So far the storytelling on Blood & Oil has been crude and obvious.

Although the dialogue is occasionally a bit cute, the rest of the cast comes across as mostly solid and believable.

The series, created by Adam Nussdorf and executive produced by “Heroes” creator Tim Kring, hardly feels new. We have seen this person who gets unwanted special powers thing before. But because all 10 episodes are available at once, you might find yourself meandering along before you know it.

Not exactly a new premise, but the new Fox action-drama has enough of a twist to make it make it worth checking out.

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]

The story of David has always fascinated because it contains so many universal dramatic and psychological elements. This is not the worst version of the tale, just a pedestrian one.

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.

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.

For what it is--something serviceable to fit in CBS’s Saturday lineup--Ransom will do, but pretty much is a square peg fitting in a square hole.

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.

Watts is excellent as usual, but it’s a lot to ask for 10 episodes. Gypsy might have worked better at six. It feels a bit like therapy, a long slog with a couple of breakthroughs.

Much of this is pretty standard stuff, part legal drama, part soap. Atwell, though, is always so lively and interesting to watch. But the material may sink her at the end.

If you like watching rich people sashaying around with a vague mystery as an excuse, Riviera might do, but be warned the dialogue and scenes are often flat--giving you time to ponder the scenery and costumes--and the mystery takes a while to flesh out.

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.

Don’t expect “American Playboy” to stray beyond its message. It’s not exactly “Masters of Sex” in examining the nuances in sexual revolution, and there is little depth to its approach. Nevertheless, the docu-series is pretty watchable if for no other reason than to remind us how crazy those times could be.

Ingesting Disjointed is pretty harmless. You might get a buzz, though. There are a few laughs, but I can pretty much assure you that you won’t get addicted.

Simply baffling. ... Hit the Road is like “The Partridge Family” in the upside down. While Alexander is still masterful at getting laughs, there is a cynical quality to the series that takes the fun out.

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]

While the series tries to dazzle you with high-tech sophistication, it fumbles around when it comes to the human factors.

Valor quickly becomes about secrets and lies, guilt and bravery, and hot bodies and awful banter. It’s not the best mix, and not mixed the best way.

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.

While the likable cast--which includes D.L. Hughley, Jamie Kennedy and Maya Erskine--is easy to root for, there is little else to distinguish Heartbeat from numerous other medical shows.

Not bad if it’s your thing.

The humor is more throwaway and often falls flat while a lot of the drama can become stiffly serious. It’s not that the series is badly made. The action and effects are decent. The cast is fine, though the characters are still mostly unformed. ... Viewers may find the tone of series perplexing.

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.

Wisdom of the Crowd gets a pass for now. The first episode addresses a number of interesting issues, although never going too deeply into them. ... Piven and Jones offer a strong presence for this type of show, and Natalia Tena works nicely as Sara Morton, Tanner’s head of the project, who gives him some balance and as something of a love interest.

There are a lot of ambient and random sounds in the episodes, which makes things seem more ominous than any tension generated by the story. Apart from that musical wrinkle, Hunters is overly familiar, essentially a generic crime show in a sci-fi case.

The network was probably aiming for “Scandal,” but by the end of the first episode the mix of ridiculous plot twists and awful soap-opera-ish dialogue make you wonder if “Scrambled” might not have been more appropriate title.