Shots Fired
FOX | Release Date: March 22, 2017
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
We Got This CoveredWill AshtonMar 22, 2017
Season 1 Review: It’s heavy and heavy-handed, overpowering and overblown, but it’s still demanding television, in ways both good and bad. But it’s a telling, open-minded and deeply open-hearted program that needs to air on television in 2017, particularly in audience-friendly broadcast stations. Read full review
60
Vox.comEmily VanDerWerffMar 22, 2017
Season 1 Review: It feels, in every way, like a broadcast network TV show about the investigation of a police shooting. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydMar 22, 2017
Season 1 Review: James and Lathan are appealing--you could build a decent episodic series around his by-the-book rookie and her hard-as-nails veteran quite easily--and while Shots Fired lumbers as an issue drama, it’s diverting enough as a cop show. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDaniel FienbergJan 26, 2017
Season 1 Review: Shots Fired plays too much as predictable plot delivery system that sometimes steamrolls over its bigger ideas. Still, in its passion and in several performances, there is much to admire here. Read full review
58
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardMar 21, 2017
Season 1 Review: Shots Fired’s biggest sin is its lack of urgency. For a story this topical, Shots seems constructed like a LEGO model--one scene is pressed onto another. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandMar 21, 2017
Season 1 Review: It does get better after the bloviating pilot, but if it wants to be on the same level as ABC’s “American Crime,” it needs better writing to match the quality of the performances. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushMar 17, 2017
Season 1 Review: Though the subject matter is powerfully provocative, the plotting is a bit too predictably black and white. [20 Mar - 2 Apr 2017, p.19]
50
Las Vegas WeeklyJosh BellMar 16, 2017
Season 1 Review: Shots Fired drags as the story progresses, and the detours into its main characters’ personal lives are mostly distracting. The result is an uneven but sporadically engaging drama that tries to titillate its audience while also making it think. Read full review
50
CNNBrian LowryMar 10, 2017
Season 1 Review: While Shots Fired features a strong cast that includes Sanaa Lathan, Helen Hunt and Stephen Moyer, and name-checks real-life events like the police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, the program winds up mostly feeling like a tepid impersonation of a quality show. Read full review
40
ColliderChris CabinMar 22, 2017
Season 1 Review: The intentions of those who made Shots Fired are stridently righteous and good but in attempting to see the whole picture of race and police accountability in America, they’ve seemingly forgotten two a cardinal rule of visual storytelling: less is more. Read full review
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