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.

At this point, "Carnivale" is a frustrating blend of intriguing and annoying elements. The writers are taking chances, and you have to give them credit for that, but they haven't quite perfected this mystical mixture of metaphor and metaphysics, mystery and magic. [13 Sep 2003]

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

There's deliberate and there's plodding. This is plodding. Indeed, the jittery camera work and abrupt flashbacks almost take it from plodding to stumbling.... The acting styles differ greatly, yet none of the capable regulars hits a false note, whether playing subdued rage or over-the-top fervor.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Extant is a hodgepodge that serves up some creepy moments but gets bogged down by the inelegance of its copycat nature. It rumbles when it should roar. It stumbles when it should soar.

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 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]

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

So many strong ingredients could have gone into this brew, but, no matter how obviously the casting tries to turn up the heat, it's still a half-empty glass of weak tea.

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.

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.

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]

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]

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.

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]

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.

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]