Halfway through tonight's clunky and cartoonish debut, it dawns on you that we're stuck in the middle of Operation Letdown.

Loaded with bogus-pokus, Charmed is less witty and diverting than "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Its soap and fantasy elements ought to attract some of the same audience, but it's not likely to put many under a spell. [7 Oct 1998, p.1E]

It is revealing in its accidental way and, like the boy bands, rates as harmless diversion. [23 March 2000]

America doesn’t exactly need another urban crime drama, but this one demands and deserves attention. [22 Sep 2004]

The acting styles range from sullen underplaying to over-the-top melodrama, and that mix can be quite effective. But both can be carried too far, with the underplayed stuff tending toward somnambulism and the over-the-top extremes inducing a cringe or two.

Beneath all of the insanity, BrainDead again and again demonstrates it has a brain in its head. It's goofy-good-time stuff, all right, yet it has a point.

When it's up and running at full power, Childhood's End is as intriguing, provocative and unnerving as any visit to the "fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man." And there are many such stretches in these six hours. Yet there also are slow, padded, uninvolving stretches when the direction and dialogue wander off course. Ragged in structure and pacing, the miniseries is a slick-looking vehicle that occasionally stalls and sputters toward an uncertain future.

Visually arresting, epic in ambition and impressively acted by a splendid cast, The Stand" looks like King's close encounter with "The Andromeda Strain" crossing "Wild Palms, building its suspense around a deadly epidemic that wipes out most of the world's population and leaves the survivors seeking a new beginning for good or evil. [8 May 1994, p.1J]

The ploddingly paced, awkwardly constructed Showtime production manages to turn the spectacular rise and fall of former Fox News chief Roger Ailes into a slog that is as tiresome as it is tedious.

Memorable performances are delivered by Dominique McElligott as Louise Shepard, Azure Parsons as Annie Glenn and Odette Annable as Trudy Cooper.... Lacking any semblance of compelling structure, the series is a jumble of scenes artlessly arranged in a by-the-numbers chronological order.

In spirit, mood, tone and execution, this somber and sodden series feels more like an attempt to do a Stephen King-like horror series.

Smartly and humorously written, spiced with cartoonish mayhem and over-the-top acting, it visually resembles the "Dick Tracy" and "Batman" movies, deals in the sort of speculative scientific fantasy that distinguished "Quantum Leap" and the miniseries "Wild Palms," and provides ... escapist fun. [19 Mar 1994]

This first hour is all about reinvention. It's a rather clunky attempt to remake the 1993-2002 vehicle in a manner that will please loyal fans and new viewers. The second episode, with guest star Doug Savant ("Desperate Housewives"), pushes this redesigned vehicle into a higher gear.... Now this is the X-Files we fondly remember. Can they push this to yet a higher gear? Why, yes, they can, and they do with the third episode.

It all comes together spookily well, with Lore resembling nothing more than six late-night trips to the campfire for some splendidly spun creep-out stories.

The major characters, one and all, are extremely well acted, but the winter of their middle-age discontent produces a comedy that leaves the viewer a little cold.

While the two episodes that the network sent to critics stumble baldly into the humor-impaired category, each manages to sparkle for a moment or two. And Emmy winner Louis-Dreyfus provides most of the sparkle. [26 Feb 2002]

A terrific vehicle for commenting on the state of the world? It should be. God, the Devil and Bob, however, is rarely as funny or as insightful as it should be. [9 March 2000, p.4E]

From the casting to the writing, the show has class, leaving you with the hope that Jack will be destined to a long stay in Toledo.

A smart, stylish, sexy romp full of sizzling patter and clever chatter. Behind the glitz and glamour of Sin City are solid performances by Caan and his immediately likable co-stars. [22 Sept 2003, p.D7]

Obvious similarities to the Jason Bourne films and other espionage stories are only part of the derivative drama's problems. The lurching plot turns are preposterous. The supporting characters are thinly drawn. The structure is terribly disjointed. And the dialogue ranges from ham-fisted to stilted.

Amiable but not memorable, Friends becomes an overcrowded "Ellen," which remains a junior-varsity "Seinfeld" wannabe. [22 Sept 1994, p.7E]

The troubling questions and terrific performances are enough to keep you following this murky trail, if you're not seriously burned out on serial killers. There seems to be one waiting around every corner in television, and this dark corner can be found near the intersection of trite and tremendous. Absentia is both.

The creep factor runs high, and it had better in a series called "Supernatural." But the series also has its overly familiar and just-plain-silly moments.

What Mars lacks in consistency, it makes up with scope and scale.

An ambitious but uneven show based on the colorful and controversial life of Jack Parsons.

Why does this murky version of Christie’s 1936 novel occasionally hit wearisome and plodding stretches? It’s never because of Malkovich’s portrayal. It’s the directing and writing that comes up short. ... Despite the erratic nature of the direction, “The ABC Murders” often is gripping fare, with each installment serving up more than its share of fiercely memorable moments.

The setting and crimes are interesting, and Petersen in particular is terrific, but C.S.I. tries to show the thoughtful nature of its characters by underplaying them - and it relies for liveliness on stomach-turning lab work. Slick but plodding, C.S.I. could be DOA. [6 Oct 2000, p.5E]

It's a bit of throwback, which makes it sort of a time trip in itself. A fun ride. [21 March 1995, p.7F]

It’s a frustrating run of intoxicating highs and off-putting lows, at least in the early going. ... As it stands, uncertainly, at the starting gate, it’s poised somewhere between pass and fail.

If not as sharply realized and profoundly resonant as the "Battlestar" reboot, this "Lost in Space" is a visual stunner packed with exhilarating action sequences. It's not a great drama, but it is great fun.

the pilot episode is briskly paced and told with a certain amount of flair. Technically, it's not without merit..... [But] It needs to get smart or risk being exposed as a pale impostor lurking among the elite TV operatives.

So relentlessly watchable it's likely to be habit-forming after two doses, City of Angels is more than a promising midseason addition. It makes an immediate case for itself as the best drama on CBS. [16 Jan 2000, p.6I]

The writing and direction are uneven as ever, lurching clumsily from intriguing to annoying. [8 Jan 2005]

It's grittily atmospheric, sharply scripted and acted with a depth that becomes more apparent as the series goes on. It will leave you on the edge of your seat. [4 Apr 2000]

The writing on "Commander in Chief" often is so distressingly thin and pale, this West Wing drama will suffer in comparison to the robust early years of, well, NBC's "The West Wing."

Wielding a satiric sword badly in need of sharpening, Disenchantment meanders along a medieval middle ground, often fun but rarely funny.

What's missing from Blunt Talk is any degree of wit, any genuine character development, any sense of comic structure that delights, rather than depresses, the viewer. What should be winning leaves you wincing.

Emphasizing action more than character, Babylon 5 is a show that's simply grittier, more exuberantly freewheeling and more fun [than "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"]. [25 Jan 1994, p.9D]

Byrne doesn't register as a comic lead in a show that plays at the level of an Irish Spring commercial. [6 Oct 2000, p.5E]

Sequoyah is a charmer, and a few of the action sequences help grease the wheels on this fast-paced ride. Yet it's not enough to make up for the cloying and cliched writing.

The first hour of FX's The Bastard Executioner is a bit of a slog.... Just when you're thinking the battle is lost, Sutter goes all medieval on us and pulls everything together in a fiercely compelling manner. Patience is rewarded, and The Bastard Executioner suddenly becomes every bit as addictive as it is intriguing.

There's a fine line between clever and labored, and "Bones" sometimes strays over that line with one-liners about skull fragments, blood samples, X-rays and microbes. That's where "see how cleverly we can banter" writing creeps into the otherwise crisp proceedings.

While tonight's pilot episode is uneven, it does provide the building blocks for a solid foundation. There is promise here, and there is the potential for quick disintegration. Which way will it go? How do I know? What do you think I am? Psychic? [5 Feb 2000, p.1E]

Visually very different from the film, TV's Rocky Horror Picture Show also boasts superior choreography and wildly inventive costuming. It's a wonderfully dark castle packed with twisted delights.

The stumbling spin-off makes a wearisome return by quickly reverting to that frustrating first-season form.

If issues don't get in the way, CBS' The District is a good show - may be one of the TV season's most watchable new dramas. [7 Oct 2000, p.1E]

Sure, it's all very derivative. It's purposely so. That's not the problem with these scripts. The problem is that, despite all the blood, too many anemic characters fail to register on the flesh-and-blood scale.

The potential definitely is there for a bloody good finale. The setup is intriguing enough.

The more these characters talk, the thinner they get, until, ultimately, they resemble nothing more than cardboard figures set up on those splendid Utah and Montana locations. ... Yellowstone crawls when it should gallop, making for something of a dull ride. It's sort of like "Dallas" without the winking sense of soap-opera fun.

As Barry struggles with his sense of identity, so does this series. There is little consistency of tone here, and the efforts to depict a realistic Middle Eastern political struggle are undermined by campy and melodramatic moments.

More insipid than insightful, Popular fails to fill the bill. Emotionally overwrought and intellectually underdeveloped, the fledgling series is everything you've come to expect from a Hollywood examination of high school - and less. [29 Sept 1999, p.4E]

There are, to be sure, many memorable moments along the way to Monday's second half, but this is one of those padded two-parters that easily could have been trimmed to three hours and aired one night instead of two. And most of the padding is in Sunday's first half.

Here's where you'll find the saccharine avoided by "About a Boy." You'll also find the occasional trite twist and labored comic turn. Still, Growing Up Fisher undeniably jumps to life when Simmons is on the screen, which is quite a lot. That's what gives this underdeveloped newcomer a fighting chance.

Clueless pulls off the balancing act of being bright and sophisticated while remaining almost squeaky-clean. [20 Sept 1996, p.1E]

Sharknado 3 has the look and feel of any satirical concept worn a trifle ragged through repetition. But, again, it's not as if that's going to hurt its Emmy chances. There's still enough bite left in the concept.

The wildly uneven Constantine premiere is a decidedly mixed bag of magic tricks. It's moody and mysterious. It's also muddled and meandering.

Clever, slightly twisted and occasionally very funny. [30 Jan 1999]

It's all pleasant enough fare, but here we have a lead performance that demands better than fair.

In its present ragged state, Harsh Realm is a jumble of great promise and great weaknesses - every bit as annoying as it is amazing. At its best, the series is stylish and clever. At its worst, well, things have a tendency to get pretty heavy-handed and obvious. [7 Oct 1999, p.1E]

Once it gets past a fixation on breast jokes (I counted nine in the premiere but only five in next week's episode) its talented cast and clever writing could make it a diverting, screwball sitcom. [9 Jan 1996]

There is much to admire here, from the performances to the cinematography, but then there are aspects of the production that aren't all that admirable. That would include the erratic direction and wildly inconsistent dialogue.

If not top-tier TV terror fare, Under the Dome certainly is solid second-level stuff. And given the state of horror on television these days, that's a bloody good compliment. Even while acknowledging the occasional misstep, give Under the Dome credit for getting a lot of things right.

The depictions of Houdini and Doyle never seem authentic. The mysteries aren't particularly riveting. And the mix of fact and fancy is anything but magical.

A rambling collection of artlessly tossed-together scenes, this disjointed four-hour hodgepodge wanders aimlessly, becoming more murky and melodramatic with each miserable misstep. [13 May 2001, p.8I]

Fresher and more intelligent than most youth-oriented comedies. [24 Sept 1993, p.12C]

James has some huggy-bear appeal as a latter-day Ralph Kramden, but "King" - like most new comedies and unlike "The Honeymooners" - too often tries for belly laughs by going for the groin. [21 Sept 1998, p.1E]

The wildly uneven series that bears his name also is a mess, a murky mixed bag of dreary and delightful moments.

Viewers shouldn't be fooled into expecting more than a conventional lawyer show. [16 Sept 1995, p.8E]

The dialogue is intentinonally bad. The CGI work is intentionally cheap. The plot is intentionally ludicrous. The shock tactics are intentionally schlocky. And all this bad adds up to one monstrously good time, particularly if experienced with a rowdy and ready group of friends.

Although "Reunion" has its labored and lackluster moments, it is an admirable attempt to try something a little different with traditional prime-time formats. Give this one major innovation points.

With its pulsing green glows, glowing green ooze, barking dogs, demented stares, terrors in the Maine woods, kids in peril and unseen powers that take over minds, it's less a journey into the Twilight Zone than a trudge down memory lane - even if you've only seen King's work on television in "It" and "Golden Years." More disappointing, it fails to live up to the foreboding and sense of dread it deftly establishes in a succession of early scenes. [9 May 1993, p.1H]

This isn’t a parody. It’s deadly serious. And deadly is a description that also fits the direction and writing. ... Drearily paced, clunkily written “Christmas Carol.” Everything seems to take forever as we move awkwardly and clumsily from scene to scene.

This sometimes talky and often preposterous Legacy effort has all of the annoying flaws of Kiefer Sutherland's long-running "24" and none of its considerable strengths.

Although terribly familiar in design and execution, Battery Park does manage stretches when it amiably spins along in a Big Appleish "Spin City" sort of way. Goldberg's touch hasn't completely deserted him. [23 March 2000, p.6E]

There's plenty of room in the graveyard for Salem, although it's way too early to tell if it can effectively build on the scary and sensual elements introduced in Sunday's premiere.

Give it some style points, no doubt, because there are several very cool moments. But you get the feeling that Spotnitz knows where the problems are, and he's trying to fix them.

The cast, which includes Jennifer Finnigan as Pentagon public-relations honcho Grace Barrows, is extremely likable, and the first two episodes roll along at a breezy clip. So, by all means, don't ask too many questions and don't expect too much.

The truly scary thing about Stephen King's Rose Red is its running time. Spectral chains aren't the only things dragging in this rambling haunted-house miniseries from the horrormeister, whose best-written best sellers move at a frighteningly crisp pace. There are times when "Rose Red" seems to hardly move at all. With its sluggish six hours stretched over three nights, the ABC miniseries is a case of way too little story occupying way too much prime-time space. [26 Jan 2002, p.E1]

Nothing on this futuristic landscape stands out: the performances, the dialogue, the direction, the special effects. The premise is solid enough. Yet everything constructed on this foundation seems to have been fashioned from nothing more substantial than cardboard.

It substitutes mocking attitude (or lack of attitude) for wit, has no sense of story and has no discernible jokes - just a lot of ostensibly "out there" ideas it is unable to develop. It isn't as memorable or smart as the "bad sitcom" conventions it spoofs. [31 May 2000, p.3E]

The real strain is in trying to turn Tarzan into a crime fighter like Spider-Man, complete with the gravity-defying leaps and whoosh-wham special effects. [4 Oct 2003, p.E6]

Coercion might be the only way to get an audience for this incredibly labored legal drama.

This funny fellow is trapped in a series that isn't even remotely funny. [27 Mar 2002, p.E1]

The odd thing about "Conviction" is the awkward way it lurches between the legal maneuverings and the personal issues of the central characters. While the courtroom scenes are entertaining, if frequently obvious, the up-close-and-personal stuff is what proves to be a real trial.

This incredibly trite and preposterous series are serious about all the hackneyed twaddle lumbering and stumbling into view Monday night. Just when you think it can't get more laughably bad, it does.

It's energetic, good-looking and kind of scary - just don't try to make sense of it. [6 Oct 2000, p.5E]

Chiklis is saddled with a series that would need months of polishing just to be mediocre. The subtitle could be, "When Bad Shows Happen to Good People." [23 March 2000, p.6E]

Has little to offer but formula storytelling and conventional crime-drama techniques.

The problem with "Training Day" as a series is that it wants to be reassuringly safe and disturbingly dangerous at the same time, and this duality proves its undoing. The strain of this balancing act is felt in the unconvincing, sometimes cartoonish dialogue, direction and performances.

Plenty of fascinating medical material here for a series. And yet, Heartbeat botches the job, because the dialogue, direction and supporting characters are wearisomely artificial.

The best aspect of "Freddie" is that it makes an earnest attempt to depict a loving, supportive Latino family. You want to spend time with them, but only if the writers put as much sizzle into the scripts as Freddie does in his beloved recipes.

This is a leading contender for the title of worst new show of the season.

While it might sound like fun, the premise is so flat-out dopey that it's impossible to care about any of the characters or alleged story, and the leaden dialogue discourages any attention that the occasional cool gadgetry might attract. [22 Sept 1997, p.5E]

The problem with "Ghost Whisperer" is its lack of focus.

It's like watching "Big Brother" with a less nutty and less interesting cast, or the old "Bob Newhart Show" without Bob - or laughs. [6 Oct 2000, p.5E]

The odious Tucker is a crude and blatant rip-off of Fox's brilliant January starter, "Malcolm in the Middle." The producers have gone to the absurd extreme of citing "My So-Called Life" as their inspiration, a pathetic ploy to avoid the obvious charge of "Malcolm" marauding. [2 Oct 2000, p.9D]

Mr. Selfridge has some enticing items to tempt those shopping for a quality viewing experience. At the top of this list is the gift that keeps on giving: Jeremy Piven's wonderfully textured portrayal of Harry Gordon Selfridge.