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

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.

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

The womanizing, booze-guzzling, chain-smoking ad exec (played brilliantly by Jon Hamm) at the heart of AMC's Emmy Award-winning drama Mad Men has found a curvy sliver of joy in his life.

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

Judd, who serves as series co-executive producer, makes for a surprisingly convincing action hero. It's when she stops to emote in full mommy mode that the show drags.

Fashion Star is a skimpy little show. You might buy something in the evening, but beware those morning-after regrets.

Shahs of Sunset, which plays like a cross between "Jersey Shore" with an older cast and "The Real Housewives of Oblivion."

Moore's impersonation of Sarah Palin is the hook to reel you into HBO'S latest truelife political thriller.

If GCB wants to soar to heavenly numbers, it better let the devil out to play.

NBC's newest drama Awake adds a drop of fantasy to its crime procedural formula and then practically buries it in musings about the mysteries of the subconscious.

BBC America's Being Human (the original, not to be confused with the pallid Syfy remake) takes a stab at re-inventing itself--and magically pulls off the feat.

MTV's documentary series "True Life" has walked this territory before with far more compelling subjects.

It's also clear that, with the show now starting its fifth season, the contestants have actually bothered to watch previous installments and have strategized. It may keep them in the game longer, but it makes for more predictable TV.

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

Even at approximately 80 minutes, director/producer Nancy Buirski's work could be tighter, but it's hard to imagine a more appropriate documentary for Valentine's Day.

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

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.

You'll be left tapping your feet all right--wondering impatiently if there's any sparkle under this drudgery.

Pants hits the tube already out of style.

Your enjoyment of "Vengeance" ultimately hinges on how much you remember the betrayals and back-stabbings of the first season, "Spartacus: Blood and Sand."

With Milch holding the reins, Luck seems a lock for the winner's circle.

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

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.

It's disappointing this animated series is so tame.

It's a bloody good, gory hour, and I don't know how Southland will top this. But I can't wait to see what's around the corner.

Give Lost Girl a try. You might be seduced.

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

The six-episode series mixes this type of sharp -humor and dialogue with gory scenes and tense horror.

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

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

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

Mitch just might be the stupidest attorney ever depicted on TV.

Series creator and writer Julian Fellowes has a habit of using dialogue to telegraph the obvious.

He sighs, "I got nothing left in me." Neither does this show.

The slight sitcom has all the heft of a powder puff.

While the pace of the series definitely picks up in the second night, Bag of Bones doesn't pull off the scares of King's previous works such as Misery" or "The Shining" nor does it have the poignancy of his "The Shawshank Redemption."

The Exes is the kind of show you can dump without a second thought.

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.

Let the drinking games commence.

Like a lot of reality shows ranging from the silly "Real World" to the loathsome "Jersey Shore," All-American Muslim ends up reinforcing some stereotypes while defying others.

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

Grimm has a low-rent Saturday Syfy vibe to it.

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

The cartoon is often laugh-out-loud funny, pulling off ridiculously zany sight gags, such as when Mondo decides to impress a girl by surfing and, instead, inadvertently beheads a bird, among other things.

It's hard to imagine viewers voting with their clickers for this pretentious political soap.

Once Upon a Time gets off to a bewitching start.

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

In its second season, The Walking Dead remains the most suspenseful show on any TV network.

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.

It's not often that a movie that's important also manages to be educational and entertaining. Five is all three.

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

What seems like a straightforward question--Is Nick a traitor to his country?--might be the most devilishly complicated thing to answer, and definitely worth pursuing in this complex show.

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

Series creator/writer Neil Cross continues to spin dark strands that stray unexpectedly into unsettling territory.

Sisto is surprisingly sweet as a befuddled dad. Everyone seems to want the next Emma Stone. Levy isn't there yet, but given time she might grow into a solid comic actress.

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

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

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.

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

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

D'Elia sparks well off Cummings, but this show demonstrates her true talents lie offscreen.

The X Factor is "America's Got Talent" with lockjaw, "The Voice" with a smoker's hack and "American Idol" on steroids. It is a garish, crass spectacle, and just might produce America's next superstar.

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

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

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

NBC, together with Academy Award-winning producer Brian Grazer ("A Beautiful Mind"), tries to duplicate the success of AMC's "Mad Men" but cribs the wrong details with a woefully untalented cast, mixed feminist messages and a melodrama that is at times laugh-out-loud funny.

At times, the dialogue stops and unloads for exposition dumps, and a few of the young cast mates could use some more training back in the land of the Muggles.

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

This remake of a tart British sitcom of the same name starts with the moment that has killed many a show: its two main characters in bed, post-booty call. It's anything but romantic.

Ringer at times straddles camp--Bridget stays briefly in the "Double Nickel Motel," a wink that the two women truly are flip sides of the same scarred coin --but never succumbs to it, thanks to Gellar's muted performances.

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.

The drama is swamped by the saccharine cliches.

While the two play for the cameras, it feels forced. Tallman rolls his eyes so often, they just might tumble out and roll away like loose marbles. His off-the-cuff remarks about his customers won't help his business.

For those impatient for the return of "Mad Men," The Hour fills that void and then some.

Reality TV has gotten rich off ethnic stereotypes--"Jersey Shore," anyone?--and now comes the generically titled Family Restaurant, about the Quon family, who run a thriving Chinese restaurant.

Stepfather Todd reacts to news of the family's fifth car by reasoning that since they don't have enough parking spaces, the only solution is to buy a home. And we're off and running to the poor house. Again.

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

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

Russian Dolls reinforces every negative stereotype about Russian women.

CSI producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Amazing Race producer Bertram Van Munster combine the worst elements of their shows for this six-episode time-killer.

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.

Against the Wall has little ambition.

Awkward is adept in some quick cutaways, as in a classroom scene that echoes "Ferris Bueller." Rickards works so hard to emulate "Easy A" star Emma Stone, she just might end up in a full body cast by the end of the season. But with the tide going out on such reality drivel as "Jersey Shore," Awkward is a cagey move for MTV.

The first two hours are marked by surprising twists and betrayals. TV's most cunning series is back in session.

On its last call, Rescue Me has saved a few treats in its fire truck.

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.

The uneven 10-episode series shifts from pedestrian cloak-and-dagger to camp.

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.

Bucket & Skinner makes Saved by the Bell seem as sophisticated as "Modern Family." There are a few bones thrown parents' way to make the half-hour bearable.

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

HBO's True Blood rises from the grave of last year's uneven season, smarter, spookier and sexier than before.

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

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.

Don't look now, but Falling Skies could be a summer obsession.

In Happily Divorced, TV Land, the cable channel for baby boomers, finally may have found the perfect companion to its smash "Hot in Cleveland."

Why is she The Protector? Why didn't Lifetime call this series "The Protectors" and give Campbell-Martin and her character equal footing? As this show proves, some mysteries aren't worth solving.

This admittedly over-produced series has one of the toughest elimination rituals to watch: Each of the three finalists walks to check out a callback list to discover if they are still wanted.