 Henry Goldblatt, writing for Entertainment Weekly, gave the episode a grade B. He accused the show of abandoning the "racial diversity and the gritty poverty" of the film, but still allowed that Peter Berg had "kept the thrust". The Matt Saracen character was singled out as particularly promising. While positively contrasting the show with other teen-age dramas like One Tree Hill, Goldblatt also had doubts about its staying power. Variety's Brian Lowry called the show "Earnest, beautifully shot and perhaps more organically religious than anything else in primetime". Still, he felt the show was "like one of those family programs middle America and conservatives pine for that too few of them actually bother to watch". He pointed out that the show had to compete with both House and Dancing With the Stars, among women as well as men, in order to survive. The Washington Post critic Tom Shales called the show "Extraordinary in just about every conceivable way," particularly emphasising the quality of the cast. Shales did have issues with the documentary style of show's camera movements, but still thought it could be the "best new drama series of the season".
