Germann plays Sam’s husband, who at first seems distant but then reveals touching devotion to his family. If only the main cast had such material to shine.

Mind Games is the kind of dramedy that could give you a brain cramp.

It wants you to believe that Sheen is playing the most sane, vulnerable man in the world, yet he still comes off like a creep.

The more [Vance (David Walton) is] allowed to cut loose, the closer Perfect edges to real humor.

Grammer throws himself into the material, but Lawrence seems deflated. Perhaps he recognizes these scripts seem like somebody’s first drafts. Partners doesn’t make much of a case.

The show does not inspire confidence.

Those who worry about the teenager's well-being will find little comfort in this series.

The Thundermans doesn’t do much heavy lifting, but it waves its cape proudly.

My Generation is based on a Swedish series, "On God's Highway." Dramatic storytelling seems to have veered off the road and crashed into a tree.

Alfre Woodard isn’t given a lot to do as President Constance Payton in the premiere, but, unlike Heigl, she does have the gravitas for the role, and the show would be wise to use her more.

First, the dreck: The best thing that can be said about the unscripted series The Show With Vinny, starring “Jersey” castoff Vinny Guadagnino, is that the half-hour bumbles along like Sunday dinner with your most annoying relatives.

Cross the Web with "Blair Witch" 's jittery camera and what do you get? A good reason to shut off your computer AND your TV. [6 Oct 2000, p.S32]

Sean Saves the World actually left this viewer depressed about the health of network comedy.

Most of this show is stupid stoner humor. ... There aren’t enough drugs to find the funny in Disjointed.

[Sharon Stone's] character could be erased and the show wouldn’t miss a beat--heck, it might actually be better.... Hephner comes off as a cross between Kevin Costner and a “Just for Men” model and is adequate handling the light banter the scripts spoon out. This is a Sunday night show for people who find “The Walking Dead” too grim and “The Good Wife” too real.

Nobody registers much of a connection. What’s missing from this show is heart.

Nobody here is as self-obsessed as the least Kardashian, which will come as a relief to the celebrity-jaded, but we all know where the real talent lies in this family, and he's not onscreen enough to justify this series.

Stern, who starred in the "Home Alone" and "City Slickers" movies, isn't devoid of comic instincts. Perhaps that's why he seems to be going through the motions here with a barely concealed smirk.

Many of the jokes are non sequitur riffs that turn into endurance tests. The cast seems to be aware of it.

It's more closely a cross between "My Cousin Vinny" and "The Good Wife," with Janet Montgomery ("Entourage") a dull stand-in for Oscar winner Marisa Tomei.

The story reflects how badly these procedurals have degraded over the years, forced to come up with increasingly more over-the-top motives for murder. If cookie-cutter cruelty is your nightcap, this show will send you well off to sleep.

CW’s Labyrinth is quite possibly the worst miniseries ever made for TV.

A tired, messy show that reflects its star, fashion PR and marketing maven Kelly Cutrone.

Reincarnation, recycling, rip-off. On network TV, it’s all the same. Whatever you did in a past life, you don’t deserve this drivel.

This show almost works, and credit has to go to star Jordana Spiro ("My Boys"), who imbues her Dr. Grace Devlin with equal parts brass and cleverness.

For The Odd Couple to work, you have to believe there are moments when these roommates want to throttle each other. This version presents a mild bromance. Nice for them, not so much for us.

Even the cotton-candy fantasy “Glee” had more depth and reality to it than this show.

Let the drinking games commence.

The Neighbors is the silliest show you will watch all year.

Manhattan Love Story suggests some thoughts are better left unsaid.

[The] clunky scenes work thanks to the exceptional cast. These actors can sell anything. Almost.

The acting ranges from adequate to awful. Milano and George have zero chemistry, and George’s sexy stud act, which has bankrolled his career, reaches its expiration point here.... It’s not nearly enough sizzle for summer.

After the initial disasters, the rest of the show flatlines. Just as in the “CSI” universe, the lead characters are there to serve up exposition.

Although 'Dad' also was created by [Family Guy's Seth] MacFarlane and has even more outlandish characters - a gay alien, a randy German goldfish - it feels like the more conventional (read: less funny) sitcom. [1 May 2005]

This series won't last long enough for him to complete his education.

[A] dreary show that has all the edge of a doughnut hole and comes slathered with an astonishing amount of sexual innuendo for a network sitcom.

Reba's smile can warm almost anything. But it's not worth sitting through this recycled sitcom for it.

The ladies are so desperate to be noticed, they recycle bits from other shows.

There is some actual racing in the hour, at the Parada Del Sol rodeo in Scottsdale, Ariz., where 120 compete but only 12 will draw checks. The time to beat is just under 18 seconds. But the results give way to another round of sniping and back-biting. The Weinstein Co., known for Oscar-bait films, serves as co-executive producers of this sorry spectacle.

Fox managed to turn the final hours of Jesus Christ into an extended “Today Show” concert. Except “Today” has never had so many taped segments. The bewildering sort-of-live production in New Orleans last night starred Tyler Perry as host and violated the cardinal rule of storytelling: SHOW, don’t tell.

Right now, the best advice for Nia and her new husband is to move far away from her family. Far, far away. [25 Feb 2003, p.46]

Even offering a slightest knock of this show feels about as kind as, say, throwing a rock at a Haitian orphan. This viewer, however, is not convinced there’s a one-hour series here.

With the possible exception of Barnett, not one of the cast is remotely convincing or appealing in their parts. The helicopter action is neither impressive nor especially authentic looking.

The CGI stuff is cool; if only the acting were half as realistic.

Unlike "The View," there were no topical references--the show could have been filmed five years ago for all its relevance--unless you count the moment Osbourne turned a vague discussion of divorce law reform into a rant against cyberbullying.

Its three-hour remake is poorly cast, badly choreographed and auto-tuned to an inch of its life, with a “La La Land”-inspired plot twist that is sure to make no one happy.

There's something bizarrely addictive about The Hasselhoffs.

Kidman works hard here, but she is sabotaged by a common script.

You don’t need a CGI delusion whose one skill is pratfalls. Elfman is game and charming, and Scarrwener could be the reincarnation of Janeane Garofalo. Imaginary Mary just needs to go away.

Outpost might remind you of the heyday--or low point--of syndicated shows in the late ’80s or ’90s. It’s not “Xena: Warrior Princess”--it’s more on par with the dreck of “Beastmaster.”

This is “The Da Vinci Code” crossed with “Indiana Jones” with dialogue courtesy of a Magic 8 Ball.

Here’s the kind of firm even “Boston Legal’s” Denny Crane would have the sense to close down. And I don’t think I’ve ever sat through so many penis jokes in the 8 p.m. hour.

The show is often so gross, one is tempted to suggest that our local arts schools should start steering its graduates toward more meaningful fields--such as automotive mechanics or doggy waste disposal. But Blue is also frequently funny in a raunchy “American Pie” way.

With the breezy action comes some valuable knowledge about magnets and ammonias. Who knew TV could be educational? ... This reboot looks to be a pleasant way to start the [CBS Friday] lineup and the weekend.

The problem with Partners, as you'll discover if you watch the first two episodes, is that they already made that show years ago and it was called "Will & Grace."

The Paul Reiser Show is stale and dated.

From Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Anne Heche comes this mostly numb comedy about a judge with a messy personal life.

Training Day veers toward the funny bone when it should be going for the jugular. Paxton acts in the pilot as if he’s in a remake of “The Dukes of Hazzard” and he’s playing Cooter. He tones it down in future episodes, but he’s never menacing or scary or even ambiguous.

Do No Harm, a modern spin on Robert Louis Stevenson's "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde," sounds lame. Yet it is so fast-paced and slickly produced, it could just be your new guilty pleasure.

Rosewood tries so badly to create the next prime-time super couple, but the duo at the heart of this awkward crime procedural are less together than they are apart.

There are some adorable tots mugging hard on NBC's Guy with Kids. The adults muck it all up.

This little dramedy, an adaptation of a Spanish series, has that USA “Monk” comedy-lite vibe going for it.

I’d ask for a script doctor, but it’s time to call the code and be done with it.

One Big Happy is light and forgettable.

The lack of suspense and originality is depressing.

You can take the spiked head out of Jersey but you can't stop his "Shore" ways.

Hate touches a comic nerve, the war of independence between teenage girls and their moms, but invariably settles for a hug when a few more slammed doors might be funnier.

It's all about their attitudes, and on that front, Man Up! is a downer.

This is one of the least authentic family sitcoms on TV, right down to the horrible home set, which looks like it was cribbed from the scraps of canceled shows.

This show violates so many tenets of storytelling, it deserves to be tossed in the clink. Outlaw is about as entertaining as a legal brief on the case of Wall v. Paint Drying.

"Watching Ellie" is a mess of cliches and lots of straining for chuckles. Louis-Dreyfus makes it look like a huge effort, which is all the more obvious because her Elaine on "Seinfeld" was seamlessly amusing. [15 Apr 2003]

You may laugh, but you'll hate yourself afterward.

The unscripted answer to "Laverne & Shirley" will now be tamer than "Anne of Green Gables."

Netflix’s sequel series Fuller House is a triumph of canny calculation over creativity. The extended 40-minute premiere is the best fan-service of any reboot ever.

It's an appealing premise that quickly bores with bad writing. [28 Nov 2002]

This franchise finally jumps the sharknado.

Worst Christmas Ever seems to be under the impression that if it continually lamp-shades its own awfulness--the inane plot, the atrocious acting and production values, even that it is a Lifetime movie--that it will somehow make up for it. But that’s not how math works.

Much of Hunters seems like torture porn. McMahon overacts as the unhinged Hunter who seems to want to destroy humanity but is taking the long road to armageddon. Phillips is just miscast as humanity’s best hope.

Controversy aside, Life seems to have no meaning beyond giving the 21-year-old a platform for her parenting views and criticism of Los Angeles.

The true horror here is the utter lack of imagination.

Of all the dumb shows you can watch on a Monday, here’s one more.

It's strange that the same network that airs these two stellar comedies [Modern Family & The Middle] would chose to regress and put this dreck on the air.

This might be the first TV series to shame an entire zip code.

The party may be winding down, the taps are running dry, but stupidity lasts forever.

This series looks like a sad refuge for actors down on their luck. [4 Jan 2001, p.40]

In the absence of a believable or captivating story, Wicked tries to shock, but this is broadcast commercial TV. Ryan Murphy can and does more in two minutes on basic cable than Wicked­ can achieve in an hour.

The show obvi­ously wants you to believe their characters are meant for each other, but given that this show seems to be teasing everyone with everyone else, it’s hard to take that seriously--or even be inter­ested.

You don’t ask for much logic from these Syfy schlockfests, but the story pretty much dog-paddles for two hours until its inevitable conclusion.

Whoever reads those stilted lines, it won't make a difference. These angels never take flight.

'Big Brother' ... is such a demeaning, depressing exercise that everyone involved ought to be lashed to one of the Pentagon's defective 'Star Wars' missiles and rocketed out over the Pacific, never to be heard from again, except by the sharks. [2 Aug 2000]

CBS has churned out yet another lowest-common-denominator sitcom.

CBS has wisely cast familiar faces in key roles, which gives the show a leg up given that the characters can barely pass for one-­dimensional.... There’s something comforting about the fantasy of a government task force leaping to your aid hours after a vacation takes a detour to hell.

The show displays all the sophistication you might expect from a social media that limits its statements to 140 characters. Here's a tweet from me: This show is a piece of (bleep).

The dialogue is so poor, even Tyler Perry would wince.

No one deserves to lose their job in a mess like this--except the person who created this dreck.

Calling this a train wreck makes the movie sound more fascinating than it is.

These couples are just the sort you’d dodge at the office or at a party, so why you’d want to unwind with them on your TV is NBC’s headache. Truth Be Told: Not much fun here.

Hawaii's pacing, dashes of humor and casting make this one worthy of an "aloha" - but that's a tentative hello.