Sons & Daughters
ABC | Release Date: March 7, 2006
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
6
Negative:
3

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker
Season 1 Review: Sons & Daughters offers such a fresh, funny take on family life that it could be a landmark comedy. Read full review
90
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 1 Review: When a new comedy shows up as fresh, original and painfully hilarious as Sons & Daughters, at first I want to cheer. And then I start to worry if it can survive. Call it Arrested Development syndrome.
90
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: This sparkling saga of an extended dysfunctional family has more laughs than regular characters. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: It has a sprawling cast, but even before the pilot is over, because of the clever way it's written, directed and acted, you'll know, and like, every single character. Read full review
88
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: There's something terribly real and awfully funny about this engaging little sitcom, which takes the sweetness of Parenthood and adds its own slightly bitter touch. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesPaul Brownfield
Season 1 Review: It's very well-acted and meanwhile, when it can stand it, kind of tender, although it's far more interested in "Curb"-like moments of uncomfortable confrontation. Read full review
80
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesCharlie McCollum
Season 1 Review: Definitely worth your time. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyRobert Abele
Season 1 Review: The looseness of the interchanges gives the humor an anti-writers’-room freshness without losing the harshness we’ve come to expect in this Everybody Loves Raymond/Arrested Development age of clashing relatives. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesDoug Elfman
Season 1 Review: It starts out a little cutesy but quickly finds laughs in crisp writing and really strong (and blessedly not-overblown) acting. Read full review
70
Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland
Season 1 Review: "Sons & Daughters" is supposed to feel like a heightened version of your own family, and in many ways it succeeds. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalNancy DeWolf Smith
Season 1 Review: Some viewers, accustomed to less-original TV fare, may miss having stock gags and situations rammed down their throat. "Sons & Daughters" is a savory for more discerning palates. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: The improv style when done well, as it is here, doesn't generate sidesplitting laughter, but it does produce a steady stream of deliciously enjoyable moments. Read full review
70
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: "Sons & Daughters" is a sitcom whose method -- a script embellished by actors at play -- celebrates the unexpected comedy that can emerge among talented people. Read full review
70
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: This sitcom is a loving embrace of convulsive domestic eccentricity. Read full review
70
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: "Sons & Daughters" turns the banalities of family life upside down and inside out and finds something new, and even something cherishable, in many of them. Read full review
70
TimeJames Poniewozik
Season 1 Review: The show's conversational improv rhythms and realistic, documentary style make Sons and Daughters worth adopting. Read full review
70
The New YorkerNancy Franklin
Season 1 Review: Compelling, if not quite riveting. Read full review
60
Chicago TribuneSid Smith
Season 1 Review: Crowded, confusing and unafraid to be dull, "Sons & Daughters" also holds tremendous promise. Read full review
60
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: Personally, I found "Arrested" funnier, but "Sons & Daughters" has its moments. Read full review
60
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: "Sons & Daughters" is a milder, more humane version of Fox's canceled "Arrested Development" -- it milks the humor of absurd people and brutally frank conversation. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: A half-hour firmly ensconced in the "witty" zone that seldom crosses all the way over into funny. Read full review
60
PopMattersMaura McAndrew
Season 1 Review: Those who enjoy Sons & Daughters enjoyed Arrested Development more, and the same viewers put off by the latter's off-the-wall humor will also be put off the new show. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyHenry Goldblatt
Season 1 Review: For a show that's supposed to be all loosey-goosey, too many of S&D's visual and aural cues are rigidly staged. [10 Mar 2006, p.53]
30
SalonHeather Havrilesky
Season 1 Review: The improvised dialogue is sometimes smart, but it often leads to scenes where the main characters repeat their intentions over and over again -- you know, like in a really bad improv class. Read full review
25
New York PostLinda Stasi
Season 1 Review: Vulgar and incomprehensibly unfunny, "Sons & Daughters" is a clear attempt to be a hip hybrid of "Arrested Development," "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "The Office." Instead, it's just a mostly superb cast being thrown to the wolves with ugly dialogue. Read full review
20
NewsdayDiane Werts
Season 1 Review: Most of the cast stammers its way through sentences as if awaiting a lightning strike of inspiration. When it doesn't come, the actors have to say something anyway, and that meandering search for structure is what winds up filling 30 shapeless minutes. Read full review
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