It's strangely devoid of drama. [23 Sep 2002]

Becoming Us suffers from poorly cut segments that might give you flashbacks to the ’90s seasons of MTV’s “Real World.”

Dandridge is a standout as the sister rediscovering her love of faith even as her doubts about her family grow.

The ex-commander-in-chief sits down with National Geographic Channel to give a moment-by-moment account of the darkest days of his presidency--and the nation--in the utterly absorbing George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview.

If the concept is captivating, the execution, at least in the pilot, leaves something to be desired. [12 July 2004, p.e37]

It’s smart writing for smart characters. Six seasons in and Danes and the writers keep Carrie a complicated character who sometimes does the wrong thing.

Those tuning in for one of Carrey’s trademark manic performances will be disappointed. This is a much more mannered, subtle performance, and while you can admire the commitment to the role, you can find yourself perplexed by the execution. In the supporting cast, Langella is stand-out, a maestro at delivering deadpan snark.

The film is mostly a dance between Dinklage (also an executive producer here) and Dornan, who rises to the occasion and gives the best performance of his career as a man struggling to hang on to his sobriety even as he’s dragged through a hell of Los Angeles.

With her understated, monotone delivery no matter the situation, Kelly just might be the comedic find of the season. Galifianakis delivers a finely tuned grump as Chip and an over-the-top shrew as Dale. Under co-creator, executive producer and director Jonathan Krisel’s sensitive care, Baskets is a funny show about sad people.

While often touching, it's a lightweight addition to HBO's schedule.

Meloni is smirky, Hargitay whiny, and transferred-from-"Homicide" detective John Munch (Richard Belzer) seems out of place. But Wolf has proved an expert at integrating cast changes on "L & O," and we have to believe he'll iron all this out. [20 Sept 1999, p.36]

For all the story’s shortcomings, you’ll come back for the acting.

Pants hits the tube already out of style.

Smart, slick and sexy.

You can see all the jokes coming because they crawl down the road and wave their little hands before arriving. ... But in the hands of such masters, especially Arkin, who proves to be a thoroughly grumpy treasure, familiarity can be delightful.

You'd have more fun watching somebody put up drywall.

Alpha House feels like social studies homework. On a Saturday night.

All The Young Pope proves is that absolute power is absolutely boring.

For shows that play to our longing for America's lost days of glory, the sky's the limit.

Williams is magnificent. ... It’s a small miracle that “Fosse/Verdon” never loses sight of its goal — capturing the love and frustrations of two talented people who could never let each other go. “Fosse/Verdon” is “Scenes from a Marriage” — with none of that jazz.

There’s nothing wrong with whipping up some comfort food, of course, but Murder might leave you hungry for something more challenging an hour later.

Their journey should be thrilling, fascinating. It’s a chore. The young leads do the best with what the scripts give them, even as they are forced to run over the same story beats.

This is one overstuffed show.

Possibly the least funny thing on TV. [23 Jul 2003]

Extant plays with genres, mixing sci-fi, conspiracy thriller and scenes from a struggling marriage. It also asks some daring questions about the collision of machine and humanity.

Unlike other period dramas, notably AMC's "Mad Men" and Starz's "Magic City," Vegas doesn't cram the hour with topical references. Here, they're more subtle and jarring.

Call me bored. Encore's adaptation of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, the cable network's first original miniseries, is about as thrilling as a three-hour tour of Boston Harbor while blindfolded on a sweltering summer day.

Give Lost Girl a try. You might be seduced.

This is the best young adult cast for any drama in years, and you’ll even be able to overlook Apa’s horrible dye job.

Nikita is a breakthrough for teen-happy CW, its riskiest show yet--one aimed at adults. It's one they might enjoy.

The soul of the show is 30-something daughter Lydia (Heather Paige Kent), who dumps her loutish, lay-about fiance and decides to go to college. Written by waitress-turned-screenwriter Diane Ruggiero and based on her own life. The supporting cast, which includes Paul Sorvino, Kevin Dillon, Debi Mazar and Ellen Burstyn, is a standout. [1 Oct 2000, p.6]

The longer you stick with this nine-episode season, the more the players reveal themselves. It’s a big part of how Britannia,”written and co-created by Jez Butterworth (“Black Mass,” “Edge of Tomorrow”), transcends its genre roots.

The cast mines genuine heartache in the mysterious.

The Pillars of the Earth, a six-part, eight-hour miniseries debuting Friday with a two-hour punch, delivers enough surprises to enthrall any thriller buff.

Safe is one of those series, like HBO’s “Big Little Lies,” that focuses on the lives of the beautiful and the well-to-do. It doesn’t suggest the rich are just like us. It suggests they are even more miserable, and in the case of Safe, probably quite monstrous. That’s a story that translates just about everywhere, apparently.

This show is a bit too easy, given that its source material has become a parody of itself. For those who have grown sick of the Bravo formula squabbling, these antics may be a tonic.

Is the show still funny? Sure. But it now seems about as cutting edge and relevant as "Alf" or "Suddenly Susan."

By the end of the third episode, I was tired of all the sodomy jokes. Wood is an appealing comedic lead, but he's working off scraps. Be charitable and chalk up Gann's appeal to cultural differences.

A loopy, likable new NBC comedy.

Boy is often silly, but this cast is just so likable.

Trust at times seems about as factually accurate as the “B.C.” comic strip, and Boyle’s visual affectations and his over-reliance on split-screens do not always serve the story well. (He directed the first three episodes.) .. Whatever Trust’s hold on the facts, it more than makes up for in its performances.

Linney, who also serves as executive producer, is luminous as always. But the first three episodes fall into a predictable pattern of Cathy confronting someone and dropping cryptic comments about her diagnosis.

If the queen of England isn’t enough drama for you, then something is amiss. Victoria gets close to the gold crown and then backs off.

The show's repetitive voice-overs are annoying. But you'll be sucked into this dangerous venture.

In one of the episode introductions, Tatum says he spent 107 hours in the studio dubbing his role, so much time that he ended up hurting his voice. There’s no way to be sure if he’s telling the truth. But if he is, it was time well and weirdly spent.

Arrested Development is back. You’ve earned the insanity.

For a topic that sounds as dry as a fund prospectus, the acting and pacing is exceptional.

A sometimes intriguing sci-fi show from executive producer Ronald D. Moore about a viral outbreak at a desolate Arctic base. The bug isn’t airborne, but stupidity apparently is.

Mankind: The Story of All of Us is that college freshman survey course, a buffet of tasty data, a little bit about a lot. It might leave you hungry for more.

While the premise is slight, smart casting gives Ben and Kate a comedic edge.

If this truly is the last season of The X-Files--and star Gillian Anderson has said it is, at least for her--the Fox sci-fi conspiracy thriller is going out giving what fans want. Mostly. In this, its 11th season, the show brings back familiar faces, opens some new mysteries, solves others and gives plenty of reasons to ship FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson)’s quirky relationship to the stars and back.

In broadcast TV terms, this is more “Night Gallery” than “Twilight Zone.” ... Weird City is built on one twisted foundation.

Longmire isn't a conventional show. The mystery tonight might be slight, but the pilot is a dusty little gem.

I’m pretty sure there was a Lifetime version of this story and the best part was it was over in two hours. Cardellini does the best she can, but the writing for her character and her motivations make no sense.

The scatological jokes run high, while some of the action sequences are worthy of a C-level thriller.

Hardy rocks the period clothing, strutting around in an open overcoat practically down to his ankles and a commanding stovepipe hat. With anyone else, this show would not be half as engrossing.

In its casting, Trial & Error gets every­thing right.

Copper spins somber stories of gold.

As vital as it is, political strategizing just isn’t that engaging to watch.

Will The Event turn out to be another "FlashForward" or the next "Lost"? I'm betting cautiously on the latter.

The fallout, partly because of the size of the sprawling cast, partly because of the tonal shifts, sometimes within the same scene, can be jarring. Orange nails the dramatic moments. It’s the comedy that ranges from banter to slapstick and back that feels out of place, especially as the rioting wears on.

The film jumps erratically across the years to show how Madoff’s arrest in 2008 for a $65 billion Ponzi scheme ruined his family, depicted here as much victims as those who trusted Madoff and lost their fortunes. Yet it’s as if you are watching the work of a first-time director who read about his craft off a flash card.

The show has acting and comedic talents.... The only problem? Too many people won’t “get” it. For those who do, however, it will be love at first sight.

The premise and the bloodletting, however, might be too much for some viewers. Santa Clarita Diet is an acquired taste.

The Girl ensures you'll never watch "The Birds" the same way again.

The remake of "Hawaii Five-0" is the best kind of throwback--to the buddy cop films of the 1980s. Think "Lethal Weapon" with a tropical twist.

Diplomacy by its nature doesn’t lend itself well to visual storytelling. Perhaps that’s why the show adds a conspiracy element.... Give props to Madam Secretary for the casting.

Unfortunately, Iron's not in every scene, and the 100-minute premiere, after a promising opening, becomes bogged down in political intrigue as his rivals scheme to remove the new pope.

The violence is stunning, shocking, messy and unexpected. Bateman, who also serves as executive producer, directed four episodes and is a master behind the camera. His work squeezes the suspense in any scene. The locations are both beautiful and sinister, and the show is superbly scored. Ozark will resonate with fans of “Breaking Bad,” although Walter White has little in common with Marty.

Perry proves to be adept at both the mirth and misery required by the role. Viewers, however, may be put off by a series that seems stuck like its patients in a gray zone between laughing and mourning.

While the documentary sometimes feel hurried, Pelosi has written a superior companion book of the same title that allows the newcomers to better share their stories.

There's some appealing energy and certainly adequate acting talent in "Just Shoot Me," but it lacks originality. [3 Mar 1997]

Nash is a great find, but Plum’s unrelenting self-loathing, communicated through too many voice-overs and the occasional meltdown (which, yes, the show reminds us with zero subtlety, is the result of years of mass media brainwashing and brutal cultural expectations) makes spending time with her such a downer.

Jack Ryan excels at pyrotechnics. Walls, trucks and people explode in spectacular arrays of destruction. Its fight choreography gets muddy, especially when Jack is tussling with some terrorist. ... The most charitable thing that can be said about Krasinski’s performance here is that he looks deeply, deeply tired.

The cast around Mulgrew is excellent. ... Mulgrew, however, drags it all down. Starfleet commanders are not supposed to be this dull, stiff and joyless. As a woman, she's all cardboard and mannish. [16 Jan 1995]

Those who long for a replacement for “How I Met Your Mother” (back when that show was good) might find a good match here.

To the credit of creator Christopher Keyser (“Party of Five”), the series plays with expectations. Relationships bloom and wither in surprising combinations. Unfortunately, the show lacks a pulse.

The best new sitcom of fall, CBS' 2 Broke Girls is rich in laughs and snappy performances.

Shots Fired’s biggest sin is its lack of urgency. For a story this topical, Shots seems constructed like a LEGO model--one scene is pressed onto another.

Shameless lives up to its title. What's left for the rest of the season? Cannibalism? Macy is a good sport about being dragged around the kitchen like dead weight.

There are guilty pleasures and then there are ones for which you just feel guilty about sacrificing your valuable time. Revenge is the latter.

Castle Rock shows a tremendous investment of time and creativity. It’s worth your walk on the dark side.

There’s such a richness of story and character here, and the visual and sound people do some great work cranking up the creep factor.

Fear resorts to the dumbest of jump scares and runs in circles. You’ll get impatient for a walker to come chomping by. You might be disappointed when one does. An action sequence that caps the extended premiere is choppy and amateurishly directed.

A&E reboots the legend of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” but Bates Motel plays like a slow-burning riff on David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” sparked by some fascinating, nuanced performances.

You can keep “The Alienist” at arm’s length because it is set more than 100 years in the past. No such luck with “Bellevue.” The brutality, shock and outrage ring all too true.

Deschanel is utterly con-vincing as this off-kilter gal, and of the supporting cast, Wayans sparks the most as Coach.

Once Upon a Time gets off to a bewitching start.

Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous is a clever riff on the fanaticism and cynicism inspired by the network’s own reality slate, including “Teen Mom,” “16 and Pregnant” and “Buckwild.

The Newsroom manages to be both precious and irritating at the same time, and Sorkin’s characters still have that habit of talking over each other, which might be realistic, but makes it hard for viewers to understand what the heck they’re sparring about.

[Caviezel] and Emerson make for one of fall's most formidable odd couples.

Cult is a condemnation of the truly “deplorable” among us as well as a witty skewering of liberal correctness run amok.

Sister Wives practically twists and breaks its back assuring viewers how gosh-darn normal everything is. Still, there are some cracks in the crackpots.

Come for the mystery, stay for the performances.

It's impossible to tell by the uneven debut episode if the tone of the writing will be consistent. ... The dramatic portions of the show flow easily... But the writers seem unsure how they want to portray the violence in "Platinum," of which there is plenty in the first episode. [11 Apr 2003]

Set aside the stunt casting worthy of a CW series and the detour into Lifetime territory. History’s Sons of Liberty, a three-night, six-hour scripted miniseries, crafts a compelling look at the men and the skirmishes that ignited the American Revolution.

The drama ultimately arrives at the destination you knew it would right from the opening moments. By trying to tell everyone’s story, “The Red Line” forgets to tell one good one.

Expanse’s look is typical Syfy. The lighting is used to bathe the sets in shadows to hide the lack of money in the budget. The cast and the sheer complexity and depth of story, however, are worthy of premium cable.