The Carmichael Show
NBC | Release Date: August 26, 2015
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
IndieWireSteve GreeneMay 31, 2017
Season 3 Review: The socially relevant half-hour isn’t a revolutionary development, but Jerrod Carmichael and company are continuing the proud tradition of capturing the particular rhythms of interfamily debates, pausing just long enough to let the audience reward them for their authenticity. Read full review
91
NewsdayVerne GayMar 9, 2016
Season 2 Review: Like Seinfeld, Carmichael’s humor is sometimes about locating what’s funny in our narcissism, or his. But this episode wouldn’t work as well as it does if there wasn’t a moral, wrapped in a truth. Read full review
90
The AtlanticDavid SimsMar 10, 2016
Season 2 Review: The Carmichael Show is back for a longer season, and it hasn’t lost a step--it’s still one of the most audacious comedies currently airing. Read full review
83
HitfixAlan SepinwallMar 9, 2016
Season 2 Review: The first two episodes of the new season don't suggest a huge creative leap--Carmichael is still finding his way as an actor, for instance, though the creative team recognizes that he's best used to say incendiary things that his co-stars can react to-but even if it never improves from its original baseline, it's funny and well-crafted enough to be worth watching for more than just its ambitions. Read full review
83
NewsdayDiane WertsAug 25, 2015
Season 1 Review: This is one crazy-paced show, and one smartly crafted comedy. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Matt Zoller SeitzMay 31, 2017
Season 3 Review: The show carries itself with a no-big-deal confidence, exploring subjects organically, as you would in a real conversation, and always rooting its one-liners in the psychology of its characters. Read full review
80
UPROXXAlan SepinwallMay 31, 2017
Season 3 Review: Carmichael Show is actually funnier the darker the subject matter gets. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDaniel FienbergMay 31, 2017
Season 3 Review: These five episodes find The Carmichael Show pushing into more thematically extreme territory. I think I'd venture to say that at times big laughs take a back seat in the process of figuring out how to make even tougher subjects generally funny. Carmichael and his creative team are very consciously attempting to raise the ante on what they've done before. Read full review
80
The Salt Lake TribuneScott D. PierceMay 25, 2017
Season 3 Review: This is a sitcom, not a public service announcement. But you can certainly argue that The Carmichael Show is doing a public service. It isn't often you can call a sitcom brave. This is one of those times. Read full review
80
The New York TimesJames PoniewozikMar 8, 2016
Season 2 Review: The Carmichael Show consistently feels surprising, not formulaic, partly because of the talent assembled, partly because of Mr. Carmichael’s comic philosophy of prodding his audience. Read full review
80
VarietyMaureen RyanMar 4, 2016
Season 2 Review: The Carmichael Show does not set out to re-invent the comedy wheel, but it proves that paying attention to the basics and generally writing to the strengths of a well-calibrated ensemble can pay major dividends. The continuing existence of this lively, well-crafted series is something of a miracle, and so far, it’s one worth celebrating. Read full review
75
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardMay 31, 2017
Season 3 Review: Some comedies lull you to sleep; The Carmichael Show gives you a slap, pushes your head out the door and still gives you something to laugh about. Read full review
75
NewsdayVerne GayMay 31, 2017
Season 3 Review: Uneven, but the core strength remains--a sitcom that embraces the uncomfortable, and sometimes the unmentionable. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchGail PenningtonAug 26, 2015
Season 1 Review: More thought-provoking than the typical current sitcom and with more laughs per half-hour than most, The Carmichael Show deserves more than a short summer run. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubMolly EichelAug 26, 2015
Season 1 Review: It has great potential to be an incendiary comedic voice among a sea of family sitcoms with a harpy mother, a no-nonsense dad, a scheming brother and a girlfriend who wants the approval of her boyfriend’s parents. Read full review
75
Uncle BarkyEd BarkAug 26, 2015
Season 1 Review: The Carmichael Show won’t win any prizes for originality. It does, however, play very well with the above-average material it has. That’s in no small part due to the well-blended cast. Read full review
75
HitfixAlan SepinwallAug 25, 2015
Season 1 Review: A sharper, more thoughtful, and just plain funnier version of the kind of retro multi-cam sitcom "Mr. Robinson" was trying to be. Read full review
70
Yahoo TVKen TuckerMay 31, 2017
Season 3 Review: In the three new episodes I’ve see, the show too often makes the laughs secondary to its progressive messaging. Read full review
70
Sioux City JournalBruce MillerMar 14, 2016
Season 2 Review: “Black-ish” has found a great way of talking about current events without sounding like “Meet the Press.” The Carmichael Show will get there, too, once it lets its very good supporting cast get out and do more. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydAug 26, 2015
Season 1 Review: Although the series is not as philosophically unsettling or politically unpredictable as his stage comedy, which gambols in the depths of human self-deception, it is unusually topical and thematically pointed for a people-on-a-couch comedy in the year 2015. Read full review
70
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenAug 26, 2015
Season 1 Review: The Carmichael Show improves as it goes, especially when veteran performers Loretta Devine and David Alan Grier come on screen. Read full review
70
Yahoo TVKen TuckerAug 26, 2015
Season 1 Review: No one is going to say The Carmichael Show is a groundbreaking sitcom, but it’s certainly a likable and, with some regularity, a funny one. Read full review
70
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniAug 25, 2015
Season 1 Review: The Carmichael Show, which co-stars Lil Rel Howery as Jerrod's brother Bobby and Tiffany Haddish as Bobby's ex-wife, relies on far too many cliches, but Carmichael manages to take hackneyed situations and turn them into something unexpected and fresh. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKeith UhlichAug 20, 2015
Season 1 Review: Carmichael and his writers find a way to balance the laughs--like a very funny moment when Cynthia races off to put on her “civil rights clothes”--with the unavoidable rawness stirred up by the situation [of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown]. Even though it’s not a perfect mix, you can see the series The Carmichael Show is striving to be here. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyRay RahmanAug 17, 2015
Season 1 Review: Everyone seems too busy delivering hokey lines to focus on being, you know, funny. [21/28 Aug 2015, p.96]
50
VarietyBrian LowryAug 25, 2015
Season 1 Review: Over the course of three episodes, some funny moments do emerge, but too often the writing feels as if it’s veering out of its lane to make points instead of doing so organically. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandAug 17, 2015
Season 1 Review: It’s closer relative is actually “Everybody Loves Raymond.”... In the TV world, imitation is the sincerest form of content production. What counts are the performances and the dialogue, and The Carmichael Show scores adequately in both categories. Read full review
45
Reason.comGlenn GarvinMar 12, 2016
Season 2 Review: There's no story or character development, just an endless chorus of set-up, punch line, repeat. And the punch lines aren't nearly cutting enough to carry all that indolently dead weight. Read full review
40
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerAug 25, 2015
Season 1 Review: Like “Mr. Robinson,” it’s a cliché-filled mélange featuring terrible acting. But at least it tries to be more, and occasionally it succeeds. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleyAug 25, 2015
Season 1 Review: At the end of the day, or at least the end of the pilot, we’re left with another quirky family that mostly seems to be heading only for the next laugh line. Read full review
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