Critic Reviews

Only Julianna Margulies on "The Good Wife" is carrying a comparable load, and though Roughness is a more fanciful construction than that CBS show, with more obvious emotional victories, it feels just as honest. It worked on me as intended.

Sins of fathers and mothers not only visit each of the characters, but infest them; the show shimmers with an inner core of volcanic anger that makes it far more interesting than your average family soap.

Thankfully, Thorne's feisty charm mostly overcomes the show's familiar-feeling concept. [1 Jul 2011, p.68]

USA's newest series, Necessary Roughness is a charming and clever dramedy.

Despite some cliched dialogue and scenes (she tosses her lecherous husband's designer duds and pricey suitcase out their bedroom window--fresh!), her presence is reason enough to watch--and reason enough to hope this series turns out to be something worth watching week after week.

Written by Liz Kruger and Craig Shapiro and directed by Kevin Dowling, Roughness smoothly exploits the winning combination of Thorne--who practically oozes sex appeal, while still conveying an approachable vulnerability--with the macho NFL setting.

The show is just an undemanding, entertaining, and sometimes whimsical ride. Yup, it's likable.

Over all, Necessary Roughness is enjoyable, a lighthearted look at football that takes a therapist in suburban Long Island seriously.

The Necessary Roughness pilot was enjoyable enough, but half the fun may have come from seeing Dani's adjustment to the big money, high-stakes world of professional sports. Can this show go the distance? It isn't clear yet, but at this admittedly early stage, the latest addition to the USA roster appears to be a promising rookie.

As USA dramas go, Necessary Roughness is about halfway between "In Plain Sight" and "White Collar" on the believability scale, but it's summer and I like Thorne, whose character is feisty and funny and shrill only when shrillness is absolutely justified.