Young viewers disappointed at ABC's soggy sitcom version of the movie "Clueless" will find in Sabrina an appealingly fresh, funny show that delivers plenty of laughs. [27 Sept 1996, p.42]

This is dark material, yet Faris balances it with a genuine winsomeness, able to wring laughs out of the most innocuous lines.

O'Connell glides through the show on his smile. Belushi isn't as bad as one might expect, which, granted, isn't much of a compliment. He reins in the comic buffoonery, and if the scripts get better, he might prove to be up to a dramatic role.

The makers of the "River" deserve credit for spilling so much of their "X-Files" myth-ology from the start, but there's not enough reason to book passage on this voyage of the bland.

At times, the show careens from black humor to near tragedy and then back again.

While we don’t know the identity of Jane Doe yet, the pilot drops some hefty clues, ones that only touch the surface of what looks to be a compelling conspiracy thriller.

While some of the best dramas can dovetail a character's work and personal lives, Prime Suspect might be better off, at least in the beginning, focusing on solving the weekly case.

When it comes to Sun Records, the hook is there, but it can’t sustain the beat.

The show, like so many unscripted series, can be repetitive. ... But in taking a light to an alley few dare to tread, Remini may have given some viewers out there more than a hope and a prayer.

Ordinary is super at capturing a middle-class family suffering from self-imposed Kryptonite poisoning

Can we please have a moratorium on voice-over narration? This lazy device is being overused to convey what simple dialogue should. In John Doe, the title character's innermost thoughts won't stop. [19 Sept 2002, p.48]

'The Closer' may be the first TV series to mimic ['Desperate Housewives''] ability to present women with textured, complicated lives. [12 Jun 2005]

The dark tone might be the greatest barrier at first to viewers, but the cast rolls with the wisecracks.

Spoils takes its murder mystery too seriously. While this isn’t as dour an affair as Ferrell and Wiig’s recent Lifetime debacle, “A Deadly Adoption,” a little bit more nuttiness would make this mini more a treat and not so much an endurance challenge.

Your appreciation will rise and fall on your enjoyment of seeing Boston and its people portrayed as profoundly racist and corrupt.

The first episode spends much of the time establishing the series, and it's not particularly edge-of-the-seat scary. But the paranormal special effects are good and the acting holds up. How the action unfolds is questionable - the constant touching, gasping and seeing visions could get old. [16 June 2002, p.A07]

What separates this cast from just about every other real-ity show is that these people are chasing something larger than themselves, more vital to them than fame or money--that brief moment of perfection onstage, achieved after years of study and practice.

Almost every moment here is staged to scream, “Look at me! I’m arty!” Lindelof, burned mightily by the backlash over “Lost’s” ridiculous finale, has all but told reporters that the mystery central to The Leftovers will never be explained. That leaves you with a show wallowing in smug self-importance, melancholy and drear week after week.

If you dwell on time-travel paradoxes too much, you’ll go mad, and that advice holds for this show: Come for the ride, enjoy the appealing cast and the sheer adventure.

Happy! captures the tone “Marvel’s the Punisher” should have aspired to: grisly, gross and nutty without abandon.

The first two cases, involving a gang of murderous thieves and the death of a personal trainer, are ho-hum. McDonnell, a fine actress, finally has a chance to inject some dry wit into her stoic investigator.

Despite some shaky attempts to build a convincing world, The Rain has much in common with “The Walking Dead.”

Thornton seems to be playing against script. His Billy seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself, despite the dire circumstances he finds himself in. It’s about the only surprise in Goliath. By the end of the second episode, it becomes obvious there are forces in play that will stop at nothing to thwart Billy’s quest for answers.

It's not a Comedy Central spoof, but it skews ridiculously close to one.

The first episode teases an exciting dynamic, with the possibility of forcing viewers to root for one monster over another.

The whole enterprise dissolves too quickly into a '90s version of "White Shadow," with teacher Johnson as the angel of mercy sent to rescue her "at-risk" minority students from the forces of evil. [30 Sept 1996, p.34]

The series is so funny, it reeks of a setup.

This little sitcom reminds you how rare female friendship is on prime time TV--and just how much fun it can be.

The castmates aren't polished performers, but they know how to work a joke fast and move on. [4 Aug 2005]

He seemed to suffer from “Jimmy Fallon-itis”--he laughed too much at his own jokes.... The show pretty much stayed on point, with almost every joke leading back to Noah. He got to make the show all about him, and that’s OK--for one night, anyway.

So long as the dinos roam, Terra Nova has a future.

Unfortunately, it’s the law of diminishing returns.

TV Land's first original sitcom is the surprise of the summer, a sparkling, breezy comedy, in no small part due to the casting of this year's It Girl, 88-year-old Betty White as a cantankerous caretaker.

The ninth and final season premiere of NBC's The Office definitively answers a few key questions about the cogs at the middling paper company Dunder Mifflin--if anyone out there is still interested in the once smart, now just silly sitcom.

After watching the first five episodes, I don’t recommend watching “Now Apocalypse” every week. I do suggest waiting to the end of the season and downloading the series in one sitting. Now Apocalypse plays like the kind of show that can only benefit from a decadent binge.

Right now, Up All Night is the TV equivalent of a glass of warm milk.

For a fleeting moment, the show hints it might venture into some saucy territory. Then it gets all “Family Ties” saccharine and goes in for the squishy hug.

If the show can strike a balance between chuckles and capers, Covert Affairs won't be a secret. It will be USA Network's biggest hit.

Unlike the similarly post-apocalyptic "Walking Dead," there's never much tension on Falling Skies.

The Librarians wears its cheesiness on its sleeve like a gratuitous elbow patch, which it also wears on its sleeve. It knows exactly how imitative and low-budget it is, and it doesn’t care if you know

Life may be short, but this comedy is not long enough.

Akerman and Whitford have zero chemistry, and it doesn’t help that she looks young enough to be his daughter.

Hope you like looking at a golf ball, well, doing nothing. You'll see a lot of it during the hour. It sets the mood of The Glades. Sweltering stupidity.

The first new network show of fall is a supernatural adventure that manages to drop a few good scares.

McShane might be the best part of this production, bringing life to the role of a man harboring dark regrets. ... Oh, yes, the period costumes and the locations are top-notch. After a jaunt around Greshambury, even the Crawleys would be feeling house-poor.

While these newsies may have outsized personalities, everyone shares a belief in getting the story right and serving the community.

This is dumb, not-so-much fun shoot'em-ups.

Unfortunately, it’s not especially funny. It’s one dark, depressing look at a SMILF.

The pilot, directed by co--executive producer Jon Favreau ("Iron Man"), poses numerous questions, and to the credit of everyone involved, delivers some surprising payoffs that other shows would hold for weeks, if not seasons.

On "Grey's Anatomy," particularly in the first two years, Rhimes proved herself skilled at crafting gripping love stories. She's outdone herself here.

There’s much about Chance that makes no sense, but the perfor­mances are terrific.

Barbershop's tarty makeover - surprising, because three of the films' producers, including star Ice Cube, are behind this - does more than just sex it up for premium cable. The good will has been snipped from the franchise. [11 Aug 2005, p.53]

The script and the pacing do not always serve her well, but [Oprah Winfrey] delivers her very best, as fans--and Winfrey herself--have come to expect.

The twist in the final moments suggests the series already could be catching a case of the stupids, in which case, no cast, no matter how talented, will be able to save this show.

Better With You has the foundation to be an engaging comedy. Right now, it's difficult to commit to a long-term relationship

Those familiar with the source material will recognize the pilot is essentially the first two-thirds of the film. Some convincing performances from Smith and List get Frequency humming. But that’s just not enough buzz.

There are several hearty laughs in "Home Improvement" - the best you can ask of any TV comedy. [12 Sep 1991]

Visually, Los Angeles works. One forgets how dark and claustrophobic the New York shows can be. The sets seem more open, and the decor reflects an electric mix of modern styles. But the crimes--ripped from the headlines, naturally--might as well be culled from the funny pages.

Touch needs more work grounding its reality before any of these fantasies take flight.

Maybe Abrams just ran out of energy drinks that week. This is a poor caper show that doesn't even deliver half the surprises of TNT's "Leverage."

The premiere drops enough intriguing hints about the players' pasts without distracting from the main plot. You can't have a team without conflict, and every character seems to carry a quirk that rubs the others the wrong way.

When The L Word is judged on its dramatic merits, the real problem is not the stereotypical plot lines or limited scope, but the fact there's nothing here to make the viewer want to tune in every week. Sure, the series throws around catchphrases such as "nipple confidence" and frank talk of "butt waxing," but strip away the attention-grabbing antics and the show is rather boring. Perhaps The L Word stands for lackluster.

I didn't laugh much. I did, however, check my watch, still secure on my wrist, to determine when the show would be ending.

All gathers a charismatic cast, even if some look like they belong in high school about as much as I do. Logan is especially strong as a young woman searching for her own redemption. But having established some prickly relationships in its first two outings, All fumbles some story continuity in its third episode (airing Oct. 24) with a seeming revision in the fractured friendship between Olivia and Leila.

In its best moments, the drama has the grit of something more likely to be found on cable channel TNT.

The only takeaway from Young Sheldon is that his present is far more interesting than his past.

Cusick has done this role before so often, he might even be mixing and matching scripts. Washington looks so bored, he might nod off. The 100? If we’re marking days on a calendar, that’s being optimistic.

Tethered by Morse’s violent portrayal, Outsiders spins its story on a pace unlike most other prime-time shows.

Wilson might be playing Penny with a better apartment, but she’s always a delight. Marino makes for a great sparring partner, and Williams has been off our screens far too long.

The dialogue is as arch as Desperate in its heyday.

Defenders rises and falls on what its cast can bring to the mix. The less Finn Jones is onscreen, the better. He might be the most miscast actor in any series ever. Colter brings Luke’s look and nothing else. Now Ritter and Cox, on the other hand, I could binge on a Jones/Murdock spinoff all weekend long.

The good news is the characters created here are so interesting that we want to know more about them. Whedon continues to slay viewers. [19 Sept 2002, p.48]

It’s a shame “The Tudors” is coming to a close. As Hirst has noted, there are generations of stories yet to tell. Count on this series to end on a royally good note

Watch and you'll want to play along, too.

One thing that might improve this office comedy is a few pink slips--upstairs, downstairs and off-camera.

With its frantic pacing, ­vicious masterminds and ­valiant law enforcement agents, Crisis might remind you of Fox’s “24.” Not the best seasons of “24,” but still. There’s a lot to be said for a show that works up a sweat trying to surprise you.

What I kept looking for in Queer As Folk was a transcendent story line or sex-neutral message to lift this drama higher than the sum of its body parts. I couldn't find that deep thread of meaning...There are shreds of stories but, basically, it all comes back around to men bumping like bunnies - or wanting to bump like bunnies, or talking about bumping like bunnies.[30 Nov 2000, p.47]

Hell's greatest sin? It's often laugh-out-loud funny.

[A] sweet yet raunchy comedy.

Traffic Light is the kind of sitcom that revs from zero to zero with laughter.

Mob City takes its time to lock and load, but its aim ultimately improves.

The musical numbers are competently staged, even if they often play like filler to underscore character montages. The plots mosey between drama and comedy and never hit their marks.

Cynthia Cidre's smart take on the prime-time soap (1978-1991) pays homage to the past while moving the battle to the next generation.

Satisfaction has the most provocative premise--until about halfway through when it doesn’t just go off the rails, it careens into the ocean, swims for England, sits for afternoon tea and then flings itself into the moon.

If you loved this show for its split-second pop culture spoofs and absurd, sometimes sophomoric humor, then you'll be happy with the new, unimproved 'Guy.' [1 May 2005]

Detroit's on-location shooting aids its authenticity, but the show goes awry when it goes for a joke. For example, medical examiner Abbey Ward (Erin Cummings, "Mad Men") carries bruises from her after-hours avocation: roller derby. Detroit 1-8-7 is one of those shows that is going to need some time to finds its destination.

Fox’s The Gifted is everything ABC’s “Marvel’s Inhumans” is not: exciting, suspenseful and brimming with interesting, smart characters.

The shifts from comedy to bloodletting can be unnerving, even if the whole thing is unconvincing.

The sense of loss, shock and mourning is still artfully conveyed. American TV rarely depicts the emotional fallout after a murder, preferring to focus on the investigation. Here, both elements are equally important. But Tennant seems tired, and you can understand why. He’s been all over this shore before.

I loved the pilot, mostly because I could never predict where the story was going, a rarity in prime-time TV.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is lush, gorgeous, Gothic and at times plotted tighter than a corset.

Like "Lost," the show is burdened with flashbacks and divides its time between the present and the prison 50 years earlier.

Underneath the crude humor, there's a sweetness and an honesty to the show. The duo's struggle with weight is believable.

The tone bounces cannily from humor to pathos to suspense. The one knock against “Gently”? So much is going on here, the plot is so dense, this is a show that might be better off binged in a marathon. Just one more thing to look forward to, then.

Telenovela can be fun, if only the show knew the difference between silly and dumb.

[An] uneven cross between “The Office” and “30 Rock.”

There are elements of the "Friday the 13th: The Series" and any J-horror film here, but the frights are few.

Somehow executive producer Greg Daniels (``The Simpsons,'' ``King of the Hill'') and his cast must win over new fans while not pissing off the old fans. [23 Mar 2005, p.42]