Most critics are cautiously positive. The praise clusters on the premise, a surveillance machine and post-9/11 paranoia running through a network procedural, and on Michael Emerson, whom several reviews single out as the more compelling half of the central pair. The involvement of Jonathan Nolan and J.J. Abrams is cited as a reason to hope. Critics who assess the series as a whole rather than the pilot are warmer, and the later seasons, once the case-of-the-week format gives way to a serialised conspiracy, are where the admiration sits.
The reservations cluster on the pilot: a mediocre first case, familiar CBS procedural habits, and a Jim Caviezel who reads as emotionally distant. The spread is narrow, running from mixed to warm with no outright dismissals. Paste is the coolest, finding the idea interesting but the execution generic; Den of Geek, writing years later, is the warmest, arguing the show grows into one of the smartest on television.