Critic Reviews

It’s raucously funny in its own right and in its own way. If the first season’s remaining nine episodes are anywhere near as laugh-out-loud hilarious as tonight’s opener, Barbershop: The Series will be nothing less than Showtime’s strongest entry yet in the comedy field. [14 Aug 2005, p.J1]

There's a vibrancy here, and a clarity, that we haven't seen in network sitcoms in ages. The way ABC's "Lost" reconfigured dramatic storytelling, Showtime's Barbershop so invigorates the humor format that we hate to call it a sitcom. It's entirely its own animal. And that's evolution of a kind everyone can get behind. [12 Aug 2005, p.]

Barbershop is inventively edited, consistently funny and decidedly not for kids. [14 Aug 2005, p.3]

Raucous, bawdily good-natured. [14 Aug 2005]

Pretty funny. Pretty profane, too, but still funny, and a better-realized weekly program than last week's Showtime comedy premiere, "Weeds."

Messy, unruly but occasionally quite funny, "Barbershop" doubtless could use a trim here and there, and perhaps a little extra styling. Yet in its unassuming way, the series breezily picks up where the movie and its sequel left off. [12 Aug 2005, p.2]

What it lacks, unfortunately, is style -- some sense of smart, well-executed, up-to-date design. You can almost see the corners being cut, from the inconsistent casting to the cheap reliance on sex to the blatantly fake back-lot sets that are trying to pass for Chicago. You may not expect originality in a movie transfer, not when familiarity is what's selling the show. But you do expect Barbershop to display enough style of its own to avoid looking like a cheap knockoff.

It's a crossover series that works, and has the strong potential to lure crossover audiences as well. Expect this "Barbershop" to stay open for quite a few years.

The humor in the pilot is anything but razor-sharp: The writers too often confuse coarse language for jokes, and a subplot in which Calvin coaches a Nigerian co-worker on the finer points of the booty call sputters badly. Still, there is promise here, thanks mainly to a collection of intriguing characters. [14 Aug 2005, p.F4]

Barbershop's tarty makeover - surprising, because three of the films' producers, including star Ice Cube, are behind this - does more than just sex it up for premium cable. The good will has been snipped from the franchise. [11 Aug 2005, p.53]