| 100 |
Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker
Sons & Daughters offers such a fresh, funny take on family life that it could be a landmark comedy. |
| 90 |
Philadelphia Inquirer Jonathan Storm
This sparkling saga of an extended dysfunctional family has more laughs than regular characters. |
| 90 |
TV Guide Matt Roush
When a new comedy shows up as fresh, original and painfully hilarious as Sons & Daughters, at first I want to cheer. And then I start to worry if it can survive. Call it Arrested Development syndrome. |
| 88 |
USA Today Robert Bianco
There's something terribly real and awfully funny about this engaging little sitcom, which takes the sweetness of Parenthood and adds its own slightly bitter touch. |
| 88 |
New York Daily News David Hinckley
It has a sprawling cast, but even before the pilot is over, because of the clever way it's written, directed and acted, you'll know, and like, every single character. |
| 80 |
LA Weekly Robert Abele
The looseness of the interchanges gives the humor an anti-writers’-room freshness without losing the harshness we’ve come to expect in this Everybody Loves Raymond/Arrested Development age of clashing relatives. |
| 80 |
Los Angeles Times Paul Brownfield
It's very well-acted and meanwhile, when it can stand it, kind of tender, although it's far more interested in "Curb"-like moments of uncomfortable confrontation. |
| 80 |
San Jose Mercury News Charlie McCollum
Definitely worth your time. |
| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times Doug Elfman
It starts out a little cutesy but quickly finds laughs in crisp writing and really strong (and blessedly not-overblown) acting. |
| 70 |
Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert
"Sons & Daughters" is a sitcom whose method -- a script embellished by actors at play -- celebrates the unexpected comedy that can emerge among talented people. |
| 70 |
Miami Herald Glenn Garvin
This sitcom is a loving embrace of convulsive domestic eccentricity. |
| 70 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Melanie McFarland
"Sons & Daughters" is supposed to feel like a heightened version of your own family, and in many ways it succeeds. |
| 70 |
Wall Street Journal Nancy DeWolf Smith
Some viewers, accustomed to less-original TV fare, may miss having stock gags and situations rammed down their throat. "Sons & Daughters" is a savory for more discerning palates. |
| 70 |
Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron
The improv style when done well, as it is here, doesn't generate sidesplitting laughter, but it does produce a steady stream of deliciously enjoyable moments. |
| 70 |
The New Yorker Nancy Franklin
Compelling, if not quite riveting. |
| 70 |
Washington Post Tom Shales
"Sons & Daughters" turns the banalities of family life upside down and inside out and finds something new, and even something cherishable, in many of them. |
| 70 |
Time James Poniewozik
The show's conversational improv rhythms and realistic, documentary style make Sons and Daughters worth adopting. |
| 60 |
PopMatters Maura McAndrew
Those who enjoy Sons & Daughters enjoyed Arrested Development more, and the same viewers put off by the latter's off-the-wall humor will also be put off the new show. |
| 60 |
Variety Brian Lowry
A half-hour firmly ensconced in the "witty" zone that seldom crosses all the way over into funny. |
| 60 |
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen
Personally, I found "Arrested" funnier, but "Sons & Daughters" has its moments. |
| 60 |
The New York Times Alessandra Stanley
"Sons & Daughters" is a milder, more humane version of Fox's canceled "Arrested Development" -- it milks the humor of absurd people and brutally frank conversation. |
| 60 |
Chicago Tribune Sid Smith
Crowded, confusing and unafraid to be dull, "Sons & Daughters" also holds tremendous promise. |
| 50 |
Entertainment Weekly Henry Goldblatt
For a show that's supposed to be all loosey-goosey, too many of S&D's visual and aural cues are rigidly staged. [10 Mar 2006, p.53] |
| 30 |
Salon Heather Havrilesky
The improvised dialogue is sometimes smart, but it often leads to scenes where the main characters repeat their intentions over and over again -- you know, like in a really bad improv class. |
| 25 |
New York Post Linda Stasi
Vulgar and incomprehensibly unfunny, "Sons & Daughters" is a clear attempt to be a hip hybrid of "Arrested Development," "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "The Office." Instead, it's just a mostly superb cast being thrown to the wolves with ugly dialogue. |
| 20 |
Newsday Diane Werts
Most of the cast stammers its way through sentences as if awaiting a lightning strike of inspiration. When it doesn't come, the actors have to say something anyway, and that meandering search for structure is what winds up filling 30 shapeless minutes. |
