State of Affairs
NBC | Release Date: November 17, 2014
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
17
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Washington PostHank StueverSep 19, 2014
Season 1 Review: The Claire Danes/Carrie Mathison comparisons are inevitable (especially when Heigl’s character numbs her grief with casual sex with strangers), but State of Affairs feels like an honest NBC upgrade. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesLori RacklNov 17, 2014
Season 1 Review: Compared to “Homeland,” State of Affairs is hands down the weaker show. Compared to the broadcast networks’ other new dramas, it’s strong enough — just enough — to deserve a chance to find its legs and maybe even make itself comfortable in “The Blacklist’s” old Monday night time slot. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleyNov 17, 2014
Season 1 Review: It may be a couple of weeks before we decide whether these lead characters and their ensemble will be able to mix the soap and the political intrigue into a story that makes us care enough to keep coming back. Read full review
58
NewsdayVerne GayNov 14, 2014
Season 1 Review: After this overheated effort to make Charlie interesting, or at least different, she's basically just another Carrie Mathison without the pills. Read full review
55
Under The RadarZach HollwedelNov 20, 2014
Season 1 Review: Heigl's serviceable, and the show's writing is fun enough that, as long as audiences don't expect the next great political thriller, State of Affairs could be a worthwhile way to spend the concluding hours of a Monday night. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Matt Zoller SeitzNov 20, 2014
Season 1 Review: The show is modestly exciting, at the very least watchable, and has network-quality production values, though no discernible filmmaking personality to speak of. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineMatt BrennanNov 17, 2014
Season 1 Review: The series holds out the promise of a solid, if unspectacular, network procedural. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeSarah RodmanNov 17, 2014
Season 1 Review: State of Affairs is simply an efficient, if warmed-over, drama that features a lot of scribbling, typing, hushed conversing, hand-wringing, ominous intoning, and watching of special ops footage by Heigl and other CIA analysts. Read full review
50
Zap2it (Inside the Box)Jean BentleyNov 17, 2014
Season 1 Review: Because there's no direction to the story just yet, the show balances on Heigl's appeal. Although she is styled well and written to be likable, she's not going to win you over with her charm. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJoshua AlstonNov 17, 2014
Season 1 Review: Affairs never manages to overcome this sense of hollowness in its pilot, which plants seeds for an overarching mystery--one that feels exhausting even before it has begun unfolding--but never delves deeper than Charlie’s desire to avenge Aaron’s death. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydNov 17, 2014
Season 1 Review: It is easy to buy [Heigl] in these more casual moments, especially given quiet, excellent support by Sheila Vand, Cliff Chamberlain and Tommy Savas as her fellow (though hierarchically inferior) co-analysts.... [But] The more amped-up the action and the more tangled the weave of its web is revealed to be, the more hilarious State of Affairs becomes. Read full review
50
SlateWilla PaskinNov 17, 2014
Season 1 Review: While it is completely watchable, it is also, unlike Scandal, not distinctive in any way. Read full review
50
Boston HeraldAmy AmatangeloNov 14, 2014
Season 1 Review: Alfre Woodard isn’t given a lot to do as President Constance Payton in the premiere, but, unlike Heigl, she does have the gravitas for the role, and the show would be wise to use her more. Read full review
42
HitfixAlan SepinwallNov 17, 2014
Season 1 Review: State of Affairs doesn't have to be original to be good, but I'm not sure what good comes of the mixed-up show it is right now. Read full review
42
Uncle BarkyEd BarkNov 13, 2014
Season 1 Review: A total of nine executive producers, including Heigl and her mother, Nancy. That’s too many cooks for what turns out to be a half-baked hour of ridiculosity. Read full review
40
The Huffington PostMaureen RyanNov 18, 2014
Season 1 Review: State of Affairs is not quite a pulpy thrill ride, not quite an addictive melodrama and not quite a serious, searching drama. Read full review
40
The New York TimesAlessandra StanleyNov 17, 2014
Season 1 Review: The narrative of State of Affairs is not as outré as the one in “Scandal,” but it’s still preposterous and at times laughable. Read full review
40
The OregonianKristi TurnquistNov 14, 2014
Season 1 Review: State of Affairs is another generic Washington D.C.-set thriller drawing on current events for story points (terrorist threats, hostage-taking, global unrest) in a way that feels opportunistic and, frankly, insensitive considering the real-world tragedies that are showing up in the news. Read full review
40
VarietyBrian LowryNov 13, 2014
Season 1 Review: Far from any inspiration, this show feels not just like it was created by a committee, but a Senate subcommittee at that. And in TV terms, that’s a pretty sorry state of affairs. Read full review
37
USA TodayRobert BiancoNov 17, 2014
Season 1 Review: The episode being aired tonight is slightly better than the original pilot, which does mean the producers realized work needed to be done. They just haven't done nearly enough. An altered State, true, but a sorry one, still. Read full review
30
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoNov 17, 2014
Season 1 Review: Cluttered and implausible, the series premiere of NBC’s State of Affairs, hints at the show that could be engaging underneath the poor filmmaking and even more frustrating writing and performances. Read full review
30
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushNov 17, 2014
Season 1 Review: NBC's disappointingly derivative State of Affairs [is] a clumsy and unconvincing star vehicle for a miscast Katherine Heigl. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalDorothy RabinowitzNov 17, 2014
Season 1 Review: Though Ms. Heigl does throw herself into those life-or-death presidential briefing decisions of hers--powers that could have been conceived only in the fantasies of desperate scriptwriters. They have much to be desperate about. Read full review
30
The WrapDiane GarrettNov 17, 2014
Season 1 Review: The writing does no one any favors, failing even to make the most of Alfre Woodard as president. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanNov 14, 2014
Season 1 Review: A pilot that is, at best, flawed, and, at worst, messy-bad. Read full review
30
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenNov 13, 2014
Season 1 Review: Everything about it feels TV-fake and contrived and throwing Heigl into the mix just heightens the sense that viewers are watching a high-glam actress pretending to be a top U.S. intelligence analyst. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandNov 12, 2014
Season 1 Review: You’ve seen it all before, done better at times, worse at others, and the presence of Heigl isn’t enough to make State of Affairs anything more than just another second-rate wannabe. Read full review
20
Cleveland Plain DealerMark DawidziakNov 17, 2014
Season 1 Review: This incredibly trite and preposterous series are serious about all the hackneyed twaddle lumbering and stumbling into view Monday night. Just when you think it can't get more laughably bad, it does. Read full review
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