Fake news, real soap — and still watchable.

Being Mary Jane has been formulated for being fascinating. Now comes the follow-through.

A lot of fun, especially for theater buffs.

An overlooked TV gem wraps, and for the most part, beautifully.

The story shambles at first, then picks up but never quite enough to place this among the better seasons of "Justified."

With "Succession" now over, "The Bear" makes a compelling case for being the best show on TV.

Good, sharply written (and acted) series that lacks the sizzle, pop and magic of the movie.

It's hard to imagine a worse show.

The target is broad and easy to hit (others already have) except "Based on a True Story's'" aim is unsteady. The show would much rather be a comedy (also unsteady) or thriller (unsteadiest of all). At its best, this series features three seasoned and particularly appealing actors who know how to sell the premise — outlandish and as full of plot holes as this one is. But at its worst — far worse — is a recurrent pattern of violence against women.

It's ideal family viewing: Thought-provoking and fun, without one element compromising the other.

A convoluted mess, despite great potential.

A viewing of the first two episodes of "Silo" shows that it exemplifies the best of what the genre can be.

Get past the first episode — better yet, skip it — and "Bupkis" gets better and better.

Don't come for a fresh perspective or revisionist history or faithful recounting. Do come for the laughs. "Plumbers" probably gets that part right anyway. ... Amusing, inconsequential.

It's a $300 million TV series for no one. ... This is a very, very bad show.

This "Dead Ringers" carves out a path that's fundamentally different from the one laid out by Cronenberg, and not just because of the gender-swapped leads. But even if it takes some time to understand exactly where things are going and why, it can fall back on one of the most remarkable performances in a good long while.

It's all about the writing, in this case, and the utter lack of depth, or inner life, or suggestion that anything of particular interest might be happening here.

Fast, furious, funny, with a twist.

"Maisel" is still that charming, or irritating (your call) embrace of ethnic stereotypes, and filled with that dazzling, or grating, patter of quips, wisecracks, put-downs and zingers. It remains more about presentation, less about plot or character development.

It's a compelling, epic production with a strong central concept.

"NYC" celebrates the human spirit, not just an institution. ... A beauty.

"Succession" is going out with a bang, but — at least in the early episodes — a resigned one.

A sharp, introspective style — relying on disturbing ambient sounds, changing color gradients and consistent shifts to Dre's first-person perspective — allows for the audience to have a way in. And Fishback's performance, mysterious and unsettling while also tapping into measures of deep pain and sadness, completes the picture.

With only the first two episodes as guide — admittedly not much, or nearly enough — Odenkirk's post-"Saul '' second act is a perfectly pleasant letdown.

Some very funny stuff, ultimately overwhelmed by the very indulgent stuff.

What it's really about is the stuff that dreams are made of. As this third season will remind true-blue fans, that stuff can be very funny indeed. ... Hilarious.

A well-intentioned slog.

They've eliminated violence, or tamped it down, to get back to a kinder, gentler, "Murder, She Wrote" era — one abetted with a savage wit, and hard stop to each episode. Nice to be back there again. ... As always, Lyonne is great and her new show a winner.

Superior zombie series that takes a little too long to get around to what it's really about — us.

Stallone desperately needs collaborators who understand how to get the most out of him. He finds that here.

Compulsively watchable, as usual, but also on the reverential side. This "Crown" has no teeth.

Equal to season 1, and in some ways (the fashions, humor) superior.

Even if it gets permanently blocked in traffic, Latka and Hirsch are a lot for the average TV sitcom. [12 Sep 1978, p.35]

A true rarity — a sharply drawn portrait of local journalism.

A mostly promising start, with some unpromising distractions.

Carell gives his best performance yet in "The Patient," a compelling drama that's worth sticking with through all 10 episodes.

Great-looking but indistinctive in the early episodes (this review is based only on the first two).

Battlestar Galactica is a worthy successor to Sci Fi's late and much lamented "Farscape." That's about as high as our praise gets. [9 Jan 2005, p.11]

"House" often does work well as straight history. It's that fantasy part that's missing. Other than dragons, there's little magic or mystery in this corner of Westeros — or that epic sense of wonder that made "Thrones" so thrilling through the first seven seasons. At least those dragons are fun.

This "A League of Their Own" does what any successful remake must: it finds its own voice, standing apart from its predecessor while also honoring its legacy.

"Black Bird" effectively conveys the complicated reality of undercover work and what it has to say about the human condition. This is a must-see and not just for fans of the prison genre.

Fans of quality action and thriller storytelling will have a good time with "The Terminal List," even if they'll probably be able to predict exactly where it's going.

The first eight episodes (those offered for review) go down effortlessly and, if none was particularly memorable, each was pleasurable.

Smart, engaging and a lot of moving pieces (so do a little homework first).

Entertaining, but the book is better.

"Pistol's" most watchable episode is the last, covering the band's first and (effectively) only U.S. tour which crashed and burned after the 1978 concert at San Francisco's Winterland. But what comes before is the humdrum — a whole listless swath that spreads over scenes, characters, and episodes. Hardly anyone catches fire, including Johnny Rotten, although his spiked red hair does do a good impression of shooting flames.

"The Pentaverate" is simultaneously silly and pointless, and a welcome return to form for its star.

A brilliant piece of work, also profoundly dispiriting.

Funny, tragic, scary, creepy, wild, insane. Hey, what's not to like?

Still strange, dark, harrowing and often — unexpectedly — very funny.

Quirky, strange, dark — and engaging.

Insanely great start.

It doesn't always want viewers to like what they're seeing and doesn't seem to care whether they do or not. But it does want them to at least think about what they're seeing. ... Hard to watch, but well-worth watching.

The Japanese cast is excellent, especially Adelstein's newsroom boss Eimi (Rinko Kikuchi), but Elgort's Adelstein never quite comes into focus himself. There's a lot of energy in the performance but almost no substance. As a result, his Adelstein recedes while the foreground is commanded by the true star here. That's almost — just not quite — enough.

The hokum factor is pretty high, but Hennessy is a nice combination of pert and sour, her primary co-stars are solid and the premise is functional. [24 Sep 2001]

The new series' production values are impeccable, its cast is solid, and there are occasional moments of fresh, specific detail that suggest the show could transcend the overstuffed pilot episode. [27 Sep 2002]

Not quite on the level of last season's best, like "Woods," "FUBU" or "Teddy Perkins," these openers are nonetheless pure, unfiltered "Atlanta." Take that as the praise intended.

Still beautiful, still fun and still excellent.

While the middle episodes slump, "Life & Beth" starts strong, ends strong, and features a lead with genuine dramatic chops.

The oldest version — that rag-and-bone-shop-of-the-heart Ptolemy — could turn out to be Jackson's masterpiece, or one of them anyway. ... First-rate Jackson, entertaining series.

Great cast, fine performances, consistently entertaining.

The first "Super Pumped" installment approaches its ripped-from-the-headlines story correctly, and Gordon-Levitt is great.

"L&O" is back, but it doesn't make a strong case for why it should be.

It's intriguing, and worthwhile for audiences in search of something genuinely different. Whether that can be sustained over the course of an entire series of television remains an open question.

Douglass comes to life, or those words vividly do.

With her lovely, mobile face and gift for comedy, Lansbury would be an asset to any drama. But this preposterous mystery tale defeats her. [28 Sep 1984, p.52]

James is good in this; otherwise dumb … and dumber.

Indeed, with his mugging and childlike innocence, Pinchot is sort of cute, especially if your age hasn't yet reached double digits. [25 Aug 1993, p.90]

Love Boat strives for "Love American Style"-- and misses. [29 Sep 1977, p.47A]

Come for that view, and this cast, and Fellowes' peerless talent for world-building — or at least a to-the-manor-born world. Don't come for any fresh insights into the American character. This is mostly fantasy, not a history lesson.

They're real people with real problems in an all-too-real world. "As We See It," in other words, is the perfect Katims show. Best TV newcomer of the new year so far.

It's a familiar sitcom with familiar beats, and stars a particularly familiar lead who brings a nostalgic vibe to an essentially wistful enterprise. "How I Met Your Father" is for anyone who grew up on Duff's "Lizzie McGuire" or "Drake and Josh" (Josh Peck joins in a later episode) and may be wondering right now why romance is so tragically out of reach circa 2022.

Good cast but fake LI setting for a bland sitcom stew.

So yes, "Abbott" is familiar but the early episodes also have charm, potentially meme-able moments and what ultimately may matter most — heart. The year is new but we may have an early winner.

The series has to update to 2021, or try to anyway. To that end, there are prominent Black characters here for pretty much the first time in series history — better late than never but about as awkward an attempt to redress its unbearable whiteness of being as you might imagine.

As a live-action adaptation of a hugely popular series, it's often jauntier and funnier than the root stock, the violence even more outlandish and cartoonish. Hardcore fans of the animé series may be disappointed by the liberties taken but a much wider audience — the one that never __watched animé — probably won't be. Flat-out entertaining.

Faithful, intelligent adaptation, and an overstuffed one too.

Because Rudd's Herschkopf is so reliably repugnant and Ferrell's Marty so utterly hopeless, as a viewer you eventually feel trapped as well. There's no way out, no exit, just eight long hours spent with two famous actors who seem to know nothing of the people they're supposed to be.

Not unwatchable, but not particularly satisfying either.

Solid thriller, good twists, too violent.

Cox's performance is staggering but then so is the performance of everyone else. Prepare to be staggered. Triumphant return of TV's best.

Dull and talky, with flashes of promise.

It's world-building without the world having already been built in countless other movies, TV series and comic novels. Watch and you have the feeling that you are at the outset of a momentous journey. ... Spectacular.

DWP does want to be provocative, just not too provocative. Mostly it just wants to keep an open mind and open heart. Mostly, it succeeds.

A little bit of "Dallas," a little bit of "Empire," "Our Kind of People'' is a whole lot of what you expect it to be. ... Silly, fun, frothy, watchable.

Uneven pilot which at least promises something much better.

"Joe" has promise and heart but — at least just yet — not nearly enough of everything else.

Yes, "Impeachment" is watchable and (yes) it's also flawed. But it's fascinating, even though you too may come to suspect, for all the wrong reasons, or one of them anyway.

Jack and Ace are sharply drawn and played but they're also a pair of sulking men-children -- drab and colorless, or at least next to Bauer's feral Wild Bill. The female characters are also underwritten in the early episodes (although Starz promises the later episodes will redress that). Nevertheless, there is something here -- call it abundant promise.

"Nine-Nine" goes out on a semi-serious note, and for the most part, effectively.

Like the original, this "GG" can be pithy and clever (that Forster line tells you as much) but unlike the original, at times glum and muddled too. It's a sibling-rivalry drama set in the age of Instagram and COVID, where social media is the true villain. That part may be accurate — just not quite as much fun.

"Bosch" honored the work of police without always celebrating that work — a neat trick, especially in 2021, but often effective here. As a reminder that cops are both fallible and human, this series always held them to a higher standard. In "Bosch," sometimes — most times, really — they actually met it.

A grabber from the start, quickly moving beyond the sci-fi label to uncharted drama territory. Its tale - executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola - takes place on Earth and in the present day, which should help attract sci-fi-resistant viewers. Even better, its situations are viscerally relatable, hardly as removed from our daily lives as so many other out-there allegories. [11 July 2004, p.11]

A watchable, engaging oddball.

"We Are Lady Parts" captures the spirit of punk rock in a way that's both entertaining and resonant.

What's good about "Loki'' is what was so good about the other Disney Plus "Endgame" spinoffs, "WandaVision'' and "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier." You don't need to be a Marvel expert, or know that Frigga was his mother, or that he had (has?) mother issues. ... This Loki, and those worlds, those mothers, look intriguing indeed. Loki fans will be much pleased.

In short, "Sweet Tooth" exemplifies the best of what fantasy storytelling can be, creating a whole world without ever forgetting that the most important one of all is our own.

It's a monumental bore. ... Meanwhile, in absence of plot, the cast (sad to say, a fine one) is left to chew the scenery. And chew away they do.