From the creator of "L.A.Law," Picket Fences has all the oddball characters and eccentric behavior that made "L.A. Law" the hit it has been. But in this setting, they ring a false note that's more grating than ingratiating. [18 Sept 1992, p.1]

I like the idea of The Net as a series, with Angela living week to week in a Fugitive-type existence, trying to reclaim her identity and bring down the bad guys. If future scripts are clever enough, and viewers persevere past the first episode, this show could be a winner. [18 July 1998, p.7]

Hennessy has the strength to be a leading lady, but she's up to her neck in ghoulishness.

Too bad this show doesn't run outtakes. Wouldn't you love to hear what the victims of Ali's ambushes had to say about him? [20 Feb 2003, p.4]

RoboCop - The Series works well as a mass-market show. ... It offers action, as opposed to violence. And its ironic humor, though not as hard-edged as the movies', has a sly, subversive bent. [19 Mar 1994]

Watching Ellie is better than bad, but it could be - no, should be - a lot more fun than it is. [26 Feb 2002]

God, the Devil and Bob is irreverent, but it's not offensive. It's just not as good or as funny as it should be. [9 March 2000]

This isn't a laugh riot, but it's got promise. [22 Sept 2003, p.6]

Friends is the new "Seinfeld" wannabe, but it will never be as funny as "Seinfeld." Even as "Seinfeld" is now, which isn't as funny as it used to be.[22 Sept 1994, p.10]

'Medium' is manipulative filmmaking, but it works. [2 Jan 2005]

Once is quite enough to send C.S.I. back to the lab. [6 Oct 2000, p.10]

Kudrow says she isn't a reality-TV fan and the humiliation of its participants, yet she plays her part as victim. So when she gets sucker-punched, we get sucker-punched. What's so funny about that? [4 June 2005, p.10]

The Huntress has a lot going for it. O'Toole is smashing, the script is a nice mix of comedy and action, and these quirky but well-drawn characters actually have heart. [26 Jul 2000]

Beggars could be a great one, if they don't waste their time going for sex jokes. [17 June 1999, p.1]

This gangster saga works best when its hero is in peril. The whackings and the miserably boring lives of thugs - who appear to do nothing but hang around a dumpy pool room bar when they aren't killing each other - are old stuff by now. The double life with the Pistone family adds a different diversion, and there are occasional attempts at humor. [4 Apr 2000]

It's mildly amusing for openers, but if chasing women becomes the weekly theme, Madigan Men could become a bore. [6 Oct 2000, p.10]

Like CSI and its offshoots, Bones will take viewers to dark and sometimes disgusting places. So, in one sense, Fox may have come up with a format that will reach both men, who love unappetizing scenes, and women, because of the female heroine.

The Guardian is manipulative, sad and a little strange. But it does put a new face on the old lawyer series, and as its new star, Baker could live up to his advance billing as a breakout. [25 Sept 2001, p.6]

If NBC hopes to ride the wave generated by the movie The Sixth Sense, it has a way to go to catch it. The Others is a too-predictable curiosity adrift in a sea of aiming-to-scare-you special effects. [4 Feb 2000]

They've already shot 13 episodes in New York City (long before Sept. 11), and the title's name recognition could draw a crowd...Without better scripts and acting to back it up, though, this Law & Order spin-off could wind up eating some of those first 13. [29 Sept 2001, p.9]

The District's success rests strictly on the shoulders of Nelson's Mannion, and in this opener, he comes on like gangbusters. But will bigger-than-life bluster and arrogance wear well? We'll see. [7 Oct 2000]

Popular is the show to separate the teens from the grown-ups. [29 Sept 1999, p.H-1]

A bubbling stew of raging hormones, buff bodies and the culture shock of rich meets poor. [12 Jul 2000]

Ritter has a well-honed sense of comedic timing, and some of the lines are clever, for a change. This one could grow on you. [15 Sep 2002]

The opening production numbers are Las Vegas cheesy, Nikki's running battle with Dwight's mother is mean-spirited, and the jokes run from rank to raunch. [7 Oct 2000]

In trying to service all the characters, the drama is not as compelling as it should be. [2 Jan 2005]

The Family Guy is worse than dumb; it's not funny. [30 Jan 1999]

Having now seen it, I don't think I want to go there. [8 Oct 1999, p.H1]

Well, the show is certainly wacky, but I didn't get a good laugh until the third episode I previewed. [9 Jan 1996]

It's somehow not as funny or as clever as it's meant to be. It tries very hard to be sophisticated, provocative and kinky. But underneath the big city smugg-and-smirk of these junior would-be movers and shakers are some very lonely people. [6 June 1998, p.11]

There's enough humor in this escape route entertainment to bring you back for more. [11 Aug 1996, p.1996]

The surprise is, Blonde's retelling of what's already an offensively oft-told tale is absolutely irresistible. [27 May 2001]

Bathroom is an apt description of the humor level and the language. [21 Sept 1998, p.1]

There's nothing terribly wrong with the show except that it draws from the same procedural well as CSI, Law & Order and the show from which it's spun, JAG. [23 Sept 2003, p.Hou1]

This is hardly a plot to test Hercule Poirot's little gray cells. It is a fairly typical movie-of-the-week type action-lawyer show, and Reggie's a nice change as the strong-woman-hero character. 16 Sept 1995]

Wolf Lake, CBS' brooding series about humans in wolves' clothing (or maybe that should be vice versa) premieres after a total makeover that leaves it more of a furry X-Files meets Twin Peaks than a confusing call of the wild.

To say The Tommyknockers is bad is an understatement. It's awful. [7 May 1993, p.1]

Unfortunately, Battery Park is a precinct I don't care enough about to come back for more. [23 March 2000]

Aside from Kurtz, everything else in this makeover is about the same. That's not good.[9 Sept 1996, p.1]

Tremors: The Series may surprise you. It's silly, but some of these scares do make you jump. And when the smart shines through, it's fun. [23 Mar 2003, p.03]

A six-hour haunted house tale that tugs out every tired trick in the Boo! book, trying to scare you silly. Don't say we didn't warn you, if you're silly enough to watch all that. [27 Jan 2002]

Quick - which is the one to root for, the one you want to make the basketball team and get the girl? If you don't know, One Tree Hill holds all kinds of possibilities for you. Me, I run from jerks. [23 Sept 2003, p.1]

what was left was such a confusing big-city western, it was hard to tell the good guys from the bad. [21 April 1993, p.8]

Ron Glass' Ronald Felcher, history teacher, should have the star billing. He's the only light, and right, in a faculty lounge of stereotypical teacher put-downs. [23 Sep 1996, p.1]

No doubt Lopez is a very funny fellow, but this script isn't. And the writers are the ones to blame, too, for all these tacky jokes about little girls entering puberty and George's digestive problems and wind-passing. The mother-of-mean-mothers gimmick is beyond mere tacky. It's gross...George Lopez is a goner - the sooner, the better. [27 Mar 2002, p.1]

A crude comedy filled with frat-boy humor.

Don't waste time trying to follow it. This convoluted camcorder e-mess is already freaked out to reboot mode behind the scenes, and the grade drops accordingly. [6 Oct 2000, p.10]

No wonder Danny doesn't have a laugh track. Who's laughing?

It cribs from Family Guy, which has a similar family makeup, and, as with that series, its laughs are hither and yon. [30 Apr 2005]

The territory's familiar and the jokes too tame and infrequent to give Daddio the heigh-o. But it doesn't deserve the heave-ho, either - especially if the laughs increase. Chiklis' warm-hearted character is hard to dislike, the kids are cute, and, bottom line, we like this show more than the show that's usually on at this time, Jesse. [23 March 2000]

Hype is the WB's unforgiveable offering of the season, a disgustingly smutty sketch non-comedy show. [7 Oct 2000]

Louis-Dreyfus, the performer, is not the problem here, and neither is the format. The problem is the material. [15 Apr 2003]

The emphasis in this series opener is on action. What's missing is the more gentle humor and fantasy that marked the miniseries as a family treat. [26 Nov 2002]

Luis is a four-car pileup on the interstate - metal-on-metal loud and abrasive, and just about as funny. [19 Sept 2003, p.12]

Don't give us talk about "temporal displacement," "sublimaters" and "space-time continuum," then expect us to buy as lame a story as Timecop throws at us. [22 Sept 1997, p.4]

A bloated disappointment that spends more time on the judges than the inventors and their inventions.

Big Brother is that deadliest of TV sins: It's a Grade D bore. [8 Jul 2000]

Tucker turns adolescence into hormone hell in this raunchy effort to capitalize on the charm of "Malcolm in the Middle". [2 Oct 2000, p.4]