Rocha, combined with the new format of The Face, creates a real threat to the Tyra empire.... [But] The Face, with a focus on posing, strutting and styling in its first few weeks, has room to fall.

In the end, I had to give in to sheer enjoyment. My wife and I couldn’t load the next episode into the DVD player fast enough.

Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher may not captivate like Peter Falk's Columbo, but she'll do quite nicely until something better comes along. [28 Sep 1984, p.2B]

How it all goes awry is the question that provides Caprica with its ripe potential. Unfortunately, a serious storytelling mistake in the early going has left me with doubts about whether it has the wherewithal to get there.

It’s an atmospheric, pinned-to-your-seat winner.

Penny Dreadful is a smart, self-referential Dracula vs. the Wolf-Man vs. Frankenstein concept delivering the scares, chills and laughs that summer TV needs.

An example of the pay cable channel at its finest.

The constant toing-and-froing of “Mrs. Harris” might have gotten tiresome, as an earlier HBO effort at revisionist biography, “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers,” did. Bening, though, is somehow able to conjure up a completely new mood for each time and setting.

The result is a challenging psychological thriller within a gripping crime procedural.

The core of the show is its characters, who are vividly drawn and well cast, and its tangle of provocative story lines. [22 July 2003, p.E8]

The indie-director touches do not narrow the appeal of Louie. It is, however, strictly for adults.

A year after the Rosie Larsen case ended, this new chapter is compelling enough to earn some fan forgiveness.

Whether Chance has any actual superpowers might be a point worth debating if watching Human Target weren’t so much fun.

Southland is built to be bigger, and in that sense it succeeds immediately, thanks to excellent casting (especially Michael Cudlitz and Regina King as a cop and a detective), gritty location shooting around L.A. and storytelling that doesn’t hold the viewer’s hand.

This extremely promising series combines the human drama of the David Janssen TV show with the stuntwork of the 1992 Harrison Ford movie. And while neither lead has the Hollywood aura of Ford or Tommy Lee Jones, Williamson and Daly are well-matched as the cat and mouse. [6 Oct 2000, p.E1]

Ignore several adolescent sexual references and you have a sitcom willing to poke fun at the trauma of growing old in a culture that reveres youth. And while Shepherd is not God's gift to TV sitcoms, she holds her own as an island of near-sanity in a sea of hedonism. [30 Dec 1994]

"The Riches" reminds me a bit of "Big Love" the first time I saw it. I wasn’t sure whether to like these people or despise them, whether I bought the premise or not. And yet, at the end of the hour, I wanted to see more.

A viewer-friendly diversion.

This just feels like the show "CSI" should have been all along. [23 Sep 2002]

She has a lot of spunk, mugging for the camera and poking fun at her career (no fewer than four Midler films get mentioned in the first episode). Next to her, however, the supporting cast is tired and colorless. And how many Bette Midler jokes can America take? [11 Oct 2000, p.F1]

The secret to the show’s success is not any of the overly familiar parts, but the nutty way Leverage throws them together. Also, Hutton is a great actor who generates plenty of crackle between Nate and his fellow fleecers.

Sleek, action-packed and heavy on the acting talent.

It will take awhile to figure out whether Sons of Anarchy was worth the investment of our time.

Time will tell whether this spin-off of NBC's cops-to-courts standby can lure an audience to Mondays. There's plenty here to work with. The question is, in what direction will creator Dick Wolf move it all? [20 Sept 1999, p.E1]

An entertainingly raunchy spoof of reality TV. [23 Jul 2003]

The show is sometimes strained and tends to be a bit sappy, but Family Ties has some good writing. [22 Sep 1982, p.2B]

When our 32-year-old heroine is back home with her ultra-conservative family, which seems stuck in the 1960s, That's Life drags; when the action shifts to the college campus she's dreamed of attending all her life, the show improves considerably. [7 Oct 2000, p.E1]

Fringe does a pretty nifty job of balancing the demands of the paranormal genre against the viewer’s need for some comic relief.

As a comedy, it’s surprisingly entertaining....But what ultimately kept me watching, through every screener Showtime provided, was this audacious bit of acting from Collette.

Walton and Stockham are a seamless comedy team straight out of the gate. Their banter is more salty and cynical than sappy, but that’s how it gets to you.

In the tradition of "The Day After" and "My So-Called Life" comes The Big C, an important show premiering Monday that's not necessarily a great show.

A good, potentially great, show.

This show has great casting, comedy that crackles and characters who show signs of actually possessing some depth to them. These are rare qualities for any TV show, which is why I ranked it my second-favorite new series of the fall. [22 Sept 2003, p.E8]

What makes this intriguing and ultimately irresistible serial thriller one of my favorites of the fall season are its characters.

What a pleasure to find a woman who doesn't need to karate chop some no-neck to prove she's in charge. [27 Sept 2003]

Given the rather sophisticated allegorical treatments that TV audiences have been treated to in recent years courtesy of “Battlestar Galactica,” “The 4400” and the like, I find V’s first episode falling short, other than a fairly obvious allusion to Hitler Youth in the aliens’ outreach to teens.

Since CBS doesn’t want us to see "Kid Nation" in advance, I guess I’ll just have to declare Kitchen Nightmares the best new reality show of the fall.

I'd seen a tape of Cohen's UK show and wasn't impressed - but as with so many TV stars, being on HBO just seems to improve him. [18 Feb 2003]

A serviceable but less-than-stellar spinoff of AMC’s hit series “The Walking Dead.”

It brings its own style of spine-tingling dysfunction to the screen.

A great first hour gets this comedic drama off to a fine start.

Wayward Pines has moments where it’s a happy hot mess, but it’s mostly a muddy puddle of confusion, and it has executive producer M. Night Shyamalan’s fantastical fingerprints all over it.

Death Comes to Pemberley, on paper and the small screen, is not as satisfying as a newly discovered Austen novel would be.

The History channel’s Sons of Liberty miniseries tells a satisfying tale of Boston’s slow burn toward rebellion in the 1770s.

The Mentalist is safe, predictable, manufactured crime drama … and it works.

It’s Gretchen and Jimmy’s repartee, their unrelenting need to voice their awful thoughts, that makes Worst worth watching.

Compelling. [20 Sept 2002, p.E1]

“Prison Break” could be the fall’s breakout hit, but only if other actors can bail out Miller.

The one thing “Sleeper Cell” does commendably is to suggest that there is a struggle going on for the soul of Islam, and that al-Qaida does not have the only say in the matter. But that message is swamped by predictable thriller filler and cheap production values.

It’s not that The Leftovers isn’t great storytelling, because it is. It’s just befuddling, violent and sad--more and more all the time, with no satisfaction in sight. Theroux is flat-out fantastic and Emmy-worthy in this role.

Monday’s premiere was one of the most nearly perfect half-hours of television I’ve ever seen.... [But] I can’t imagine tuning in “The Colbert Report” four nights a week just to watch a caricature.

You will regret tuning in even a minute late for the premiere.

In other words, don’t hate it immediately just because it isn’t “Curb,” because if you love “Curb” you might eventually like Bored to Death.

This is one smart, funny comedy that deserves better than the anemic time slot it’s getting.

As someone who’s on the fence about Silverman — I get what she’s doing, but I’m not sure it’s worth the adoration it often receives — I found myself chuckling more when I went through my notes on the first two shows than when I was watching them.

There’s no doubt Life is blessed with a fine lead actor, an intriguing premise and better writing than most new shows this fall. It’s just that viewers aren’t going to find that promising TV drama buried underneath all the crime procedural.

Unfortunately, whoever developed this show couldn't trust the audience to accept Piper Perabo's character as strong enough to get out of a pickle or two without male intervention. I won't reveal how, because the first episode is otherwise very enjoyable, thanks to a solid supporting cast including "O.C." dad Peter Gallagher, Kari Matchett and former WB/UPN heartthrob Christopher Gorham.

A violent, hair-raising combo of “The Ring,” “War of the Worlds” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” with a dash of official conspiracy.

Carey, a stand-up comedy veteran, has great timing and expression. It's easy to relate to his working-class persona. Now if someone could just make his friends a little funnier, "Drew Carey" could be a winner. [13 Sep 1995]

My hope is that True Blood will get all of this tub-thumping out of the way in a few weeks and start its tremendous potential as an ensemble drama with hints of comedy.

I think “Survivors” is going to have a hard time getting noticed, not just because BBC America is way up there on digital cable, but because the hoopla surrounding the end of “Lost” is unrelenting, and “Survivors” just hasn’t done anything to break through.

Each person in the ensemble is distinct and intriguing. This show is loaded with possibilities.[20 Sept 2002, p.E1]

The Lost Valentine ultimately succeeds for two reasons: It is an engaging if somewhat convoluted little yarn. And White takes emotional command of the movie.

Queer as Folk obviously has a healthy libido. It'd sure be nice to discover it has a heart, too. [2 Dec 2000, p.E5]

The comedy has a loose, improvisational feel to it, but is still pretty fast-paced. And the four characters are at their funniest just in the room alone, swapping lines with each other, an experience a lot of dudes in their 20s can relate to... or so I’m told.

It is a stew made from a teen-slasher base with chunks of prime-time CBS crime shows and some daytime spice stirred in. If the first six minutes work for you, you’ll probably want more.

Gunn and Tennant are flat-out fantastic in Gracepoint. The supporting cast, including Nick Nolte at maximum haggard levels, is compelling. They’re so good, it might take a while to notice that you’ve seen this story before, even if you haven’t seen “Broadchurch.”

Worst Week is Rube Goldberg meets Murphy’s Law meets the parents. And it’s hysterical.

This comedy is set in a paper-supply sales office where people seem to work hardest at finding ways to kill time. I must say that it was an extremely realistic presentation: While watching the program, I kept looking at the clock and longing for it to be over so I could go home. [24 Mar 2005, p.E6]

Hilarious, delightful and smart... "Eureka" may have the gumption to become the best sci-fi show since the late lamented “Farscape.”

It is Mr. Willis who elevates the show from good viewing to outstanding entertainment. [03 Mar 1985, p.3K]

While its premise isn’t new--anyone remember “Total Recall 2070” or “Mann and Machine”?--the show’s ambition, solid cast and pure production values make it a worthwhile diversion.

It works because the three regulars--Zach Braff, Donald Faison and especially John McGinley--are all over these episodes, and the four newcomers are kept in their place.

The Slap is rare TV, depicting the kind of drama viewers might find themselves caught up in. It’s nice to see a show shamelessly go about doing its manipulative business.

A contrived and predictable drama in military dress. [23 Sep 1995]

The Following, compelling and frustrating from its opening credits, sets viewers up for a season-long, blood-soaked rematch between an evil intellectual and his law-enforcement nemesis.

Smartly written and utterly fantastic. [20 Jan 1998, p.E10]

If Grey's Anatomy falls short of being the next "ER," it's because it's too slickly produced. It comes with the kind of heart-tugging music and exquisitely lighted contemplative moments you might expect to see on, say, "The O.C." But the writing and acting, if not the staging, helped pull me through surgery. [26 March 2005, p.E3]

Although it was wise not to try to repeat the double interrogation format of the first season, there are clever nods to those closed-room confessionals, and the show eventually eases into rewarding drive-and-talks between Farrell and McAdams.... What keeps this Detective from being quite as compelling as the first is the lack of early focus.

Surprise! It’s not nearly as bad as I thought.

[A h]ighly implausible if smartly written hour. [16 Sept 2002, p.E1]

This one starts out at a frenetic clip, and even A-list talent is helpless in the face of the formulaic banter that such occasions demand. Only when the show slows down--midway through, does Parenthood suggest that it may have something worth watching.

A three-hour miniseries that bounces between tragedy and comedy with ease.

The show’s salty-sweet themes of loyalty and redemption contrast nicely with the vile comedic speeches Leary has made a career out of delivering.

Mamet has supplied Phil Spector with his signature rapid-fire dialogue, but nameless attorneys and consultants interrupting one another only set the table for more tiresome time with Pacino.

After the nerve-jangling first episode, I predict you’ll be hooked.

It’s a fascinating visual ride. But without heroes worth rooting for or a victim worth avenging, the rubble heaps of an imploded metropolis can only do so much heavy lifting.

Samantha Who? actually gets better as it goes along. There’s a lot of table-setting in this first episode, but I found myself enjoying a later episode, and Applegate is a big reason why.

It's a bright, fun little show, adhering to the formula that has worked for so many other light dramas on USA: tight writing, a little romance, whirly movement.

It’s a smart series with a pacing that sometimes takes your breath away. Still, once the action pauses, will viewers want to spend time with a bunch of amoral characters?

Mr. Selfridge really gets rolling in its third and fourth episodes, when its interlocking stories and Piven’s outsize performance settle into place.

Seems like a high-stakes game of Baccarat, with NBC throwing good money after bad. [22 Sept 2003, p.E8]

It’s a pleasure to watch Bean fall into his “legends,” or fake identities, even as the show pushes the boundaries of what TV audiences might accept when it comes to instantaneous computer heroics.

So it's come to this - all talk and no action... Some of the lines are funny and several of the stars, particularly Aniston and David Schwimmer, who plays Ross, are appealing. But something is missing here and that something is a story. Where's the beef?[22 Sept 1994, p.F1]

The punchlines fell flat more often than not.

"My Boys" suffers from an unrealistic setup, and too many scenes amount to five people sitting around talking.

This one has an “Entourage” pedigree (Mark Wahlberg is a producer) and is technically billed as a comedy, though it has neither the witty banter nor satisfying ending of one.

These brothers are like most WB stars and starlets, pretty faces with negligible theatrical skills.