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.

Thanks to the fact that Starz is pay cable and can say and show pretty much whatever it wants, this show ramps up the dramatic tension quickly and effectively.

The latest re-imagining of Daniel Defoe’s classic tale of a man shipwrecked on an island far from home has already earned its keep.

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

While I prefer the British Mars, the show's premise is so strong that this decent execution of it is hard not to recommend.

The dialogue is surprisingly fresh, even to someone who's watched way too many MTV reality shows.

The show is entertaining enough, but the American Hood, played by Rufus Sewell, won't remind anyone of Patrick Stewart.

I like Gary Unmarried. It’s like other sitcoms I’ve seen of late involving newly broken-up households (remember when the sitcom single dad was widowed instead of divorced?).

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Things may end badly for Vic, or not, but this I know for sure: The next time The Shield cheats its viewers will be the first.

Once again Simon and his producing partner, Ed Burns, plunge us deeply into the culture of foul-mouthed men, many of them barely out of their teens, who have ready access to firearms and agendas that have little to do with the American dream that you and I understood growing up. And, as before, you can’t stop watching it.

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.

The new version bears less of a resemblance to “ER”-styled medical drama of the 2000 “Hopkins” than it does to “The Hills,” the MTV sensation that introduced a whole new visual vocabulary to unscripted TV. The stories still involve people being treated at Hopkins, of course, but what’s striking is how much time is spent outside the hospital with the docs and their families.

Once you get beyond the show’s homages, both to 1970s style and “Desperate Housewives,” this proves to be a groovy little summer soap opera.

As the last of my DVD screeners ended, and I found the story wrapped around me, constrictorlike, I had to agree with old Gus: It feels true. Very true.

After four seasons of showing us cosmetic enhancement from every conceivable angle, Nip/Tuck is ready to take its scalpel to something else: the entertainment industry. I’m not saying that it’s going to work or that Nip/Tuck's longtime fans will appreciate the gesture, but tonight’s episode introduces us to a show-within-a-show that is simply dreadful, and that alone (to this TV critic) is worth the price of admission.

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.

Sharply written, compellingly acted, this is the crime procedural ABC has needed all along, one for the “Grey’s Anatomy” crowd.

It’s definitely not the same-old same-old, for which ABC is to be congratulated.

From what I can tell, it’s going to be the same show every show.

A lightly subversive sitcom set in modern-day Wisconsin.

While it is formulaic and slow-paced, Moonlight is stylish entertainment with a charming star aimed at a specific audience--the folks who stay home Friday night and watch CBS.

Like young Jaime, it's going to take awhile for this show to find its artificial legs.