Meloni is terrific as usual--a long way from the solid Elliot Stabler on “SVU,” but it’s a stretch to appreciate a “hero” who describes his life as “an ever-swirling toilet that just won’t flush” and follow his cracked personality. With only two episodes to judge from, the jury is out on Happy! My guess, though is that it’s an acquired taste and only for certain people.

It's hard to see where this all might be going. A nebulous nefarious cabal betting on the outcome of crimes may be the strangest of some of the strange premises for shows this fall, but Winchester is good at being the action hero. If you enjoy that, you might enjoy the show.

Though well-done and watchable, season three of Narcos doesn’t really distinguish itself from a number of other drug-crime stories without Escobar.

The problem is that series seems to take itself a bit too seriously. It could use a side of humor or an over-the-top quality. But these teens are mostly awkward, and while that could be charming, here it isn’t. Runaways doesn’t necessarily make you want to run away. It’s watchable enough, though not compelling.

To maintain any momentum, however, they're going to have to come up with something more than a ''dead guy of the week beckons from the other side'' premise. There's not much the Others are fighting against at this point, except short-lived skepticism on behalf of the bereaved. [5 Feb 2000, p.L3]

So far, City of Angels is a solid, fairly smart series that doesn't quite reach out and grab the viewer as Barclay and Bochco's previous collaborations have done. But a cast capable of doing that when the writing hits its stride is definitely in place. [16 Jan 2000, p.L5]

Its uneven but intriguing first four episodes.... It hints at a compelling future, with various factions vying for control. But it isn’t out to wow you early on, taking its time to develop its characters and the relationships. If your expectations aren’t too high--and it’s not “Battlestar Galactica” yet--The Expanse could just be what you’re looking in.

Fox’s new comedy-drama Lucifer has a similar premise [as "Death Takes a Holiday and "Meet Joe Black"], but without the sap and more zip and lip. But (and you saw this coming), the devil is in the details.... Uneven but mostly fun.

Though lightly entertaining, the series needs a bit more character grounding. So far Weston and Mangan are quite good as the flamboyant famous characters, but the scripts will have to flesh them out more. That may never happen.

Girls is essentially a hipster soap opera--occasionally clever or smart--but not as revealing as it led you to believe. This year it might take the step that has been promised since its first season, but maybe not.

Daddio, a situation comedy about a smart and fun stay-at-home dad, is mildly progressive-minded in its set-up and comfortably old-fashioned in all other facets of its execution. One is easily forgiven for wishing the laugh lines had a little more sparkle, and it's a less than ideal companion series to the bawdy "Friends," which airs before it, but the premise and the cast are solid enough to expect future improvement and a decent prime-time run. [23 March 2000, p.L5]

Class isn’t afraid to dive into its strangeness, but not always successfully. It’s kind of like a high school dance--fraught with crazy drama but not always as memorable as it’s supposed to be.

The best thing about the series is its likeable cast. ... With only one episode available, it’s hard to tell if Rush Hour will offer up more than its light and breezy attitude. No one is looking to weigh it down, but if turns into a mystery-of-the-week procedural, the jokes and action will get old fast.

The mystery along with its intriguing premise might have been enough, but the main problem with the show is the slow pacing. It’s easy to drift.

Most of the dramatizations are functional, although a few border on cheesy.

Versailles has glamor and spectacle, but it’s hardly an epic drama. It dreamily drifts along for the first few episodes, introducing the characters and concentrating on outrageous behavior. All the military-strategy sessions blur together.

No one expected Taken to be turned into something brilliant but it had the elements needed to be an exciting show. Instead, it’s been made pretty ordinary. Too bad, Standen deserves to be shown off better.

Only three episodes were available for viewing. Outcast is, at best, serviceable for a late Friday night horror tale, but I’m not anxious to hang around.

It’s great to see Lithgow, who won a Golden Globe earlier this year for playing Winston Churchill in Netflix’s series “The Crown,” but there’s not much challenge here for him and too few laughs.

But the payoff is too long in coming. Much of the third night involves - what else? - wandering around the ever-growing mansion. You get the feeling the characters are biding their time between commercials. King should have been advised to cut the miniseries by a night. Instead, watching "Rose Red" is like hanging out in a Halloween haunted house too long. After a while, you know somebody - or something - is going to pop out to try and scare you. By then, though, you've reached your fright limit and you're just too numb to jump. [27 Jan 2002, p.L7]

While The Son sports sprawling ambitions, the series awkwardly trods over familiar territories.

Oates is getting to the party pretty darn late; there aren't a lot of bones left to pick through. But what's left isn't pretty, and in adapting "Blonde" the miniseries, director Joyce Chopra and screenwriter Joyce Eliason focus morbidly, as did Oates, on the pervasive darkness in the life of Norma Jeane Baker. [13 May 2001, p.L8]

Incorporated is just one of another grim dystopian futures we have become so fond of. Hey, it could be dead-on, but it really doesn’t have a lot to offer. There will be a few parallels to today, and it is mildly diverting as a thriller, but we have seen it before, even if it is the future.

Peppered in are some humor, like funny references to the past when Lara’s mom saying she met her husband on Tinder, or when Dash uses his abilities for more than seeing crime, like knowing when bird poop is dropping. However, you wish that the show would have been less zippy, less procedural. It hints at dire aftereffects of Precrime, but doesn’t go much beyond that.

As a procedural, APB--from Len Wiseman and Matt Nix--is a nice futuristic fantasy made watchable by an attractive cast, but it is essentially shaped in an old-fashioned way--the clash of old and new, a little sexual tension, some dark secrets of the past, etc. After three episodes, it’s hard to see it developing into anything more.

The biggest problems with it is pace and familiarity. It’s difficult to get a handle on Danny--an enigmatic lost rich kid with mystical powers--and parts of Iron Fist seem cribbed from other Marvel superhero tales. Jones does grow on you, especially after he begins to take on a kung-fu master persona, but there seems little special about the story or any of the characters.

Appreciating Fuller House will depend a lot on how much you enjoyed the original, which ran eight seasons on ABC. The new show displays enough of its own personality to be a bit more than simply nostalgia. By the third episode--on which singer Macy Gray guests--it even starts to develop some loopy fun with a dance-off at a local club.

McHale, the “Community” veteran, is enjoyable. The jokes aren’t bad, and it’s fun having Fry as the out-of-touch editor. Based on the first episode, though, the show is hit and miss. The premise is stretched every which way, but somehow Indoors seem a bit claustrophobic.