Critic Reviews

Together they [Patrick Warburbon and Carrie Preston] put a fair amount of zing into NBC’s New York City-set Crowded, which otherwise has a thoroughly shopworn premise and an increasingly outdated laugh track.

The series may lean on them [Patrick Warburton and Carrie Preston] to bolster a faltering script more than it should, but there’s no question that when they’re on screen (which is most of the time), Crowded manages to chug along.

A genial, old-fashioned--nay, prehistoric--family sitcom on the wrong network.

Like Hot In Cleveland, it’s throwback TV, with all the unfussy charms that implies. Some weak conceptual components aside, what it offers is the warm comfort of the familiar.

The series is not crowded with laughter, but things begin to look up by the third episode.

Every single thing about Crowded feels familiar, as if we've seen it many times, which we have.

The comedy comes off as a less funny “Modern Family,” with the daughters uncannily similar (one’s dim and fashionable; the other is smart and geeky) to the “MF” girls.

Warburton's expressionlessly ironic delivery turns repetitious; the situations unfunny and even creepy (do daughters really announce their alternative sexual proclivities by making out with a girlfriend in front of dad?) By the end of the second episode, you may even find yourself longing for a good Bill Cosby rape joke.

Crowded feels like a throwback on every conceivable level.

Mr. Warburton is his usual deadpan self as Mike, which makes him seem decidedly out of place in this household, where everyone else is over-energized and overacting. This series, created by Suzanne Martin and inspired by her own life, has a throwback feel, with lots of quick gags and not much depth.