating as it may frequently be, however, Picket Fences also seems the new fall drama most likely to become habit-forming. You may love it, you may hate it, but you're liable to be hooked. [18 Sept 1992, p.D1]
Jun 19, 2013
Season 1 Review:
Creator Kelley delights in making fun of his characters, and he can't sustain the bizarre tone. [18 Sept 1992, p.5]
Jun 18, 2013
Season 1 Review:
Unfortunately, Skerritt sleepwalks through most of the show, Baker allows her bemused mom role to settle into an assembly-line dog trot, and the Brock children take precocity to a new level of annoyance. [18 Sept 1992]
Jun 18, 2013
Season 1 Review:
Picket Fences seems to have no reason for existence other than for a very smart writer to test just how smart he is. In this case, too smart by half. Unfortunately, "Picket Fences" may be just smart enough to divert people from the better dramatic series at 10, "I'll Fly Away." [18 Sept 1992, p.58]
Jun 10, 2013
Season 2 Review:
Nowadays, in just about every episode-and they're all either written or cowritten by Kelley-a serious controversy is raised, debated heatedly, and then smothered in overwrought speechifying. What all this suggests is that, festooned with its high honors and low ratings, Picket Fences represents the triumph of middlebrow intellectualism in current television. It is a show that's always Tackling Major Themes whenever it's not trying to achieve the sort of sweet whimsy meant to disguise the fact that this is one of the most profoundly humorless series ever made.
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Jun 18, 2013
Season 1 Review:
From the creator of "L.A.Law," Picket Fences has all
the oddball characters and eccentric behavior that made "L.A. Law" the hit it has been. But in this setting, they ring a false note
that's more grating than ingratiating. [18 Sept 1992, p.1]
Jun 19, 2013
Season 1 Review:
This is the most loathsome, repugnantly ugly piece of
television I've seen in a long time - cynical, cheap, tawdry, pretentious and
manipulative. [18 Sept 1992, p.E1]
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