The Black Donnellys
NBC | NBC; HDNET | Release Date: February 26, 2007
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
8
Negative:
12
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
30
Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland
Season 1 Review: It sounds like the kind of "keeping up with HBO" series Showtime would do, except the premium cable channel already aired an Irish mobster series, "Brotherhood." And it had richer characters and superior plotting. Read full review
30
Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker
Season 1 Review: The Black Donnellys is not top of the world... or the second coming of The Sopranos. The new drama is old wine poured into fancy, contemporary bottles. Read full review
30
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: [A] grim, brooding, utterly muddled crime series. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyRobert Abele
Season 1 Review: Unfortunately, the young actors on display aren’t compelling enough to make us care much beyond their sometimes stupidly self-induced crises. Read full review
30
SalonHeather Havrilesky
Season 1 Review: While "The Sopranos" and "Brotherhood" make it look easy, "The Black Donnellys" makes it excruciatingly clear just how difficult it is to tell a soulful story about criminals. Read full review
25
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: You'll eventually be able to tell one gun-toting, ax-wielding character from another. You're just not likely to develop a desire to spend time with them. Read full review
20
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 1 Review: "Donnellys" creaks and sighs, moans and slumps, and ambles along like a world-weary cliche, unable or unwilling to lift its head above the humdrum banality to which it has been consigned. Read full review
20
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 1 Review: To say these guys are stereotypes does insult to the clichés they clumsily represent. Read full review
10
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 1 Review: This pretentious mishmash is a paint-by-numbers Irish-American "Sopranos" ripoff. Read full review
10
The New York TimesVirginia Heffernan
Season 1 Review: Like “Crash,” “The Black Donnellys” is more of a lecture than a drama. Read full review
10
Wall Street JournalNancy DeWolf Smith
Season 1 Review: As they stumble from one brutal act to another, accompanied by a hip rock soundtrack, we're not watching dramatic art; it's more like "Dawson's Creek" for psychopaths. Read full review
0
Los Angeles TimesPaul Brownfield
Season 1 Review: NBC sent out five episodes; I sat through three before throwing the DVD on the Donate to Public Library pile. I would like to apologize in advance to the library. Read full review
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