Critic Reviews

The frequent pop-culture references might not age well in syndication--Michelle Obama maybe, but Heidi Montag? Overall, though, there's enough originality and likability in "Are We There Yet?" to make it a pleasant destination.

This family sitcom, adapted from Ice Cube's hit 2005 movie, is a modestly conceived, somewhat blandly executed story about a stepdad (Terry Crews from Everybody Hates Chris), his new wife (Essence Atkins) and her two kids. [7 Jun 2010, p.50]

If you think sitcoms these days try way too hard for shock and awe, Are We There Yet? provides a rather nice alternative.

The alleged comedy follows this blended family's attempts to get along. The laugh track works harder than anyone here.

It is so far minor stuff, inconsistent in tone and not particularly original yet fundamentally sweet and, if not stared at too hard, appealing.

The series' overall sweetness makes up for a number of its failings.

In the end, "Are We There Yet?" is a harmless little family comedy, and that's about the best that can be said. The traveling Kingston-Persons have come home, but it's not necessarily the best place of all.

While the story feels thin and forced, it does let the show dig into Nick and Suzanne's real feelings toward each other, and reminds us that we like them both.

While smart comedies have certainly been built on less, there is something so contrived about Nick's obstinacy that you feel as if you were watching a lesson in feminism that would be more sophisticated if it were rendered as children's puppet theater.

For a piece of old-school sitcom traditionalism, Are We There Yet? gets the concepts of family and marriage all wrong.