CBS’s new couples comedy Mad Love premieres Monday, Feb. 14 at 8:30 p.m. The following are reviews from TV critics around the Web, compiled by B&C:
“Heartbreakingly enough, ‘bland’ is the best you can expect from Mad Love, a mediocre example of TV’s most overworked, underproductive sitcom subset, the romantic comedy.” – Robert Bianco, USA Today
“Mad Love…gives CBS another sitcom winner and should give a lot of viewers a lot of laughs.” – David Hinckley, New York Daily News
“If Mad Love pushes toward a more distinctive identity and grows beyond TV’s standard two-couple romantic situations, there may be hope. And in the grim world of network comedy, hope isn’t a bad place to start.” – Matthew Gilbert, The Boston Globe
“In the long run, if Mad Love stays in the Monday lineup, it probably needs to be less like How I Met Your Mother, though. Beyond the cast similarities…both shows also feature voice-over narration. These issues aren’t terminally problematic, and, in fact, they would have been less noticeable if Mad Love landed anywhere other than Monday night in the CBS schedule.” – David Wiegand, The San Francisco Chronicle
“Mad Love is a second-rate show. The actors have all been in other, better shows and the jokes are tired. Penis jokes, breast jokes, masturbation jokes, bar jokes - nothing you’d want to repeat around the water cooler, or anywhere else, for that matter.” – Alex Strachan, The Vancouver Sun
“Unfortunately, much of the action revolves around Ben and Kate, who are totally boring in the way the inexplicably besotted so often are. There is a chance that they, and the writers, will kick it up a few notches and start playing at Labine and Greer’s level…But a sitcom cannot live on B-plot alone; second bananas only work if there’s a decent main course.” – Mary McNamara, The Los Angeles Times
