The Unit
CBS | Release Date: March 7, 2006
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
8
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Christian Science MonitorGloria Goodale
Season 1 Review: This could all get old really fast, but Taylor's steely performance keeps the home front interesting, while the globe-trotting soldiers bring home the reality of how many troubled spots this small planet still has. Read full review
80
SalonHeather Havrilesky
Season 1 Review: One of the major strengths of "The Unit" is its ability to tackle the blurry ethical lines and confusing behavioral codes of the military during a time of war. Read full review
80
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesCharlie McCollum
Season 1 Review: It just oozes potential with sharp dialogue and a strong cast. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: "The Unit" is filled with thrilling action and heart-pounding adventure. Read full review
80
Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker
Season 1 Review: Mamet skillfully balances the men's harrowing missions with their wives' sacrifices on the home front. Read full review
80
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: Only an occasional over-spicing of melodrama keeps The Unit from TV's top echelon. Even so, it's the best new dramatic series of a TV season that started way back in September. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker
Season 1 Review: This being Mamet, there's lots of folksy jargon. [10 Mar 2006, p.56]
75
Chicago Sun-TimesDoug Elfman
Season 1 Review: "The Unit"... is predictably Mametian only in that it's interesting, tightly written and finely shot. Read full review
75
Detroit Free PressMike Duffy
Season 1 Review: It's uneven in spots, with the riveting action sequences sometimes overshadowing the more subdued domestic scenes. But unlike the often gratingly shallow "JAG," "The Unit" allows for ambiguity. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: Sometimes formula done entertainingly is just what the country wants to eat. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyRobert Abele
Season 1 Review: There are glimmers of something refreshingly different. Read full review
70
Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland
Season 1 Review: A promising cast and respected executive producers conspire to give "The Unit" a shot at being this spring's breakout hit. But the real proof's in the pilot, a thrilling balance between the action of this sharpshooting brotherhood and the schemes of their secretive, slightly overbearing wives. Read full review
70
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: Mamet offers a kind of thinking person's war movie for a nation that is, indeed, at war. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalNancy DeWolf Smith
Season 1 Review: After the male action sequences, alas, the feminine interludes tend to be soporific. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd
Season 1 Review: This is news that never quite rises to the level of an event: "David Mamet Came to Television and All We Got Was a Better 'E-Ring.' " Read full review
60
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 1 Review: Some of Mamet's dialogue is certifiably awful and some certifiably brilliant, and the dichotomy is breathtaking. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 1 Review: A grim, formulaic drama. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: "The Unit" features a strong cast - but for much of this show, they're cast adrift. Read full review
50
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: A not-awful but not-great drama. Read full review
50
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: "The Unit" becomes distinctive only when the action shifts back to the wives left behind on the base. Read full review
40
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: These two extraordinary talents have done an average job with what is a surprisingly unimaginative premise. Read full review
38
New York PostAdam Buckman
Season 1 Review: The executive producers of this series are David Mamet and Shawn Ryan, but it has none of the panache of Mamet's plays and movies such as "Glengarry Glen Ross" or "The Spanish Prisoner," and none of the blunt force of Ryan's best-known work, "The Shield" on FX. Read full review
30
Cleveland Plain DealerMark Dawidziak
Season 1 Review: Halfway through tonight's clunky and cartoonish debut, it dawns on you that we're stuck in the middle of Operation Letdown. Read full review
30
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: The Unit hits more false notes than an American Idol tryout. Read full review
20
The New RepublicLee Siegel
Season 1 Review: What you get is a show constricted by radical artistic compromises that it refuses to acknowledge having made. The result is an expulsion of Mamet's distinctive vision into the margins of the series, in which it wanders around like a director who's been fired from a movie yet will not leave the set. Read full review
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