The Defenders
CBS | Release Date: September 22, 2010
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: On the correct assumption that almost no one watching TV today remembers the original "Defenders" series, CBS has created a new one with more swash, more buckle and results that are modestly entertaining. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyTanner Stransky
Season 1 Review: There's nothing particularly bad about this new legal drama starring Jerry O'Connell and Jim Belushi as a couple of skeevy Las Vegas lawyers--but then again there's nothing particularly good about it, either. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: Although titled The Defenders, there is no mistaking this stubbornly and unaccountably bland legal show for the bold CBS series of the 1960s with the same name. Read full review
50
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: This latest legal franchise appears to harbor no such ambitions [as "The Good Wife"]--and the gambling, booze and sexual debauchery associated with the town is inevitably going to be rather tepid and implied, even in a 10 p.m. timeslot. The show would be more defensible, oddly, if its characters could be a trifle sleazier. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: Sure, it's nice to see Belushi in a new incarnation, and if I were trapped at a car repair shop in front of an episode I might be happy. But there are much better shows out there right now, and only so many hours in my day--and on my DVR. Read full review
50
Boston HeraldMark A. Perigard
Season 1 Review: O'Connell glides through the show on his smile. Belushi isn't as bad as one might expect, which, granted, isn't much of a compliment. He reins in the comic buffoonery, and if the scripts get better, he might prove to be up to a dramatic role. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamara
Season 1 Review: There's actually no reason this couldn't be a perfectly fine legal procedural, except there's no indication that anyone is attempting to make it one. The script is strictly writing by numbers. Read full review
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