“Jonny Zero” is a crime drama from screenwriter Ken Sanzel (“The Replacement Killers”) about a newly released ex-con who decides to fight crime. It stars Franky G (“The Italian Job”), GQ (“Drumline”), Ritchie Coster (“The Tuxedo”), Chris Bauer (Frank Sobotka in “The Wire”) and Tawny Cypress (“100 Centre Steet”).
Variety says:
Variety says:
… makes a like-minded 20th-century artifact such as "Vega$" appear demanding by comparison. … Beyond the undeniable pex appeal of its well-muscled star, there's little to recommend this latest exercise in style over substance … there's a lot going on here, but very little of it coheres. Rather, the emphasis seems to be on how good the show's buff protagonist, a former college football player, looks in a muscle shirt. … most of the dialogue tilts toward the obvious when it isn't downright bad. …
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… a series with a unique visual style and one that feeds on action and attitude. Try to make sense out of it, and you'll be up all night talking to yourself. … There's also some decent chemistry between Calvo and his improbable new best buddy, an aspiring hip-hop artist with noble pretensions … Writer/exec producer R. Scott Gemmill keeps things moving from start to finish and turns every act break into a mini-cliffhanger. …
The Washington Post says:
Those who created the new Fox drama "Jonny Zero" didn't want to be accused of hatching a mere mediocrity. No, no. This show is no halfway effort; it's completely, gracelessly and gaseously bad. There must have been a hundred movies by now about guys named "Johnny," though admittedly few about guys named "Jonny." That dropped "h" is the sole stroke of originality in this reactionary claptrap … Maybe John Wells, who created "ER," and his fellow executive-producers and writers decided, for a prank, to make the worst crime show they could … "Jonny Zero" is too generous a title for a series that amounts to less than nothing.
USA Today gives it one star (out of four) and says:
A foul stew of putrid acting, moldy scripts and stomach-churning directorial flourishes, Jonny Zero rates a "zero" only in a mathematical system that doesn't recognize negative numbers. If you're adding up TV sins, this mishmash about a street thug with a heart of gold caught between crime and justice is hard to watch, hard to understand and hardly worth the effort.
Entertainment Weekly gives it a “zero” and says:
… this endless snoozefest's music and flashy photography are simply director Mimi Leder's smoke-and-mirrors way of distracting viewers from the ex-con's annoyingly cliché sidekicks …
The Los Angeles Times says:
… Franky G, who has had small parts in "Wonderland" and "The Italian Job," tries hard, and one day may be no worse an actor than Steven Seagal. … There is barely a moment in it that registers as original, and whatever authenticity is gained by the Queens-bred star's ethnic bona fides is squandered by the preposterousness of the writing and the visual overkill … "Jonny Zero" is a comic book clear through, though not as clever as comics tend to be nowadays. It's not awful, just awfully corny …
The Boston Globe says:
Without its propulsive hip-hop soundtrack, smoky-nightclub lighting, 90-mile-an-hour editing, cockeyed camera angles, and vividly bloodied noses, "Jonny Zero" wouldn't be much of anything. It's a state-of-the-art piece of TV eye candy, riveting for a few minutes until the rush ends and you start to crave a few grams of protein. … a slicker-than-thou perfume commercial that has no business going on for an hour every week. … Every scene seems to have been carefully conceived and painstakingly designed -- except for the scripting, of course, which is where the show fails miserably. …
9 p.m. Friday. Fox.
