The score ably amps up the foreboding, and the action sequences are gritty, scary and especially well-staged.

In this truncated season (only eight episodes as opposed to the usual 13), Wright remains outstanding. But “House” suffers from the same problem as HBO’s “Veep.” Both started as daring satires of the highest office in our land and both have been surpassed by our current reality in which every day brings a new tweet storm of chaos.

The auction segments are fascinating as buyers become locked in bidding wars and props sell for obscene figures. But the series could ultimately hurt Maddelena's business. The means by which he authenticates certain items, at least as presented here, is not convincing.

Why Not? With Shania Twain rings of a last-ditch effort to avoid counseling.

TLC’s editing, as expected, goes out of its way to make the family appear like idiots.... But the Thompsons don’t care what other people think. They’ve got each other. In that, they’re light-years better adjusted than just about any family on any other reality show.

Dying drops a killer set but doesn’t know how to close the room.

Key for any great sci-fi show, Incorporated’s creators, brothers Alex and David Pastor (“Carriers”), excel at filling in the details of their world.

Urban and Ealy are competent in their roles, damaged spirits destined to become brothers of a sort, not if, but only when.... While some viewers will be oblivious to the show’s racial politics, others will struggle to find a point. Somebody at Fox short-circuited.

A slow-pokey drama punctuated by shocking violence and sex.

There might be a good drama in Rake, but right now the jury is still out.

Series creator, director and writer David S. Goyer (scribe for Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy) twists the already amazing life of the 15th century artist and inventor into something fantastical--but not altogether convincing.

A momentary lapse could lead to weeks of thought-provoking drama. The Slap echoes.

Ultimately, Fleming will leave you neither shaken nor stirred.

Basic cable is known for carving out niche audiences, but it's hard to imagine this "Friday Night Lights Shrink" will score with many.

Williamson has crafted a pilot tense and frightening. But in the subsequent three episodes, The Following deteriorates into a serialized version of CBS' "Criminal Minds." ... After four episodes, this viewer was weary of seeing women terrorized.

There's an undercurrent of desperation in this spinoff--the belief that a woman is only as good as her face and figure, and that there's always some pretty thing on her way up to take her place. These women know they are disposable. That's the ugly truth lining the sun-kissed streets of Beverly Hills.

As the hour proceeds, the tether to sanity--or at least common sense--frays.

When you title a show “Everything Sucks!” it can be viewed as an act of defiance or truth in advertising. Netflix’s new dramedy manages both in this sludge of teen angst.

Cynical shows can be fun; Deep State is undercut by some atrocious acting. One character seems to be the love child of Larry Hagman’s J.R. Ewing and about 180 pounds of ham. The faux Texas accent might cause your eyes to sting.

A familiar premise with fresh faces and equal doses of humor and pathos might be the right prescription for fans of the genre. [27 March 2005, p.039]

Killer feels lurid, thanks to creepy music and editing. That betrays and trivializes some serious issues. The narration could be more lifelike. Then again, it’s from a robot.

This hyper-violent crime soap from creator, executive producer, director and writer John Singleton is punctuated with some terrific performances fighting against predictable plot bumps.

The staging was clever and fun and the performances ranged from good to fantastic.

The good part involves just about any scene focusing on Angie Harmon ("Law & Order") as Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli. The flip side? Just about every scene that isn't centered on her, especially those involving Jane's best friend, medical examiner Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander).

Even though it’s been a heady year since the first thrilling installment and the season runs but eight episodes, something feels undercooked about this production.

The show needs more juice. Instead of skirting away, it needs to embrace the story that inspired it.

The first episode is confusing, introducing a multitude of characters and agendas. Stay with it. The second episode brings several of the characters and the conflicts into focus.

Week is about as much a serious social experiment as "Survivor" or "Kid Nation," but the production qualities are strong for a cable reality show and its subjects are fascinating as they react to the new world order

Right now he’s as bland as Carson Daly.

Rabe is terrific, balancing drive and a mounting dread, and it’s a pleasure to see the actress commanding a lead role. The first three episodes build the mystery at a respectable clip.

Dark’s acting is serviceable, the musical choices questionable and the location shooting in Berlin is ominous. The jump scares are out of an ’80s slasher film and get tiresome.

Serves up spine-tingling chills with its moody, noirish visuals and grimly efficient leads. [22 Sep 2004]

Go beyond the in-your-face, outrageous title here, and you'll find a somewhat sweet show struggling to create some real laughs.

The story is a little too Dark Phoenix, and the series’ pacing can be maddening. But you have to love an action-packed finale that rips from a kid’s birthday party at a bowling alley (little Kenny is never getting over that one) to a concert hall on the cusp of the apocalypse. The climax is an ending and a beginning. Umbrella Academy is just getting started.

There’s a real disconnect in this telling. With the exception of Sara and two junior detectives, fraternal twins ostracized on the force because they are Jewish, the story seems as dry as a box of Wheat Thins. The scenery is set. The people are dressed for their parts. But The Alienist rarely gets moving.

Depending on your memories of high school, ABC's new drama... is either one of the most honest or most troubling small-screen depictions of teen angst. [7 Oct 2004]

Johnny is easily a Leary/Tommy Gavin stand-in, 
Theresa is Janet (Andrea Roth) with a badge, and Bigley could be Mike Silletti’s (Mike Lombardi) brother. Don’t bother with the alarm. When it comes to 
Sirens, you know this drill.

Despite some graphic moments of heads exploding, BrainDead is neither comic nor thrilling.

You'll worry the Big Apple will swallow them up. Mostly, you'll wonder how Breaking Amish will turn next.

Wedding Band is frequently vulgar, and few punch lines can be quoted here, but it has such affection for all its characters that you might be troubled that you can't return the love.

Bell, who started out as a child actor, has matured into a compelling leading man and he seems capable of conveying Abraham’s troubling journey into the underbelly of the war effort.

Dreyfuss somehow refrains from chewing the scenery, though the script at times would have him leaving only flecks of drywall. Scolari has heartbreaking moments as he flounders with guilt. More focus on the personalities of Ruth and Mark, who killed himself on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest, would have fleshed out this story.

Ricci serves as an executive producer and delivers the best work of her career. ... Z is helped by an unusual format--the drama unfolds in 10 half-hour episodes, making it especially binge-worthy. More providers should try half-hour dramas. They don’t feel like endurance challenges, as many one-hour shows do.

The premiere prologue gives away too much, and the mini’s pacing­ drags at times.... It’s a tale that never gets old.

It’s a series that zips along in one direction, suddenly accelerates in another and veers out of control into a swamp of sugar and schmaltz.

No one expects "The Good Wife," but if the show is aiming for balance, it needs to step up its court game.

Flint is an admirable salute to the power of grass-roots activism as well as a laudable public service message.

Most of the characters, however, are written and behave as if they are 14, and not 20-something graduate students. That said, the first episode ends on a terrific cliffhanger, when a creature from another realm--a man with a swarm of moths flitting around his head--attacks. A good three minutes does not excuse the hour that came before it. And the resolution is presented so poorly in the next episode that it sabotages any good will the first episode earned.

The Passage teases a disaster on an even grander scale yet backtracks several times over in its first three episodes and still manages to rush its most crucial relationship.

The Last Ship is a naval recruitment ad for the apocalypse, and these waters look shallow. Careful before sticking your toe in.

Leary is perfectly cast as the middle-aged wastrel with a modicum of talent and an ego the size of the Trump Tower.... Much of the show can’t be quoted. Many of the jokes you can see coming at you from the Zakim Bridge. They’re still funny.

Mad doesn't stray far from "Mother's" formula

In true Bluth fashion, what you think you know about the Bluths you don’t know at all.

If The Lottery can keep up the promise of its premiere, it will punch a winning ticket.

It all seems so ridiculous until you remember we lived through it. At times, “Loudest Voice” plays like a white collar version of “The Sopranos,” as when Ailes orders his PR guy and fixer Brian Smith (Seth MacFarlane, “The Orville”) to take care of a leaker. Crowe, covered in mostly great prosthetics and looking as if he is wearing a fat suit that ate another fat suit, wheezes with every waddle and authentically underplays a human volcano.

The problem with building an action drama around a sniper is that the work by its nature requires people to be several yards away from each other. A climactic gunfight in the season finale goes as far as to show the math--the mental calculations the shooters have to do to make their shot--to juice up the action. It doesn’t work. Shooter excels in one area--grotesque head shots.

The only show with kinky father-daughter conversations. And no, that's not a good thing. [24 Sep 2001]

It makes for good TV. [21 Feb 2003, p.S35]

Sinbad sets out to find his destiny on the sea, encountering menaces that would make Ray Harry­hausen proud.

The two have so much loathing for themselves, Alone Together can be downright depressing. Just the quality you don’t want from a sitcom. You might end up hating yourself--for wasting your time.

The Astronauts Wives Club orbits thisclose to camp--yet never plunges into a black hole of idiocy.

Comparisons to the BBC show are unavoidable since the first two episodes are practically a scene-by-scene reshoot of the original's opening. The stars even look like doppelgangers of the English cast.

The stories aren’t quite as goofy as they could be. The series is clearly a labor of love for the creators. Still, the show has its wonderfully silly moments.

As an actress, Lady Gaga wears clothes very well. That’s not the dis it seems. The extended 90-minute premiere doesn’t give her much chance to act, or speak, for that matter.... As Dr. Alex Lowe, John’s estranged wife, returning player Chloe Sevigny provides a welcome balance to the over-the-top bloodletting, but as good as she is, the bad soap opera dialogue just proves Murphy and Falchuk have no interest in writing “normal,” whatever that is. They’re here to deliver spectacle.

For those looking for yet another quality show for their Sunday nights, Low Winter Sun soars high.

In its best moments, this reimagined “Zone” features some of today’s most intriguing actors and swerves from fun to disturbing and back and is just as provocative as the original.

“I Kissed a Girl” pop star Katy Perry, country superstar Luke Bryan and music legend Lionel Richie form a panel that doesn’t so much practice tough love as dole out “Chicken Soup for the Soul” critiques.

In the opener, “My Struggle,” Carter plays to fan expectations on all fronts as he suggests only the most sinister conspiracy ever, one that manages to shake the typically unflappable Mulder and could up-end the premise of the entire series. It’s just that juicy.... [The second episode is] a perfectly serviceable monster-of-the-week tale. It also features some dopey reveries about Scully and Mulder’s lost son William.

Lifetime's latest ripped-from-the-headlines biopic, about alleged wife-killer Drew Peterson, is salacious, sinister and downright sleazy. It's also as irresistible as a piping hot box of Dunkin' Donuts munchkins.

Resurrection does something few dramas do today — it gives its characters breathing room to absorb and react to the fantastic in their lives, rather than forcing them to run from one plot point to another. Some will find this pace too leisurely.

This show details the death of a marriage by a thousand cuts, a few hundred insults and a bag of clothes thrown in the trash. Maybe that’s your appointment TV. I’d rather binge watch root canal videos on YouTube.

Hopefully the pilot will move beyond weight and get to what really is intriguing about this show. Not since “Roseanne” has there been a prime-time comedy so poised to poke fun at economic class.

Punk'd seems to have a budget to rival a commercial network show, and the twist of rotating hosts--upcoming stars include "Twilight" actor Kellan Lutz and "Glee's" Heather Morris--whips up a new level of paranoia.

NBC is hoping to capture the same sort of audience moved by bathos and treacle [as those on "This is Us"]. This show has its moments.

Just about all the choices are bad in this season of Ozark, making this season your best Labor Day weekend binge.

Watching "Ellie" becomes an ordeal in watching the clock. You see your life ticking away, wasting time watching "Ellie." [26 Feb 2002]

One problem with the show is intrinsic to its premise. Though mediation is valuable in the real world, it doesn't lead itself to interesting stories in a medium that chugs on conflict, victims and victors.

As our wanderer through the rabbit hole, Lowe lacks conviction, but Socha is a true charmer as the Knave, and fans will be making wishes for Alice to dump the dreary genie for the rogue. With the mothership’s leads on a similar quest for a missing boy, Wonderland seems like an exercise in magical redundancy.

Scream Queens is just too dumb to be fun.

Night’s pacing can be frustrating — this mini would be a lot more effective if it were cut to four hours--but the surprises and twists in the final two episodes make it more than worthy of your investment.

The Catch wants you to hope for the best, but he’s such a sociopath, it’s hard to root for their relationship to end anywhere but in a lifetime sentence behind bars. Still, Enos is terrific and makes this caper a fun ride toward righteous retribution.

The Crossing has its moments, but if you look too closely at its story, it melts away like ice cream cake left out in the sun. ABC is promising flashbacks to fill in the visitors’ stories, another “Lost” tic.

The dads in charge of the league are jerks, so Terry decides to lead a team of all-star misfits, making this sort of “Glee” for the physically uncoordinated. You’ll be done with this after an inning.

Like all time-travel shows, paradoxes can emerge like sinkholes. Still, the cast works so much charm, they must be exhausted by the end of the day.

The sets and costuming are top-notch. The musical score is brash, if redundant. The personal dramas range from silly to 
diverting.

When the funniest things about a comedy are the cameos, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. Or in the case of NBC’s new sitcom A.P. Bio, back to the chalkboard.

Undercover presents a wonderful tribute to the working man and woman. Middle managers are the villains here, sitting at desks and docking workers for clocking in late at lunch. The hour ends with the predictable reveal.

The outlook for his head and neck here is much better; Legends, though, is on wobbly legs.

The Last Post seems to be one-third military thriller and two-thirds soap opera. Some sequences are harrowing. Others strain plausibility.

Against the Wall has little ambition.

After Life plays like an odd vanity project.

The series is an adaptation of popular Mexican tele­novela “Terminales” and doesn’t do enough to shake off its more sensational roots. A plot swerve at the end of the hour will set off more groans than gasps.

The editing is kind to most of the contestants, who come off as earnest, intelligent folks looking to engage their inner heroes.... Alas, The Quest’s elimination challenge is unimaginative and the vote deliberations almost as petty as anything on “Big Brother.”

The Collection can be pretty to look at, but first impressions will not lead to second glances.

This sad sack of a show plays like an East Coast, economically challenged version of his HBO hit “Entourage.”

The Salahis are the attraction here. Judging from the season teaser, the show will spend the entire season building up to the infamous dinner-crashing scene, to which the Bravo cameras appear to had access. Remember, a fame whore needs your attention to survive. Look away now.

It’s funny, sad, invasive and unhinged.

Quibbles about the premise aside, Ritter makes and sells this show. He balances the pathos and the comedy. In lesser hands, this hour just would not be appealing.