Metacritic TV

Threshold

SERIES: CBS, Friday 9:00p (60 minutes)

Starring Carla Gugino, Charles S. Dutton, Brent Spiner, Rob Benedict, Peter Dinklage, and Brian Van Holt

Created by Bragi Schut, Brannon Braga, David Goyer, and David Heyman

Genre(s): Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

FIRST AIR DATE: September 16, 2005
LAST AIR DATE: November 22, 2005

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

64 / 100

Critic Reviews

100 USA Today Robert Bianco
Convincingly smart, realistically unsettled and sexy as all get-out, Gugino radiates so much TV star power, it just might be visible from outer space.
90 Variety Brian Lowry
Crisp, smart and spooky, this cerebral sci-fi drama is the best of the new "Something's out there" series.
90 Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
The most exciting new show of the fall TV season.
88 New York Daily News David Hinckley
It has everything you want from such a show: quirky characters, gifted actors, a captivating central story - and questions that leave you not only wanting more, but hungry for it.
80 Cleveland Plain Dealer Mark Dawidziak
Like "The X-Files," a series it resembles in both look and tone, "Threshold" is as much a horror show as it is a science-fiction program.
80 Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart
A violent, hair-raising combo of “The Ring,” “War of the Worlds” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” with a dash of official conspiracy.
80 Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker
Of the three [alien invasion series], this CBS series boasts the best light show. It has assembled the strongest cast. Above all, it establishes the most involving story and the one most likely to bring viewers back the following week.
80 Salon Heather Havrilesky
May be the most riveting and the most haunting drama to air this fall.
80 Seattle Post-Intelligencer Melanie McFarland
Considering all that it has going for it, "Threshold" has a more formidable foe in Friday night apathy. Out of all the shows that could possibly conquer that, though, you couldn't place your faith in a better choice than this excellent proof of intelligent TV life.
75 San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman
Dinklage is particularly good here and the whole idea of trying to hide from the public the fact we've been invaded is intriguing fare.
70 The Onion A.V. Club 
It's only one good episode away from turning from intriguing to addictive.
70 The New York Times Alessandra Stanley
"Threshold" holds back more than it reveals, and that is the right contingency plan for a successful science fiction thriller.
70 San Jose Mercury News Charlie McCollum
"Threshold" seems to have a lot going for it. A good bunch of writers. Classy production. One of the season's quirkiest and most appealing casts,... Whether all these high-quality ingredients result in an intoxicating sci-fi stew remains to be seen.
70 Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron
Sci-fi purists might find it the taste of CBS' "Threshold" disconcerting, but for the rest of us, this is scary fun and suspenseful dramedy.
70 Miami Herald Glenn Garvin
The cynical and cerebral Threshold is the darkest of the three new space-alien shows, so much so that the producers seem to be wondering if the human race is even worth saving.
60 Time James Poniewozik
The cast is startlingly good... given that the actors have to deliver lines like "I think we're looking at a four-dimensional object--in three- dimensional space!"
60 LA Weekly Robert Abele
This is a series about whip-smart heroes, with an outbreak to contain each week, usually involving quick action, rapid analysis and fast wit.
58 Entertainment Weekly Gillian Flynn
With all of its bad-guy chases, Threshold feels like a fantasy series that's been focus-grouped into a cop show.
50 New York Post Linda Stasi
The premise is fun, but if this is CBS' attempt at "Lost," then they are, if not totally lost, certainly in need of a map. And a new writer. Some of the dialogue is laugh-out-loud bad.
50 Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd
"Threshold" is a comic book, and passable as such.
40 Newsday Diane Werts
The first hour manages to feel both mechanical and manipulative, without feeling truly exciting or even grounded anyplace.
40 Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert
When the show isn't creeping us out with its grim atmosphere and effects, it's undermining its own potential with a self-consciously cutesy gang of heroes, ill-advised humor, and illogical situations.
40 Slate Dana Stevens
The show's focus remains frustratingly narrow.
40 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen
There's too much emphasis on fictional scientific theories and not enough character development to make the few scares in "Threshold" worth a two-hour commitment.
30 PopMatters Bill Gibron
Even with all its CGI trappings and somber Washington, D.C. setting, Threshold feels minor, an amalgam of The Abyss and maybe Dark Skies.
10 Philadelphia Inquirer Jonathan Storm
There's nothing inviting about the ponderous Threshold. Portentous music plays. Scared smart guys, rounded up by the government to figure out what's really happening, say smart-guy stupid stuff.

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