Most critics like it, and the praise falls in the same places. The premise, a detective knocked back to 1973, is judged clever not for its mechanics but for what it lets the series say about memory, nostalgia and how much Britain has changed. The recreation of the period is admired for its detail. Philip Glenister’s Gene Hunt is the performance nearly every review names, and the relationship between Hunt and Sam Tyler is picked out as the thing holding the show together.
The reservations are few. Sam divides the reviews: Variety finds the lead somewhat bland and The AV Club, the one mixed notice, thinks his character moments are weaker and the time-travel threads sometimes clumsily handled, while Collider finds John Simm’s performance captivating. Radio Times admits to some queasiness at Hunt’s attitudes. The spread is narrow, and the retrospective reviews written years later are warmer than the ones from 2006.