Critic Reviews
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42
Metascore
Mixed or Average
positive
1(3%)
mixed
16(53%)
negative
13(43%)
Showing 30 Critic Reviews
Dec 8, 2016
63
While the Daniels drama does have some bounce to its step, at least early on, it isn’t as instantly appealing and distinctive as Empire” was.
Dec 1, 2016
60
If the acting is often raw and the plotting messy, that seems about right. It's too soon for this Star to be polished. [5-18 Dec 2016, p.23]
Dec 8, 2016
60
It's all very gritty and unglamorous. Well, as unglamorous as a show interspersed with musical numbers can be. And the musical numbers are very entertaining. But Star is filled with lowest-common denominator dialogue.
Dec 12, 2016
60
The three episodes I've seen are, like Star herself, a little rough, with a tangle of plotlines and some clunky dialogue. But there is plenty to care about, even if I'm not convinced this girl group has what it takes.
Dec 14, 2016
60
The writers are in no hurry to speed up the trio’s rise to celebrity, though, and if your taste aligns with Daniels’ brand of saucy escapism, you may want this ride to last as long as possible.
Dec 13, 2016
58
A prime-time soap that wants to be harder-edged than “Empire,” but instead manages to be less fun.
Dec 8, 2016
50
Moving past Daniels' sometimes tin ear for dialogue--or insistence on saddling actors with clumsy soap dialogue in scenes that are staged as naturalistic--wouldn't hurt the actors, because it's hard to find praise for Destiny, O'Grady or Demorest, each struggling with broad or inconsistent character introductions.
Dec 13, 2016
50
Like Empire, Star is a mess of the first order. It’s just a far less entertaining one.
Dec 14, 2016
50
It’s a very tentative introduction, made all the more surprising by the fact that Daniels wrote and directed it from his own treatment. It doesn’t foster much confidence, let alone interest, in a series when even its creator is unsure of how to flesh out that world.
Dec 14, 2016
50
Pick through that mess, and even the biggest Daniels skeptic will find a fierce commitment to progressive social issues; a knack for writing showcases for actresses of color that are so often slighted by Hollywood; and a kind of Shakespeare-meets-camp delight for dialogue that is as operatic as it is silly--though only effective about as often as you’d expect with that kind of ambition.
