The Goldbergs
ABC | Release Date: September 24, 2013
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
12
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanSep 24, 2013
Season 1 Review: One of the new offerings that stands out from the pack is ABC's coming-of-age series, The Goldbergs, which is fueled partly by nostalgia, partly by the great Jeff Garlin's constant yelling and partly out of some outstanding writing. A strong cast doesn't hurt, either. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineMatthew PolandNov 5, 2014
Season 2 Review: Like Modern Family at its best, the series thrives on putting easily legible characters into clear-cut conflicts that are resolved through a capitulation to familial affection; the domestic space is the source of and solution to most of the show's problems. Read full review
75
USA TodayRobert BiancoSep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: When The Goldbergs sticks to its loud, abrasive but loving family, it's fine. It's when it switches its focus to the '80s, complete with a voice-over designed to point out every difference between that decade and our own, that it gets into trouble. Read full review
75
NewsdayVerne GaySep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: Noisy, silly, occasionally obnoxious, sporadically funny and ultimately sweet. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandSep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: The Goldbergs is funnier because the jokes are better but also because it is more credible [than "Mom"]. Read full review
70
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen GraySep 24, 2013
Season 1 Review: The adult cast is superb... but it feels as if the young actor playing Adam (Sean Giambrone) might have been kidnapped from a more conventional TV family. Read full review
70
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenSep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: The show has its amusing moments, though not from an abundance of 1980s nostalgia clips (“The Karate Kid,” “Knight Rider,” “ALF,” “Different Strokes” and “Back to the Future” all whiz by on screen) and music cues. The humor comes from the characters and their relationships. Read full review
67
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardSep 24, 2013
Season 1 Review: Garlin and McLendon-­Covey are believable as variations of “That ’70s Show’s” parents, and Gentile’s Jan Brady-style meltdowns are amusing. But Adam’s obsession with female breasts, encouraged by his grandfather “Pops” (George Segal), is creepy, considering the actor looks about 9. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMolly EichelSep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: The Goldbergs is far from terrible—it just needs to learn how to mix the quirky dysfunction with the heartwarming moments in the style of shows like Malcolm In The Middle or Raising Hope. Read full review
67
Uncle BarkyEd BarkSep 20, 2013
Season 1 Review: The Goldbergs is amusing in fits and spurts before ending on several sweet notes--including REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling.” Read full review
60
HollywoodChicago.comBrian TallericoSep 26, 2013
Season 1 Review: The comedy on The Goldbergs is loud, aggressive, and somewhat abrasive. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalDorothy RabinowitzOct 3, 2013
Season 1 Review: It has its strengths--most of them derived from the skilled cast--but none related to any capacity for originality. Read full review
50
Under The RadarCody Ray ShaferSep 26, 2013
Season 1 Review: The Goldbergs banks on nostalgia for its charm, but needs to build on something more for us to really care about this family. Read full review
50
TimeJames PoniewozikSep 24, 2013
Season 1 Review: What it needs to make it a lasting family comedy and not a VH1 special is heart and a sense of its characters as individuals. It shows signs of the former, but the latter gets lost in the deafeningly loud pilot and the pop-culture-reference humor. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushSep 24, 2013
Season 1 Review: So far so generic, and I'll decide later once my ears stop ringing. Read full review
50
HitfixAlan SepinwallSep 24, 2013
Season 1 Review: The characters are all broad types, the '80s references (Gobots, Sam Goody, an REO Speedwagon singalong) mostly feel shoehorned in rather than creating the feeling of the era, and the hostility of the family doesn't turn out to be great fodder for humor. Read full review
50
People WeeklyTom GliattoSep 19, 2013
Season 1 Review: It is nice but overly familiar in its reliance on pop-culture signposts and snuggly sentimentality. [30 Sep 2013, p.53]
50
Slant MagazineLuis SanchezSep 18, 2013
Season 1 Review: The Goldbergs's ostensibly endearing premise is sadly also its biggest flaw. Goldberg's on-screen representation as prepubescent Adam (Sean Giambrone) fails to complement the voiceover narration and meaningful asides of adult Adam (Patton Oswalt) in any substantial way. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Matt Zoller SeitzSep 24, 2013
Season 1 Review: There are a few lively moments--Barry flipping out when he thinks his mom gave him car keys for his birthday when it's really a locket with her picture in it; a montage that collects dad's malapropisms, the better to teach viewers "How to speak Murray"--but it's all too strained, too obviously written, and too dependent on the sort of easy-laughs memory-lane-tripping that VH1 did to death about fifteen years ago. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamaraSep 24, 2013
Season 1 Review: For all that it springs from original material--a coda to the pilot shows some of the actual home movies, which are indeed hilarious--The Goldbergs--is all style and no substance. Read full review
40
Philadelphia InquirerDavid HiltbrandSep 24, 2013
Season 1 Review: There are some sharp jokes here, but they get lost in the bile. The Goldbergs is like The Wonder Years infected by Married... With Children. It's a half hour of annoying people yelling at one another. Read full review
40
VarietyBrian LowrySep 17, 2013
Season 1 Review: As fertile as the mid-1980s are for comedy, however, the pilot is too often grating--with a little of Garlin, in particular, going a long way. Read full review
33
Washington PostHank StueverSep 15, 2013
Season 1 Review: It rapidly turns into a prolonged, nearly laughless sketch about domestic life in the Pac-Man era. Read full review
30
The New York TimesAlessandra StanleySep 24, 2013
Season 1 Review: The characters and mishaps on The Goldbergs are predicable, and the writing isn’t clever enough to overcome clichés. Read full review
30
The Huffington PostMaureen RyanSep 19, 2013
Season 1 Review: The Goldbergs has a solid adult cast, but the whole thing leans heavily on broad humor and cartoonish moments--and did I mention that it's LOUD. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleySep 24, 2013
Season 1 Review: It’s not just that they’re caricatures, or that even the most prominent piece of ’80s music used in the pilot makes you wince. It’s the way every move and sentence feels like the easiest path to predictable gags. Read full review
20
Miami HeraldGlenn GarvinSep 23, 2013
Season 1 Review: The Goldbergs runs the gamut from stale to sour. Read full review
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