The Class
CBS | Release Date: September 18, 2006
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
7
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: The best sitcom this year, and one of the best in a lot of years. Read full review
88
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: Juggling such a large ensemble won't be easy, and the producers have to guard against crowding too many stories together at the cost of depth and development.... If they can get the balance right, though, Class should be an ideal fit for CBS' successful Monday lineup. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: In addition to some screwball comedy, it also has a lot of heart. Read full review
80
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: Cute but not cloying, funny but not overflowing with gratuitous sex jokes, "The Class" earns a B+, which easily puts it in contention for valedictorian among fall 2006's freshman comedies. Read full review
80
Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker
Season 1 Review: Not since Friends has a comedy been blessed with so many appealing performers matched to sharply drawn characters. Read full review
75
Detroit Free PressMike Duffy
Season 1 Review: It arrives fresh, charming and consistently funny. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesDoug Elfman
Season 1 Review: "The Class" is a good example of how any premise can be turned into good fiction, even if it's cluttered with tired cliches. Read full review
75
People WeeklyTom Gliatto
Season 1 Review: The Class doesn't necessarily generate more laughs than other sitcoms, but it has more charm--like a kinder, gentler How I Met Your Mother--and that's incentive enough to stick with it. [16 Oct 2006, p.39]
70
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: In the mostly undistinguished roll call of new comedies, it goes to the head of the class. Read full review
70
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: Poignantly funny. Read full review
70
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: And though there are a few clunkers along the way... the largely theater-trained cast is as solid as the writing, which only grows stronger in two subsequent episodes. Read full review
70
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesCharlie McCollum
Season 1 Review: The writing has picked up considerably since the pilot. But the real reason to try this show is the cast. Read full review
70
Baltimore SunDavid Zurawik
Season 1 Review: A comedy with lots of charm. Read full review
70
NewsdayDiane Werts
Season 1 Review: Watch the first few minutes of "The Class" in its CBS sitcom debut tonight, and you may not believe me when I say this, but here goes. I think they might have something here. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyGillian Flynn
Season 1 Review: While [Lizzy Caplan's] pretty great, the show remains merely somewhere on the edge of good. [3 Nov 2006, p.67]
60
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: “The Class” has appealing characters and funny lines, but it has some problems. The jokes move along slowly, and at times the acting turns very broad and very loud, as if it were dinner theater. Read full review
50
New York PostAdam Buckman
Season 1 Review: There's a nice idea in there somewhere. Now, if CBS and the show's producers can get together on changing most of it, they might have something. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd
Season 1 Review: If "The Class" feels calculated, unrelated to life outside sitcoms, and encased in amber, it's a competent American product, ultimately, no harder to watch than, say, a Dodge is to drive. Read full review
50
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: A sometimes-promising, sometimes-frustrating, always-overpopulated new sitcom that kicks off this season's odd new trend of shows about relative strangers who become best pals in a hurry. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: The best thing to say about "The Class" is that it improves by quite a few notches as it goes along.... The worst thing to say about "The Class" is that requiring viewers to come back and try, try again is asking a lot. Read full review
40
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 1 Review: The crass elements of “The Class” threaten to drag the whole show down. Read full review
40
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: "The Class" will never be smart, or clever, or original, but it does have a chance of becoming inoffensive and diverting. Read full review
30
Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland
Season 1 Review: Hang out for a while... and you may quickly realize why you didn't stay in touch with most of your fellow third-graders. People like these suck the life out of you. Read full review
30
Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart
Season 1 Review: The punchlines fell flat more often than not. Read full review
30
TimeJames Poniewozik
Season 1 Review: Almost none of [the characters] shows signs of becoming an actual person rather than a high-concept joke. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: The best that "The Class" can muster is a kind of cookie-cutter familiarity (also known as lameness) that gets prodded by the laugh track to make everyone at home feel like a good time is being had. It's not. Read full review
10
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: "The Class" has very little. Considerably worse than being classless, however, is being laughless, at least if you happen to be a sitcom, and "The Class" does, albeit one that's about as rib-tickling as a migraine. Read full review
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