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Nathan Rabin

Nathan Rabin's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at Tomatometer-approved publication(s).
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Reviews

Movies TV Shows
B+ EDIT “Smigel and his creative team perfectly replicate the look and feel of the kiddie schlock they're satirizing,” – AV Club Mar 20, 2020 Full Review Xavier: Renegade Angel: Season 1 (2007) B+ EDIT “Xavier boasts incredible comic density, packing every 15-minute episode with a giddy abundance of gags, ideas, and banter delivered at a rapid-fire clip.” – AV Club Dec 18, 2019 Full Review This American Life: Season 1 (2007) 100% B+ EDIT “The good news is that the show has made the scary leap to television with much of its charm and integrity intact.” – AV Club Nov 12, 2019 Full Review America's Next Top Model: Season 1 (2003) 64% EDIT “As with most reality TV, the success of the show boils down mainly to casting, which is where it really excels. In both the judging and the modeling, the show revolves around a pair of strong opposite poles.” – AV Club Nov 8, 2019 Full Review The Wire: Season 1 (2002) 86% EDIT “The Wire's first season is methodical and deliberate to an almost perverse degree. Like the Avon Barksdale investigation, it's built piece-by-piece.” – AV Club Oct 22, 2019 Full Review 30 Rock: Season 7 (2012) 95% A- EDIT “30 Rock could coast on the goodwill generated by the knockout, surprisingly moving Liz Lemon wedding episode but it seems intent on regaining its former glory as it roars its way to a conclusion.” – AV Club Oct 14, 2019 Full Review Punk'd: Season 1 (2015) 80% EDIT “Like a Red Bull-crazed Wizard Of Oz, co-creator Kutcher lurks behind the scenes... handling hosting duties with way too much enthusiasm. The celebrity angle makes the show perversely fascinating.” – AV Club Oct 9, 2019 Full Review Stella: Season 1 (2005) 67% A- EDIT “Stella's ads promised "dumb comedy dressed up in a suit," and much of the show's appeal comes from the contrast between its striking visual elegance and the giddy ridiculousness of its plotting and gags.” – AV Club Oct 2, 2019 Full Review The Simple Life: Season 1 (2003) 69% EDIT “The Simple Life seems designed at least partially as an attempt to rehabilitate its stars' images, but it fails spectacularly” – AV Club Sep 26, 2019 Full Review A- EDIT “It's still a little weird to see a quintessential New York type like Conan in LA and Andy Richter wasn't given much to do tonight but it feels damn good to have our Conan back.” – AV Club Sep 6, 2019 Full Review Dirt: Season 1 (2007) 29% C+ EDIT “Dirt is powered by cheap psychology and even cheaper irony.” – AV Club Sep 4, 2019 Full Review A- EDIT “It was a classy and emotional farewell from a man destined for bigger if not necessarily better things.” – AV Club Aug 26, 2019 Full Review B EDIT “There was something weirdly intimate about [the premiere of] Late Night last night: without writers or scripted bits to fall back on the show's central comic conceit seemed to be Conan being Conan.” – AV Club Jul 30, 2019 Full Review Gun: Season 1 (1997) 57% EDIT “[James Steven] Sadwith's segment starts out promisingly but grows increasingly manipulative and farfetched as it goes along... Far more interesting, but still flawed, is the pilot's second vignette, the first pairing of Altman and screenwriter Anne Rapp.” – AV Club Jun 20, 2019 Full Review The Weird Al Show: Season 1 (1997) 73% B+ EDIT “Weird Al was quirky, smart, and fun, albeit not quite the masterpiece it might have been under more ideal circumstances.” – AV Club Jun 17, 2019 Full Review The Outsiders: Season 1 (2004) 20% EDIT “It veers into clunky self-parody in the early going and while it improves as it proceeds, there's still a massive gulf in quality between the TV show, the movie, and the novel...” – The Dissolve Jun 3, 2019 Full Review EDIT “James Bond Jr. is the most off-model of off-model Bonds, complete with villains who have been altered in arbitrary and annoying ways.” – The Dissolve May 28, 2019 Full Review Cop Rock: Season 1 (1990) 53% EDIT “The television equivalent of a tuna salad and chocolate ice cream sandwich; the ingredients might be tasty and palatable on their own, but combine them in violent disregard of the laws of nature and you end up with something singularly disgusting.” – AV Club May 22, 2019 Full Review Duckman: Season 4 (1997) 100% EDIT “Its grating, often unlikeable protagonist, dark absurdist tone, penchant for pop-culture riffing and parody, and metatextual tomfoolery give it a distinctly contemporary feel.” – AV Club May 8, 2019 Full Review Duckman: Season 2 (1995) 100% B EDIT “Duckman was ahead of its time.” – AV Club May 8, 2019 Full Review Duckman: Season 1 (1994) 80% B EDIT “It's telling that the show's only adorable characters, the obnoxiously cute sentient teddy bears that work for Duckman, exist solely to be tortured and abused.” – AV Club May 8, 2019 Full Review Space Ghost: Coast to Coast: Season 1 (1994) 100% EDIT “Uses the rigid, predictable template of the late-night talk show as the platform for some of the most audacious and unpredictable stream-of-consciousness comedy ever to grace the small screen.” – AV Club May 3, 2019 Full Review Californication: Season 1 (2007) 75% F EDIT “Californication is nine parts smug, self-congratulatory, foul-mouthed snark, and one part unearned sentimentality.” – AV Club Nov 17, 2018 Full Review Nathan for You: Season 1 (2013) 89% EDIT “Fielder isn't just a uniquely warped comic mind: He's also a student of human psychology... In the brilliant first season of Nathan For You the insane risks he takes pay huge comic dividends that will hopefully result in a second season.” – AV Club Nov 9, 2018 Full Review Entourage: Season 4 (2007) 70% EDIT “I came to a disconcerting realization: Entourage is kinda awful.... The show's dearth of moralism came to feel like a stubborn adolescent refusal to acknowledge that life is anything more than, like a totally bitching non-stop party.” – AV Club Nov 9, 2018 Full Review
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