- Network: FOX
- Series Premiere Date: Feb 8, 2011
Watch Now
Where To Watch
| Buy on |
|
Critic Reviews
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Traffic Light is winning and amusing without being loud and loutish.
-
On paper, it sounds like another sitcom dedicated to the tired idea that relationships are forced on men like collars on dogs, the leashes held by annoying, fun-killing women. And yet I enjoyed the show more watching it than I find I am describing it.
-
It could be argued that Fox has pulled off something even more remarkable with the debut of the less-than-thrillingly titled Traffic Light, a romantic comedy whose concept was imported from Israel: because it is both funny and remarkably realistic.
-
The first episode's a little stiff as the guys mark their territory, but by the fourth the show feels sweatpants-comfortable.
-
Traffic Light, like that old Mustang you had in college, splutters more than a bit when you turn the key, but eventually it gets going. And once it does, the splendid refinishing of a classic makes the inevitable bumps much more easily endured.
-
The formula may be hokey, but Traffic Light's execution of it is charming, and funny in a way that doesn't seem to be trying too hard, thanks to some happy casting and scripts that appear to have been written with real people in mind.
-
All five characters, in fact, transcend the cheap stereotypes that lazy writers so frequently use to populate their sitcoms. That may not be enough to propel their show into the long green of syndication, but for a Fox sitcom, even cautious optimism is a step in the right direction.
-
The office scenes are by the far the series's funniest, showcasing an arrogant and idiotic boss who talks in screwball staccato.
-
Silly in places, the show seldom careens over the top, and manages to elicit periodic laughs from all three of its couplings, though the strategic marital ground war waged between Mike and Lisa will probably resonate best.
-
It has a set of distinctive actors, a minimum of punch-line mania, and a script that is occasionally charming. The characters actually have the potential to become three-dimensional.
-
A not-unpleasing comedy that takes time and commitment to grow on you. How long? I started to like it three or four episodes in. Seems like an awfully long time, no?
-
Traffic Light is better than NBC's Perfect Couples--the jokes are more relaxed, and the cast includes NCIS's Liza Lapira, whose humor has bite. Not a killer ensemble, though. [14 Feb 2011, p.42]
-
At rare moments it brushes up against an actual, weighty relationship problem, like the discovery that your financially irresponsible girlfriend is deep in debt. But the show soon loses heart and rushes its way to some silly resolution, like a nervous hostess bustling over to soothe two arguing guests.
-
The complicated setup, the filmic style, the attempts of a laugh track all have you expecting more than the regular relationship cliches.
-
Traffic Light is the kind of sitcom that revs from zero to zero with laughter.
-
With funnier material, they [the actors] could really make this thing work.
-
Traffic Light winds up with a negative hat trick, in which I found myself not caring about any of its three male leads, though I did like one of their female co-stars and several of the guests who popped up in the episodes I've seen.
-
Traffic Light seems to want to be a male "Sex and the City" or "Entourage" without the Hollywood backdrop. But the scrapes these guys get into are more recognizable and more cliched than what the "Entourage" guys encounter.
-
This is assembly line rom-com TV.
-
The opening night lesson of the new Fox sitcom Traffic Light is that no matter how marvelous hands-free telephone technology has become, it isn't yet advanced enough to carry its own sitcom.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 14 out of 24
-
Mixed: 5 out of 24
-
Negative: 5 out of 24
-
Feb 19, 2011
-
Feb 9, 2011
-
May 7, 2011