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]

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]

It stands as King's best and most effective TV project to date. Best of all is the human dimension of the drama. Where some King minis have built to fantastic payoffs so preposterous as to be laughable, this one uses his bag of tricks and special effects to pose a moral dilemma. The absorbing climax finds its ultimate horror not in a monster, but in the ethical choices of average people. [13 Feb 1999, p.1E]

Bouncing between bloody good and bloody brilliant. [12 July 2006, p.D1]

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]

It changed the look of King’s lead vampire from a cultured villain to a ghoulish beast recalling Max Schreck’s makeup in “Nosferatu” (1922). [22 June 2013, p.E4]

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]

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

As deeply disturbing as it is brilliantly compelling. ... A top-to-bottom standout cast that makes the mesmerizing most of this potent material.

[The first five episodes of this fifth season] provide overwhelming proof that “Better Call Saul” remains one of the best shows of any kind anywhere on television. And Odenkirk hardly is the only compelling reason to follow this series. All of the characters are intriguing.

Although the pace is at times too deliberate and many of the story elements seem familiar (earning the dubious raised eyebrow Mr. Spock put to such good use), it’s not difficult getting to the end of this third episode. For one thing, the series looks terrific. For another, you’re in great company all the way. The cast is marvelous, starting with Stewart, the finest actor ever to wear a Starfleet uniform. His aging and conflicted Picard is an endlessly intriguing revival of the character. He not only keeps you involved but also (to borrow the captain’s trademark phrase) engaged.

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]

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.

Falling into an erratic pattern, the annoyingly choppy "Wonderland" follows an incredibly powerful moment with one that's incredibly forced. Intriguing confrontations lead to unrealistic plot twists or hackneyed resolutions. Artfully constructed dilemmas are undermined by cliches...For every step in a brilliant direction, Wonderland takes a stumble. A dark drama filled with dreary and haunting images, the ABC newcomer has ambition to spare. What it lacks is consistency. [30 March 2000, p.1E]

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

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Ambitious, imaginative, provocative and engrossing. ... A triumph of style and substance, it never sacrifices pace for preaching or pontificating. At least in the first six episodes made available to critics, it remains every bit as entertaining as it is intriguing.

Mirren is in full command of the role. ... But the script is nowhere near as commanding as her portrayal of Catherine. ... Our fascination with the story, though, comes and goes, even with Mirren consistently rising above and transcending the inconsistent writing.

An intriguing and surreal serving of fun fantasy. It’s an ideal role for Rudd. Well, make that two ideal roles for Rudd.

Like many an anthology series, it is a bit uneven, sometimes corny and clunky, sometimes wonderfully sweet and sentimental. But when on top of its game, “Modern Love” produces some magically romantic results. The touching first episode is enchanting proof of that. ... Another superb entry stars Dev Patel.

An endearing and often-poignant eight-part adaptation of John Green’s first novel. ... They [writer-producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage] are aided in this mission by performances that are every bit as refreshingly genuine as the writing.

The era-by-era approach can lead to a bit of a by-the-numbers feel, as Burns and Duncan make a mighty effort to touch every base in every decade. This also robs the film of the grand overall cohesion that holds together such epic efforts as “The Civil War” and “The Roosevelts.” Because of this, “Country Music” often feels like eight two-hour films rather than one intricately interwoven effort. But each of the segments is intriguing in its own way.

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.

It’s difficult enough staying on track having seen the previous two seasons. If you want to make up your loss, go back to the beginning and work your way toward the third season. And be prepared to be challenged. ... What hasn’t changed is that “Legion” remains an intoxicating experience laced with a grand sense of wonder. The humorous touches are every bit as clever as the visual treats. The performances are every bit as compelling as the production team’s command of the narrative.

Fear of the future informs every scene and every performance in “Years and Years,” a deeply disturbing yet absolutely riveting six-part British miniseries. ... Along the harrowing way, Davies is swerving ferociously from horror to humor to heartbreak to heartwarming, without ever losing his balance. And the magnificent cast goes right along with him, with particularly strong contributions by Kinnear, Reid and Thompson.

The cast, led by Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge, is exceptional. The intricate web of story lines is intriguing. And there are several moments when “City On a Hill” jumps to startling life, providing us a glimpse of the series it could become.

If the first three episodes of this second season are any indication, what’s waiting is another exceedingly wicked, exceedingly adult ride through riveting territory.

The highest compliment you can pay “Deadwood: The Movie” is that it is the continuation and the conclusion that both the series and its fans deserved. It’s just that good. It’s powerful, at times profound, at times bittersweet.

Williams never makes a wrong step, but, sadly, the same can’t be said for the writing and direction.

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

A spoof that works for people who love vampire films and people who don’t. Even the obvious and sophomoric stuff is served up with a wicked twist. Humor and horror tend to be flip sides of the same coin (metaphoric means of dealing with painful subjects), and you find them twisting around each other in ferociously funny ways throughout these episodes.

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.

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.

While Pugh, Skarsgard and Shannon hit vastly different emotional notes, each finds the shadings and conflicts that make these characters more and more compelling as the plot gets thicker, the players dig deeper and the stakes get higher. It is, Pugh, however, who makes the grandest impression in what is both a star and star-making turn. You might find yourself quibbling with some of Park’s direction, but never with Pugh’s performance.

There is no shortage of chuckles along the way, but the hit-and-miss nature of the writing keeps the series from staying on track as it heads for moments both humorous and poignant.

The ingredients aren't always in proper proportion, yet enough of the magic works in this series to keep you under its spell, episode after episode. The acting styles can be all over the place as well, and still, due to the strong cast, it doesn't undo the spell.

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

Better Call Saul just keeps on getting better and better. That's an easy call, particularly after seeing the gripping first three episodes of the "Breaking Bad" prequel's fourth season. ... One constant in Better Call Saul is that, as riveting as Odenkirk is as Jimmy, this hardly is a one-actor showcase.

It's a free-wheeling good time with a good heart and some good laughs.

This is a solid case of so far, so pretty good.

A lovingly crafted tribute offering many laughs, a few tears, some intriguing insights and just a constant swarm of warm memories.

Like its characters, Sharp Objects is not without obvious flaws, it's also not without impressive strengths. The cast, led by five-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams, is exceptional, making the deep pain and overwhelming angst of these characters both vividly real and incredibly fascinating.

Sharply paced, A Very English Scandal doesn't make the mistake of overstaying its welcome. The story is told in three tightly packaged installments that cover the endlessly curious ground efficiently and elegantly.

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.

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

An intoxicating mix of wicked comedy and "Lear"-like tragedy. ... There's nothing all that likable about the Roys. They are a vain, petty and avaricious lot. But they are incredibly fascinating, thanks to the riveting performances and the razor-sharp writing.

The brilliantly dark five-part limited series starring Benedict Cumberbatch is a compelling journey laced with pain and overflowing with absolutely riveting performances.

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 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.

At the black heart of this uneven but often-mesmerizing crime drama is Donald Sutherland's sly and spellbinding portrayal of the richest man in the world, J. Paul Getty Sr.

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

The ever-audacious comedy continues to surprise viewers in all sorts of unpredictable ways. As bold and daring as ever, producer-writer-star Donald Glover's cable series picks right up where the first season left off--fiercely funny and marvelously mercurial.

Indeed, it is, at times, quite thrilling. It's also, at times, tedious. It is a mixed bag of impressive strengths and frustrating shortcomings, which, of course, is precisely what Wright is telling us about the intelligence community before 9/11.

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.

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.

Simmons, as you might expect, is equally convincing as each Howard Silk, but he's only getting revved up for the many twists and turns taken in this 10-episode thrill ride. ... Still, no matter how convoluted things get, you keep coming back to the two Howards, and, because of Simmons, you want to.

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.

There are many incredibly suspenseful and deeply fascinating stretches. The problem is that fascination is wrapped around frustration in this second "American Crime Story," which is wearisomely lighter on details and slower of pace.

Jauntily paced and cleverly written, the wonderfully engaging Mrs. Maisel is packed with winning regulars (none more so than Brosnahan's Midge), witty banter (a Sherman-Palladino specialty), sensational supporting players (including Kevin Pollak and David Paymer) and an exuberant sense of optimism (despite the obvious and incredibly daunting obstacles a female comedian faced in the late '50s).

Godless manages to come across as both familiar and fresh. Plot lines are recognizable without becoming trite. Characters are taken to predictable extremes without sliding into caricatures.

Yes, there are times when excess gets the better of this series. Pace occasionally becomes a problem, as we move from episode to episode that could be more tightly edited. Yet the sheer vitality of the performances keep us fully engaged.

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.

Time and again, over a span of more than 35 years, we find Burns constructing bridges that insightfully and profoundly link Americans with their history. Nowhere has that been more powerfully true than in the 18 hours of his stunningly realized, intricately detailed 10-part film, The Vietnam War.

Comrade Detective does is not overstay its welcome. There's just enough here to sustain six episodes. That works. Anything more would have been a crime.

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.

Will is as sensual as it is suspenseful, as bawdy as it is bloody, as lusty as it it is lyrical.

The good news is that Snowfall, the searing FX drama about the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles, does start moving at dazzling speed after a slow, plodding start. The bad news is that this occurs somewhere about the fourth episode.

If all of the characters were as 14-karat authentic as Goldie, I'm Dying Up Here might have had a fighting chance. Instead, even with Jim Carrey on board as an executive producer and Tom Dreesen along for the erratic ride as technical consultant, this Showtime newcomer only intermittently finds its rhythm and hits its stride as compelling drama.

A darker shade of "Green"? Yes, at times, grim realities are made a trifle more real. Does that work? Yes, often wonderfully well.

An extremely smart, wildly eccentric and very adult comedy. And if Bacon is bringing the heat, then Hahn is the aching, searching heart of this series.

It's a slow start to be sure, as American Gods gradually, deliberately but surely draws you into its elaborate, impressively nuanced world, where old myths and religions intersect with new American gods.

Worth watching? Oh yeah, particularly for the genius of Rush and Flynn. Despite the inconsistent nature of the dialogue, the series obviously has much to recommend it. It's superior, if not superlative.

The hallmarks of a Hawley show are wonderfully offbeat yet endlessly intriguing characters, boldly innovative visual flourishes, a somewhat antic sense of humor, marvelously textured universes, compelling performances and whip-smart writing. Are all of these elements to be found in the immediately riveting third-season opener of Fargo? Oh heck yah, youbetcha.

AMC's best current show? Not even close. By a big stretch, it's the "Breaking Bad" spinoff (and prequel series) Better Call Saul, which launches its third season in grand style. ... It feels like some kind of brilliant first cousin.

It isn't a bad show, in the sense of being a total swing and a miss. It isn't, however, the type of series that would be a gleaming jewel in anyone's programming crown. It's too derivative. Too uninvolving. Too inertly paced.

Trial & Error is more a case of hit and miss. Wildly uneven, it tries way too hard to be eccentric, often following big laughs with wearisomely forced and labored moments.

Part of the intoxicating magic of Feud is the fierce relish with which Sarandon and Lange circle each other warily, clash, back off, then clash again. It is a mesmerizing, perfectly executed dance--a bitter tango staged somewhere near the intersection of "Sunset Boulevard" and the "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." The brittle dialogue rips along with waspish intensity, and adding to the storytelling wizardry is an outstanding supporting cast.

Fueled by these performances, it frequently and undeniably rises to great heights. But add up everything that When We Rise has going for it, which is considerable, and, well, the whole is somewhat less than the sum of its parts.

As raw and raunchy as the comedy sometimes gets on Crashing, there's something incredibly endearing and downright sweet about this new HBO series. That something is the performance of the immensely likable Pete Holmes.

If not a triumphant return to form, Big Little Lies is the best new Kelley series in quite a while. It contains all of his considerable strengths (sharp and clever dialogue) and some his weaknesses (precious and labored moments). It is nothing less than fun, if never much more than that. But that's more than enough to keep you engaged and keep you watching.

Patience and attention to detail are rewarded handsomely, however, as Legion serves up a an instantly compelling narrative laced with an intriguing sense of mystery and wonder. It makes for a riveting adventure packed with razor-sharp dialogue, clever visual touches, surrealistic flourishes and wonderfully winning performances.

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.

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.

A darker, more complex reimagining of the Archie universe. Did I say dark? Let's add moody, murky and, at times, creepy. It also is surprisingly engaging, thanks in no small measure to the winning performances of KJ Apa as Archie Andrews, Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge and Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper.

Moving uncertainly in fits and starts, the handsomely produced Victoria nonetheless gleams with first-rate performances. The overall storytelling execution is poor, but individual scenes can be quite rich in detail and nuance.

The problem with The Young Pope is that it never artfully draws you in deep enough to care. Created and directed by Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino ("The Great Beauty"), it is drearily paced, choppy and often self-consciously bizarre. It's beautiful to gaze upon, filled with sumptuous shots that look like majestic oil paintings. And the supporting cast is impressive.

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

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

A wildly uneven action-adventure-fantasy drama from executive producers Eric Kripke ("Revolution," "Supernatural") and Shawn Ryan ("The Shield," "The Unit"), it awkwardly follows a scientist, a soldier and a history professor pursuing the mysterious criminal who stole a secret time machine.

Peyton List stars in this immediately riveting mix of police drama and time-bending fantasy.

While unquestionably a strange brew, No Tomorrow also is quite bewitching. It's fun falling under its spell.

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 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.

Thornton is sensational as the shattered Billy McBride, a one-time star litigator who took the ruins of his life and crawled into a whiskey bottle. When he's not on screen, you grow impatient for his return.