CNET Networks Entertainment GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Television

2008 Fall Season
2008 Summer Season
2007-08 Midseason
2007 Fall Season
2007 Summer Season
2006-07 Midseason
2006 Fall Season
2006 Summer Season
2005-06 Midseason
2005 Fall Season
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss TV In Our Forums

 

Upcoming & Recent Movies & Specials

 

Upcoming & Recent Series Premieres

My Own Worst Enemy 61
NBC, Monday

The Starter Wife Season One 72
USA, Friday

Life On Mars 74
ABC, Thursday

Kath & Kim 36
NBC, Thursday

Eleventh Hour 55
CBS, Thursday

Testees 38
FX, Thursday

Easy Money 67
CW, Sunday

Valentine 47
CW, Sunday

The Ex List 62
CBS, Friday

Star Wars: The Clone Wars 64
Cartoon Network, Friday

Sanctuary 56
Sci-Fi, Friday

Friday Night Lights Season Three 78
101 (DirecTV), Wednesday

Pushing Daisies Season Two 82
ABC, Wednesday

Private Practice Season Two 44
ABc, Wednesday

Dirty Sexy Money Season Two 69
ABC, Wednesday

The IT Crowd 67
IFC, Tuesday

Chuck Season Two 74
NBC, Monday

Life Season Two 72
NBC, Monday, Friday

Dexter Season Three 78
Showtime, Sunday

Desperate Housewives Season Five 72
ABC, Sunday

Californication Season Two 62
Showtime, Sunday

Little Britain USA 61
HBO, Sunday

The Life & Times of Tim 57
HBO, Sunday

Grey's Anatomy Season Five 69
ABC, Thursday

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

The Andromeda Strain
MINISERIES: A&E, begins Monday 5/26 at 9:00p

The Andromeda Strain
Critic Score
Metascore: 40 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
3.7 out of 10
based on 18 reviews
read critic reviews
how did we calculate this?
based on 18 votes
read user comments
rate this tv show

Starring Benjamin Bratt, Ricky Schroder, Andre Braugher, Eric McCormack, Christa Miller, Daniel Dae Kim, and Viola Davis

Michael Crichton's novel, which involves a deadly disease that is unleashed when a satellite crashes into a small town, is remade again, this time as a miniseries.

GENRE(S): Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
CREATED BY: Robert Schenkkan
Michael Crichton (book)
FIRST AIR DATE: May 26, 2008

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80
Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron
Each part has edge-of-the-seat moments, thanks to some admirable performances as well as several intriguing new plot twists that inject surprise at key moments.
Read Full Review
70
New York Magazine John Leonard
This mini-series actually improves on the original 1969 Michael Crichton sci-fi non-thriller, which spent too much time in a fab lab in the desert and not enough inside the icky green virus—or outside, where the government was covering up its biological-warfare experiments.
70
TV Guide Matt Roush
This slick and often scary update presents a gripping medical mystery of scientific trial and error against a topical backdrop of bioterrorism, environmental activism and 24-style government conspiracy.
Read Full Review
70
Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
This version of “The Andromeda Strain” is paced well; it gives Crichton’s story a hint of blandness but it also marches through the plot with no-nonsense efficiency.
Read Full Review
50
USA Today Robert Bianco
Unfortunately, the new plots continually intrude, dissipating tension and making an already complicated story too convoluted to follow.
Read Full Review
50
Philadelphia Inquirer Jonathan Storm
For about three hours and 40 minutes, the mini-series rockets along, an exciting pile of preposterousness with conspiratorial overtones. Then it fizzles, with stuff you've seen 1,000 times before, and irritating loose ends.
Read Full Review
50
Boston Globe Joanna Weiss
This version of his story arrives in a world that has seen not only "Lost," but "The X-Files," "Armageddon," and every other sci-fi show or movie that melds disaster, conspiracy, and teamwork. By now, it takes a lot more than clever ideas to keep us hooked.
Read Full Review
42
Entertainment Weekly Gillian Flynn
Andromeda is a two-night extravaganza that could have been one if its characters didn't speak in massive, clunky chunks of technojargon. [30 May 2008, p.80]
Read Full Review
40
Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker
As an A&E miniseries, the Michael Crichton novel unfolds as a fast-moving thriller with many jolting sequences. Unfortunately, the mini's makers fumble the most crucial action sequence. They're all thumbs, and the results are stupendously silly.
Read Full Review
40
Variety Brian Lowry
Where the movie was content to focus on that process, director Mikael Salomon and writer-playwright Robert Schenkkan throw in a veritable kitchen sink of elements. [...] Too bad, because the project has assembled a solid cast, even if they're constrained by spouting all that scientific jargon and spend too much time squabbling and grappling with outside distractions.
Read Full Review
30
Salon Heather Havrilesky
A&E's The Andromeda Strain is just a very expensive, very cheesy retread.
Read Full Review
30
Miami Herald Glenn Garvin
A hacky remake of a mediocre 1971 film of a pulp-science 1969 novel, this miniseries (it concludes Tuesday, if you must waste two nights of your life) is a poster child for generational decline: Whatever few IQ points were present in the original have long since leached away.
Read Full Review
30
The New York Times Ginia Bellafante
It never grows quite suspenseful enough, and it rests on the rather un-sci-fi-ish idea that the future is a benign force, like a mentor uncle with something meaningful to teach us about our venality and callous disregard for the Earth.
Read Full Review
25
San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman
Return you must. Otherwise, you'll miss the full-on descent into pants-wetting, outrageous, sci-fi crackery that makes the final two hours fly by.
Read Full Review
25
Chicago Sun-Times Misha Davenport
As each new element is added, explored and explained, the tension evident in the original novel gets watered down as we digest these other distractions. The result is completely devoid of any suspense.
Read Full Review
10
Los Angeles Times Mary McNamara
So here it is, a two-part A&E miniseries that manages, despite a cast culled from some of the best shows on TV, to be both overwrought and dull, a veritable Frankenfilm of sci-fi thrillers, built of debris from sources including "Outbreak," "Sphere," "The Omega Man," "The Birds," "The China Syndrome" and, oh, yes, "The Andromeda Strain."
Read Full Review
10
Time James Poniewozik
Woo, dog, is this miniseries bad--quite possibly worse than "Tin Man."
Read Full Review
10
Wall Street Journal Nancy DeWolf Smith
If it's relevant and reflects the hip themes of today, perhaps nobody will notice wooden acting, ludicrous dialogue and a plot so convoluted that the whole enterprise has as much tension as a broken violin string.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this tv show is 3.7 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Discuss this tv show in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: Fantasy Football | Miley Cyrus | MLB | iPhone 3G | GPS | Recipes | Shwayze | NFL

About CNET Networks | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use