The New Normal
NBC | Release Date: September 10, 2012
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
10
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesLori RacklSep 12, 2012
Season 1 Review: [A] witty-but-poignant look at what it means to be a modern family. Read full review
88
USA TodayRobert BiancoSep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: At its best, it plays like a Woody Allen film, something you may notice most when secondary characters stop and explain themselves to the camera. Read full review
83
Washington PostHank StueverSep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: Bartha and Rannells's characters display yin/yang neuroses that keep their characters interesting, but as Goldie, the would-be surrogate, Georgia King is unfortunately bland. Read full review
80
Denver PostJoanne OstrowSep 11, 2012
Season 1 Review: A little bit screechy, a little bit preachy, NBC's The New Normal is nonetheless the best comedy of the season--a season short on innovative comedies. Read full review
80
Zap2it (Inside the Box)Drusilla MoorhouseSep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: This heartwarming show just might become the sitcom success NBC so desperately needs. Read full review
80
Philadelphia InquirerDavid HiltbrandSep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: It's fast and funny. As long as Ryan continues to mix humor from the cute and the curdled sides of the aisle, this show will entertain. Read full review
75
New York PostLinda StasiSep 11, 2012
Season 1 Review: The New Normal finds its game when it's funny without trying so hard and sweet when it should be. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandSep 5, 2012
Season 1 Review: A fairly promising new show with a lot of humor, solid performances, a snappily written script. Read full review
75
People WeeklyTom GliattoAug 31, 2012
Season 1 Review: The color, pace and performance are vibrant, often crazily so. [10 Sep 2012, p.39]
75
Entertainment WeeklyKen TuckerAug 31, 2012
Season 1 Review: I'd give The New Normal a slight edge because it's tighter and more assured, but the bigger, odder "Go On" ensemble bears watching too--for a few more episodes, at least. Read full review
70
The New York TimesAlessandra StanleySep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: It is an arch comedy with a soft heart behind its scrim of fast-paced patter. Read full review
70
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenSep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: The New Normal is at its funniest when it's most outrageous; other times it feels as if it might have worked better as a one-shot movie than a weekly TV series. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushSep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: As you'd expect from co-creator Ryan Murphy (Glee), the tone can wobble from sappy to flamboyantly snarky, but there's a real emotional undercurrent that makes Normal a good fit with Matthew Perry's new sitcom Go On. Read full review
70
VarietyBrian LowrySep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: [The} New Normal won't be for everybody, but there's enough here to suggest it can connect with a loyal core, enticing some to stick around and see what develops. Read full review
70
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertSep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: The New Normal is sweet-natured, in the way the characters mingle their lives together; but the jokes, they are mighty spotty. Read full review
70
PopMattersMaysa HattabSep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: The lack of cynicism is at least a bit unusual in the current sitcom universe, conferring novelty and a genuine, rather than confected, sweetness. Read full review
67
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardSep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: Go beyond the in-your-face, outrageous title here, and you'll find a somewhat sweet show struggling to create some real laughs. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchGail PenningtonSep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: The comedy is all over the place in tone, bouncing from broad and silly to poignant and real to silly again. Read full review
63
RedEyeCurt WagnerSep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: NBC's The New Normal has its share of stereotypes and crass jokes that straddle the line of bad taste. But it's also sweet and, dare I say, funny. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydSep 11, 2012
Season 1 Review: Much about the pilot felt flat or programmatic to me, but much was likable as well, especially the nonchalant tenderness between the male leads. And the cast is good. Read full review
50
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen GraySep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: This one tries so hard to set up its premise that at times it ends up feeling more like a PSA than a comedy, which can be annoying if you're already on board with same-sex marriage and gay parenting. Read full review
50
NewsdayVerne GaySep 7, 2012
Season 1 Review: The New Normal needs to take a deep breath, get off the soapbox and get funny fast. The right elements--talented cast and showrunner--are already in place. Read full review
50
Uncle BarkyEd BarkSep 6, 2012
Season 1 Review: For now, it's a disappointing polemic that mainly offends by being lazily or awkwardly executed more often than not. Read full review
42
HitfixAlan SepinwallSep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: The execution in this case is too shrill and scattered to get any of his points--or jokes--across. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanSep 11, 2012
Season 1 Review: Murphy and Adler opt for the caustic in a series that probably had its best chance of success playing it more subtle and more sentimental, tossing in the barbs judiciously. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Matt Zoller SeitzSep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: The New Normal humanizes stereotypes without ever quite making them seem like people. Read full review
40
The Huffington PostMaureen RyanSep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: The New Normal needs to work in a more linear and emotionally direct fashion, and there's not much about this NBC pilot, which is fueled by a mixture of cattiness and slick manipulation, that reassures me on that front. Read full review
40
TimeJames PoniewozikSep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: For now this show is much more normal--read: mediocre--than it seems to think it is. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleySep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: The New Normal wants what "Modern Family" is having. But if we're going to catapult from "South Park" to a Hallmark movie, we need a smoother ride. Read full review
38
Slant MagazinePhillip MaciakSep 10, 2012
Season 1 Review: The New Normal is a nominally progressive comedy with more gay jokes and regular old racism than Gallagher's stand-up act. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalDorothy RabinowitzSep 14, 2012
Season 1 Review: The problem is--as is ever the case in sitcoms with no future, and this is one of them--vapid writing and characters drawn according to formula. Read full review
30
Miami HeraldGlenn GarvinSep 11, 2012
Season 1 Review: Where Modern Family is sweet and funny, The New Normal is cheap and hectoring. Read full review
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