Critic Reviews

Truth Be Told doesn't let its issues come from the characters. The issues are the characters. Maybe future episodes will flesh out these people, but they initially serve as stick figures on which to hang "outspoken" opinions seeming not necessarily their own.

The principal cast members are appealing enough, providing perhaps some hope that the material will mature and measure up to them in future episodes. For now, though, it’s mostly hammer-over-the-head time.

The cast works pretty hard to sell the material, but it’s awfully thin, and tackles the topical aspects less aggressively than NBC’s summer sitcom “The Carmichael Show,” which earned a renewal. The main problem is that nothing here feels remotely organic.

Truth Be Told is probably not worth your time. While it tries to be edgy, most of its humor is fairly tame.

Truth Be Told is more of a "look at me, I'm not PC!" shout of self-regard.

They're all likeable enough, but the set-ups are straight out of a dog-eared playbook.

Unfortunately, the pilot is awkwardly written, so the cast doesn’t quite mesh.

The first episode's reflexive need to be topical quickly feels more like running through a hot topic checklist than situations generated by actual characters.

Black people and white people can be best friends, and that's the truth. Apparently, however, that friendship can't be funny, or so Truth Be Told easily convinces us.

The concept of the show actually isn’t bad, but the execution is wanting, and then some. Every conversation feels awkward and forced, and of course the supposed jokes just aren’t funny.