Lopez might just be trying to prove that Latinos have as much right as anyone to bomb on ABC. [27 Mar 2002, p.F1]

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]

This movie-of-the-week script would be a sorry foundation for a TV series even if it weren't so tone-deaf, failing to convey either the terror of a wolf attack or the quirkiness of small-town life. [10 Sep 2001]

Color me confused on the concept. Are 20-somethings supposed to like this show? Good luck with those archaic pop culture references (Molly Hatchet, Carter/Mondale). Teen-agers? Sure - let them see that high school was just as vicious 20 years ago...Freaks and Geeks recalls a time a lot of viewers would rather forget. [25 Sept 1999, p.E1]

I hate to say it, but if it weren’t for Sanz and Mullally, there would be no reason at all to watch this sitcom.

Like other CBS crime dramas, this one is grim, dark and laden with production gimmicks. ... You would never know it came from two established filmmakers, Tony and Ridley Scott. [21 Jan 2005]

The punchlines fell flat more often than not.

The first hour’s writing, pacing and storylines were too pedestrian for me to recommend Cane.

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]

A forgettable amalgam of "House", "CSI", and every hospital soap opera ever made.

Whoever wrote the first episode of “Lost” didn’t crowd the screen with dimwits forced to recite grade-B TV drama drivel. By that standard, “Surface” doesn’t get a pass.

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

Depressing, dreary and dull as dishwater-blond hair, "Blonde" - a weird meditation on the life of Marilyn Monroe - confirms that the networks have run out of ideas for programming their big ratings months. [13 May 2001]

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.

Tucker is my candidate for the first cancellation of the fall: bad show, bad time period, bad lead-in ("Daddio"). [2 Oct 2000, p.E1]

Workplace comedies just bore me.

["Gary Unmarried"] has lots of laughs. But not as many as tonight’s episode of the new Knight Rider.

I’m having a reverse case of Stockholm Syndrome with “Standoff”: The more time I spend with it, the less I like it.

But if its idea of entertainment is a new domestic terrorist threat every week - as it is in tonight's debut - no thanks. As for the stars, Harmon is Harmon, an acquired taste I never acquired. [23 Sept 2003, p.E1]

[A] sad-sack parody. [18 June 1999, p.F4]

I don’t get a kick out of you, “Happy Hour.”

Unfortunately, neither Bates nor Kelley seems to have any heart in this show. Picking up pretty much where he left off with "Boston Legal," Kelley turns the courtroom into Air America.

I have now watched two episodes of the new A&E series The Beast, and I am filled with questions. How many brain cells did I lose watching two episodes of The Beast?

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.

Unfortunately, the first two hours of “Dirt” give no sense that anyone wants to make an entertaining satire out of all this.

Kings is oddly tedious, thanks to a supporting cast of uninteresting characters and a script loaded with heavy-handed analogies to health-care reform, Halliburton and the Clintons.

The show’s recycled vampire mythology fails to justify this level of bloodletting, which even fans of “The Walking Dead” might find gratuitous.