Ultimately, Fleming will leave you neither shaken nor stirred.

Murder One succeeds because it doesn't pander to you, nor does it demean you. The issues illuminated by the show challenge and entertain you. [19 Sept 1995, p.37]

Less perverse than ``I, Claudius,'' more entertaining than ABC's toga twister ``Empire,'' Rome gets off to an uneven start. [25 Aug 2005, p.47]

This hourlong drama is peopled with actors who have long deserved a rich showcase for their talents, and each rises spectacularly to the occasion. [4 Nov 2004, p.77]

Judging from the first two episodes of the new season, Rescue Me is taking a gentler, if dopier tone. [13 June 2007, p.39]

Your love for the show depends on your tolerance for Leary and his overbearing character. [30 May 2006, p.28]

After hewing reasonably close to the record, at least for the trial, the film goes off the rails in its postscript.

Filmed in South Africa, Sails is awash in lush scenery, bloody expensive sets and brutal action. You’ve probably never seen a sword fight like the one that caps tonight’s episode.

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

There's still heat to Rescue Me - it just needs something to stoke the drama. [19 June 2005, p.A03]

A&E’s Wahlburgers is a thick heaping of Boston baked silliness starring two of Hollywood’s biggest stars and their beloved mom.

If their melodrama isn't always gripping, Nip/Tuck rushes in an array of guest stars as distractions. [5 Sept 2006, p.36]

Believe the hype: In its third season, Nip/Tuc' finds new ways to be shocking, brazen and gross-out wrenching. [20 Sept 2005, p.37]

Nip/Tuck is unabashed in its portrayal of the flawed ways people conduct the private sides of their lives and how the professional bleeds over in unexpected ways. [21 June 2004, p.43]

Looking might be the most provocative series of 2014. It’s just not original or memorable.

If you dwell too much on the plot, you’ll fall into a chasm of disbelief.... Flowers doesn’t look like a Lifetime film, and that’s a compliment. The production moves at a brisk pace, and unlike the children’s predicament, never feels claustrophobic.

There are no characters to care about in Nip-Tuck. It seems their motivations are purely hollow. We love Tony Soprano - even when he cheats on his wife or whacks an enemy - because he reveals his own vulnerability and tragic flaws. But this Nip-Tuck bunch are vacant louts - "ER" meets "WWE SmackDown!" [22 July 2003, p.39]

If you are curious about the show, tune into the last 10 minutes of the hour, and you’ll learn everything you need to know. Right now, Bitten is a nibble of a show.

True Detective will linger with you long after the credits roll, a grim journey into night.

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.

The show is at least meta enough to have the department commander call out the sheer outrageousness of the appointment, but that doesn’t make it any more plausible.

Executive producer Sofia Vergara, better known as Gloria on ABC’s “Modern Family,” and series creator Hannah Shakespeare (“The Raven”) have a lot of ideas, but there isn’t a single surprise in the batch.

Holloway looks leaner than his Sawyer days and cleans up nice. Ory, such a spitfire on ABC’s “Once Upon a Time” as both Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, seems tamed here, and unfortunately, a little dull.

All this twee is verging on twaddle.

Despite the often eerie parallels to the Showtime thriller, ABC’s eight-part miniseries The Assets is based on fact. That does nothing to make it compelling.

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.

Bonnie & Clyde? More like Hokum and Bunk.

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