Surviving Jack
FOX | Release Date: March 27, 2014
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
7
Negative:
2

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Boston GlobeSarah RodmanMar 26, 2014
Season 1 Review: While the first two episodes of Surviving Jack available for review didn’t offer an avalanche of laugh-out-loud moments, there is a free-spirited realness to it that makes the show worth sticking with to see Meloni whip it into shape. Read full review
75
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardMar 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: The dark tone might be the greatest barrier at first to viewers, but the cast rolls with the wisecracks. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesLori RacklMar 24, 2014
Season 1 Review: There’s an acerbic charm to Fox’s 1991-set sitcom that elevates it above similar newcomers “Growing Up Fisher” and “The Goldbergs.” Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyJeff JensenMar 19, 2014
Season 1 Review: Surviving Jack--based on Justin Halpern's memoir I Suck at Girls--distinguishes itself with a terrific turn by Christopher Meloni as the father and a refreshing treatment of gender roles. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamaraMar 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Surviving Jack is terrific. Funny and smart, poignant and believable, it is undoubtedly the best new comedy of the season. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleyMar 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Surviving Jack serves up the latest exasperating parent whose outrageous behavior doesn’t add up to a decent sitcom. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Matt Zoller SeitzMar 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: A series that’s not as impressive as its lead actor’s performance. Read full review
75
New York PostMichael StarrMar 20, 2014
Season 1 Review: Surviving Jack is very enjoyable, with Meloni delivering in a comedic role and ably supported by some clever writing and a solid cast. Read full review
58
NewsdayVerne GayMar 26, 2014
Season 1 Review: What's wrong here are some of the same elements that have made the 2013-14 network comedy crop one of the weakest in memory--not enough laughs, not enough of a show that feels like it has something interesting to say (and wants to say it). Read full review
63
People WeeklyTom GliattoMar 24, 2014
Season 1 Review: Jack has an excellent cast.... Maybe the writing will catch up with them. [31 Mar 2014]
80
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen GrayMar 25, 2014
Season 1 Review: Forget the kids: I could happily watch Meloni and Harris banter and flirt for a half-hour a week. Read full review
60
Philadelphia InquirerDavid HiltbrandMar 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: If only Surviving Jack was more daring. But it falls into TV's sap-trap. Meloni is deliciously derisive, but only for the first 20 minutes of the episode. Read full review
40
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenMar 25, 2014
Season 1 Review: Surviving Jack allows for a smidgen of heartfelt earnestness now and again, but it’s less heartwarming than the steadily-improving “The Goldbergs” because at heart Surviving Jack is the one-joke premise of its title: My dad’s a jerk. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandMar 20, 2014
Season 1 Review: The cast is likable, until they open their mouths to deliver the fourth-rate dialogue. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubSonia SaraiyaMar 25, 2014
Season 1 Review: Even though the father-son territory has been trod before--in Halpern’s body of work alone!--it’s also where the show feels most alive. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanMar 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: The pilot is funny, Meloni holds the whole thing together and even the voice over works--despite there needing to be, at the very least, a five season moratorium on that little conceit. Read full review
83
The Lincoln Journal StarJeff KorbelikMar 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: The humor results from its realism and the blossoming relationship between father and son. Here's hoping this one sticks around. Read full review
60
The New York TimesAlessandra StanleyMar 26, 2014
Season 1 Review: The characters on Surviving Jack, like those on “Growing Up Fisher,” are more appealing and a little more nuanced. But they both are feel-good comedies that seem written to make their creators, more than the audience, feel good. Neither is as funny and durable as "The Middle." Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushMar 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Jack's "surrounded by idiots" misanthropy and drill-sergeant parenting threatens to wear thin, but Meloni sells it with an underlying intelligence and empathetic warmth. Read full review
75
Uncle BarkyEd BarkMar 26, 2014
Season 1 Review: Warm--or more accurately, lukewarm--moments intercede before the final bells in both half-hours. And Meloni delivers them like a champ while also dominating during an American Gladiators face-off that jump-starts next week’s episode. Read full review
75
USA TodayRobert BiancoMar 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Among the innumerable improvements here that lift Jack over Dad, start with turning the paternal lead over to Christopher Meloni--an actor who can convey warmth, brains and masculine menace with a glance--and giving him an actual person to play, rather than an insult-spouting cartoon. Then throw in making his wife a regular character, casting Rachael Harris and moving the story back in time, so that the son is now a more empathetic teenager, rather than an adult moving back home. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian LowryMar 26, 2014
Season 1 Review: Mostly, it’s another throwback to the twin notions that writers like tackling what they know, and adolescence--with all its potential for humiliation and exultation--offers fertile if not particularly original ground for comedy. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalDorothy RabinowitzMar 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: There's a strange sense of distance in the picture here of a decade not exactly in the remote past, but there's also something sweetly enticing about its portrayal of relative innocence. Read full review
50
Washington PostHank StueverMar 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: No one can survive Surviving Jack’s hollow and formulaic dialogue, which is bursting with jokes that are half-funny at best. Read full review
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