Critic Reviews

They are quirky--cookie-cutter quirky. But for summer TV drama, that's not the worst they could be.

With a relatively modest first order and a late May launch, The Night Shift may be seen by NBC as, realistically, a summer series. By that standard, it does its job and more.

The Night Shift gets the X-ray right for a series. Now it just needs to find a way to pump some new blood.

Night Shift doesn’t really have another gear, but it refuses to go full Grey’s Anatomy and ramp up the sexy complications so much that it attains the lift off of fun melodrama.

Both ["Undateable" and The Night Shift] are NBC series serving as spring-summer filler, adequate at what they do but not worth scheduling your life around.

In some ways, it is like a placebo, lacking substance, but not ineffective. In others, it is a kind of gaily packaged generic equivalent to some better-known brand.

Don’t look for the depth of “House,” “Grey’s Anatomy” or other top-flight medical dramas here. But if preposterous, pulse-pounding pileups of bizarre accidents and obscure medical conditions appeal to you, sure, put the trashy beach novel aside and help yourself.

Night Shift won’t make anyone forget the glories of NBC’s ER at the height of its powers. It shows some signs of being a passable summertime drama series, though.

Shift is competent but useful mostly as a reminder to stay healthy at all costs and avoid this sort of place. [9 Jun 2014, p.34]

Its hero is so obnoxiously awesome and self-righteous that I could only make it through half of the whopping eight episodes NBC sent out for review.