Critic Reviews

Carey himself is a fidgety guy. He doesn't just deliver a line — he kind of dances around it, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. At first I found this, combined with his habit of looking down and grinning fixedly when he speaks to someone, pretty annoying. But his lines are so amusing and his timing so sharp that I've come to like Carey's anti-acting style.

"The Drew Carey Show" bucks all the prevailing sitcom trends and does it endearingly. [17 Sep 1995]

The closer any Drew episode gets to the cool-jerk vibe Carey gives off on talk shows, the better it invariably is.

The show's weakness is a negligible supporting cast, particularly Diedrich Bader and Ryan Stiles.

Carey, a stand-up comedy veteran, has great timing and expression. It's easy to relate to his working-class persona. Now if someone could just make his friends a little funnier, "Drew Carey" could be a winner. [13 Sep 1995]

Whether [Carey] can stretch beyond his stand-up work and move to another level, as have such comics-turned-sitcom-stars as Jerry Seinfeld, Brett Butler and Roseanne, remains to be seen.

One of the best of the new crop of sitcoms, a sort of low-rent, anti-glamour Friends, featuring a sharp-witted, likable and hilariously self-deprecating guy. [13 Sep 1995]

[Carey is] a fresh and winning presence, but so strong that the show will have to work to see that the other characters hold their own. [13 Sep 1995]

Though Carey has friends, his show is no 'Friends'-style ensemble comedy. It's closer to a blue-collar 'Seinfeld,' a star vehicle purpose-built to exploit its star's best talents, which it does quite effectively. [13 Sep 1995]

The writing, which draws heavily on Carey's stand-up act, is often funny, with wry comments about life's absurdities. [13 Sep 1995]