Critic Reviews

It's trying to be juicy, stupid fun, but it isn't smart enough.

This farmer may want a wife but, in the end, the only guarantee is that he gets a reality show.

Farmer Wants a Wife feels about as "real" as "The Dukes of Hazzard," suggesting it should be viewed in much the same spirit.

Farmer Wants a Wife moseyed onto the air last week bearing the best title of any pop-culture commodity of the year to date and, given its standard-issue inanity, a surprising subtextual richness.

It's entirely paint-by-numbers, a formulaic dating contest colored in with all the too-familiar characters, from the butch Matt to each of the ladies, city gals looking for a real man who doesn't bother with all that metrosexual nonsense. This is reality by rote.

The American Farmer is more... American: another intermittently nasty competition dating show, with stunt challenges and a ritualized elimination at the end of every episode.

Despite its silly trappings, Farmer Wants a Wife is neither appalling nor unintentionally funny enough to merit sitting through yet another contrived dating show where the biggest prize would be for someone, anyone, to escape with a bit of their dignity intact.

It's strictly entertainment. Assuming that's what you call it when one guy's ordering 10 aspiring brides through a series of ridiculously staged agricultural challenges to find the one who'll win the right to have her name mentioned in People magazine when they break up.

Viewers should figure out pretty quickly that manure is the main ingredient here, and though it might help the corn crop grow high, it's unlikely to do much to boost ratings at the struggling CW network.

Heavily produced, the series has some ratings potential by CW's chicken-feed standards but doesn't feel distinctive or titillating enough to keep 'em down on the farm.