The Commish

ABC | Release Date: September 28, 1991

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

50	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

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Miles BellerApr 16, 2020

Season 1 Review: Chiklis as the man with the big badge and large heart puts over the role with grand, embracing humanity. And Saldana as the Mrs. makes the part convincingly real. To be sure, there's more than a tad of schmaltz and stage business afoot here. Yet "The Commish" out-performs the usual cop operas impressed into primetime service this time of year. [27 Sept 1991]

Scott D. PierceApr 16, 2020

Season 1 Review: It's tough for anything to succeed on Saturday night, and this show may be too uneven to hold up for long. But it has possibilities, so let's hope ABC sticks with it for a while. Read full review

Greg DawsonApr 16, 2020

Season 1 Review: The Commish is a conventional cop series that will rise or fall on the strength of its main character, so it may have a shot. Chiklis, a stumpy dynamo who played John Belushi in Wired, is instantly likable as Scali, an "unorthodox" police commissioner in suburban New York. Read full review

Matt RoushApr 16, 2020

Season 1 Review: The man, and the actor, command respect, but probably will get precious little in this terrible time period. [27 Sept 1991, p.3D]

Howard RosenbergApr 16, 2020

Season 1 Review: What saves The Commish (barely) is Chiklis’ nice work as a complex, plain-talking family man seeking to distance himself from his modest Brooklyn origins, plus Scali’s priceless clashes with his shiftless brother-in-law (David Paymer). These humorous skirmishes in the presence of Scali’s wife (Theresa Saldana) set an urbane comic tone for “The Commish” that makes you almost forget the program’s lapses. Read full review

Ken TuckerJun 9, 2013

Season 1 Review: Chiklis' Scali is such a happy saint that he verges on the insufferable — no one can be this generous, this clever, this jolly. Read full review

David HiltbrandJun 25, 2013

Season 1 Review: The series makes a weak slab at the Hill Street Blues mix of humor and pathos. But Chiklis is a marvel of believability, vividly creating a character who is disarming, droll, clever and compassionate. Read full review

Michael HillApr 16, 2020

Season 1 Review: Take a good character and put him in a lame show peopled by cliches and what you get is a waste of a good character. Read full review

Hal BoedekerApr 16, 2020

Season 1 Review: The print ads for The Commish go: "Loves pasta. Sings opera. Nails scum. . . . A police commissioner you gotta love." Viewer, you don't gotta at all. The Commish and ABC should go nail themselves. [28 Sept 1991]