- Network: FOX
- Series Premiere Date: May 20, 2013
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Critic Reviews
- Critic score
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There's humor, there's heart, you'll laugh when you don't expect to.
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The Goodwin Games will have to consistently match the cleverness and poignancy of its pilot to win in the long run. Coming from the creators of How I Met Your Mother, there's reason to hope.
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The first episode isn’t riotous (truly hilarious pilots are rarer than... even truly hilarious sitcoms), but it’s confident and charming and the characters seem fully formed.
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True, it may be a little too high-concept, but it held my attention much better than plenty of other, much worse TV comedies.
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The surprise is that at least from the peppy pilot, it’s possible that this might actually work reasonably well.
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It's sweet in spots (mainly in scenes involving Miller's ex-con man-child trying to reconnect with his daughter), and the idea has potential, even though this is a premise pilot that has to spend so much time introducing the siblings and the competition that none of it's fully realized.
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Goodwin Games isn’t an Olympian comedy but it’s by no means an out-and-out clunker either.
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Instead of wink-winking at the audience about its own cleverness, The Goodwin Games mostly keeps things moving along at a snappy pace, with jokes as well. When the show gets too pleased with its own eccentricity, though, it becomes grating.
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Equal parts stupid and sweet, The Goodwin Games does not appear to be built for the long haul.
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The Goodwin Games isn't a sophisticated comedy by any means, and memorable quips are few and far between, but its overall lightheartedness manages to save it from becoming completely dull.
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It’s only too bad the writers (Carter Bays, Craig Thomas, Chris Harris) don’t start by grounding their charges with a little more humanity; instead, the trio proves so mismatched and exaggerated as to have a very long way to reach any sort of common ground.
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The writing is clever and crisp at times, but there's little chemistry among the actors. And the premise is contrived and confining.
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The Goodwin Games isn’t awful, really, but it might have made a better light-hearted movie than a weekly series. The concept is so limited, it gets very tiresome very fast.
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It has funny moments. It’s just not a game we’re likely to want to keep watching.
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The "games" in the pilot include a specially designed version of Trivial Pursuit where all the questions reveal aspects of this unhappy clan's back story. That's as clever as Goodwin gets, and except for Newton's daffy sparkle, there's no real incentive to play along.
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You're likely to understand Fox's hesitation with The Goodwin Games after seeing the premiere, which introduces the characters and the premise, but with only a few laughs.
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[The] moderately appealing cast is wasted in a show about three children of a recently deceased rich guy who have to compete among themselves to become the sole heir to his $23 million estate.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 13 out of 15
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Mixed: 1 out of 15
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Negative: 1 out of 15
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Jun 25, 2013
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May 30, 2013
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May 22, 2013