The Narrative knot is further jumbled by all the head games Two plays on him and everyone else. Six is on shifting sand, and so, too, will you be.

This can sometimes be an exercise in rehashing as opposed to reassessment.... The Seventies, however, gets better when the story gets stronger, or at least more resonant.

A by-the-book cop show without much bite or heft. But it's got Memphis and Lee.

There's too much going on to tell what might ultimately stick, other than the contents of the Mallow Marsh.

The show is scattered, slight and abominably self-promotional. But Michaels is so full of abundant - and infectious - good cheer that you tend to overlook these many faults. Fans will eat it up.

It's an exhaustive and exhausting film, but Garbus finds nothing that will change minds or reverse conclusions. The tragic void remains.

Bonnie & Clyde really is just another biopic with superior production values, a few good performances and a pair of protagonists who deserve no sympathy, and receive none here.

Not great, not terrible--just your standard-issue TV movie about a well-known historic event.

Interesting detours, and a worthy show--but at times just a smidgen too self-righteous and melodramatic.

There's so much to like here. Now, all P&R has to do is become consistently likable.

Pauly is still Pauly--but he's a more grown-up version who cares about his friends, ailing dad and career.

Driver['s character] is so self-righteous in her advocacy, so insensitive to her impact, that a little of her goes a long way. And there’s more than a little of her here.

Overly familiar story beats and cardboard character cutouts in Wednesday’s opener blunt the return of Jack Bauer 2.0. A hint of genuine promise, however, remains.

At least Emily proves she's got the chops to cast a shadow of her own.

Stellar production, famous leads. What's missing? Heart.

The cameos often are amusing, and so is Kudrow, but someone at Showtime evidently forgot to ask whether a one-joke webisode can or should be expanded into a one-joke TV series. This one feels like a strrrretch.

I laughed. Not often, or perhaps not often enough, but there was also enough McFarlane-esque gross-out sophomoric tomfoolery to keep even me reasonably entertained for a half-hour. Plus, good ol' likable Cleveland works well as a leading man.

It's summer, expectations are low, and you could do a lot worse than this genial, softhearted import.

The angel on my shoulder says H8R is a piece of slime, bringing out the worst in everyone involved. But the devil on my other shoulder says this show is the logical outcome of our culture's celeb-obsession, and everyone involved gets precisely what they deserve. Which is soooo fun to watch.

The pilot is so busy establishing its new world, performances are afterthought generic. But Defiance gets more distinctive, and dramatic, through its next two hour episodes.

Mostly boilerplate teen soap that lacks the (umm) zest of "Sex and the City"--a good thing, in case you're wondering.

This is a thoughtful, dutiful historic drama filled with all the requisite period details and British accents, too. But what's missing here, glaringly so, are passion and sweep .

The performance tends to be monochromatic, and in the end, so is Mildred Pierce. What's especially enjoyable here are the minor performances--especially Pearce as the louche Monty--and the many almost imperceptibly small details, right down to the crockery in a restaurant.

While beautiful to look at--some of this was filmed in Wading River, near Herod Point--Zelda can also feel like that TV biopic we’ve all seen before: The one that trudges dutifully along without adding much depth or subtlety in the process.

Bridgeton is too dull, its denizens likewise. The mystery will eventually be settled, some people will get eaten along the way, our heroes will save the day, the fog will disperse, the sun will come out. Ten episodes sure seems like a long road to get there.

Garcia is a major-league cutie and sunny on-screen presence without being cloying. But enough with the filthy-rich-kid dramedies!

Sure, it's a glossy, well-produced infomercial filled with powerful live performances, but it feels designed to make us want to buy more Beyoncé stuff.

Competent spinoff, but the formula tends to wear like a straitjacket on Whitaker.

Daredevil” isn’t only mindlessly violent, but mindless, too. The cast is terrific, production values superlative and direction first-rate.... But is there a functioning brain, or at least a higher purpose, maybe a deeper one? Like Matt’s own search for meaning, good luck finding answers.

The time allotted isn't long enough to truly convey the touchstones a sci-fi devotee might demand. But with so much skated through, it's plenty to confuse a newbie.

Falco is very good, always is, but her show has gotten tired.

The show they're in is amiable enough, but the premise is awfully thin and the pilot doesn't hint at much of anything beyond that.

Important television, but also wildly, maddeningly uneven TV, too.

Thurgood feels more "important" than dramatic. Part of it is Stevens' then-I-did-this structure, more focused on biographical bullet points than the flesh-and-blood human behind them. And part of it is Fishburne, who despite coiled power--his Ike Turner in "What's Love Got to Do With It" was Oscar-nominated--resonates here as a cool character rather than a fiery one.

Either clever idea or one-trick pony, the Son of Zorn pilot can’t entirely decide which it is either.

A not-bad formula gothic that'll rise or fall on the Dekker/Robertson chemistry; I'm betting on the former.

The feel is more documentary than "reality" show, which some viewers will appreciate and others won't.

At first, the pace is slow--make that glacial--but [the] pilot episode (and especially Sunjata) are good-natured enough to make you want to stick around to see if this gels into anything approaching an FX drama (it does not).

Intriguing... but somber and slowww-moving.

A not-unpleasing comedy that takes time and commitment to grow on you. How long? I started to like it three or four episodes in. Seems like an awfully long time, no?

Respectable, incomplete survey (on TV) Thursday night, but future installments look better.

Amusing, dumb, silly--exactly what you'd expect.

Will a cheerfully biased newcomer with a few amusing, well-crafted one-liners be enough to get FX on the boards in late night? To paraphrase Yoda, difficult to say--always in motion is the future--but Rock may want to light a fire under this act sooner than later.

Hilarious implausibility, overheated dialogue and enough soap to do several loads of laundry are part of its appeal.

Like the previous four "AHS" editions, the fifth is a visual feast (which is probably the wrong word here, but you get the idea). Everything--everyone, and not just Gaga--is eroticized, too. Even the shadows are seductive. A shame that it all feels so grim and joyless.

While True Blood remains wildly and bloodily inventive--and will certainly remain a huge HBO hit--there's still an overwhelming sense that deja-vu-all-over-again has set in.

Passable summer thriller with some decent (for TV) action sequences. The plot? You've been there, done that.

The acting is solid all around--just not entirely convincing.

Fear the Walking Dead is slow and a little bit dull.... Now the good. Fear's opening act is a strong one. There's a nice overall build, too, particularly during the second episode.

I do know something about TV shows, and this one works best when Anne Slowey is on camera (which is not nearly enough) and the program focuses on clothing - that great, exasperating, endlessly complicated art form known as "fashion."

Michael is a clinically interesting personality type who is profoundly unempathetic, until such times as he is very empathetic. The wonderful creative trick of The Office is knowing exactly the right moment to humanize Michael.

Sad thing is, I'm a geek girl myself, who'd be happy to love this mad mix of technology, action and "humor" if it were, you know, actually funny more often than just cheaply offensive. Less pander, more wit, please.

Placid and often incomprehensibly bland, Combat Hospital still has flashes of intelligence. Definitely worth a second look.

Two nights implies this will be “epic,” but this is the anti-epic miniseries, where the subject gets smaller and smaller while his crimes get larger and larger. It’s instructional--just not emotionally engaging.

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]

Should Lopez go big and broad with cultural comedy, trafficking so hard in stereotypes they seem all the more absurd? Or stay subtle and let its less-enlightened characters hang themselves? “Lopez” can’t decide, overloading its pilot with maid/valet/parole jokes (those crazy Mexicans!) vs. “white-man problems.”

Ambitious and intermittently entertaining, Zero Hour--and its celebrated lead--don't quite hit all their marks. But at least the mystery's a hoot.

Sit back, don't think, and expect some good performances--especially by Jennifer Carpenter.

Intriguing cop show in Civil War New York--though neither the cop part nor Civil War part are entirely convincing.

What's surprising is that there's nothing remotely cheesy about 4th and Loud, a good docuseries that trains the camera most of the time on the guys on the field.

Middling start, but we've stuck with Rescue Me this long, and no point in bailing now.

Kevin Can Wait is neither as bad as you may have feared nor as good as you may have hoped. It’s squarely and innocuously in the middle.

As a character with a sartorial preference for canary yellow, Kemper's Schmidt comes into focus intensely and immediately. She pops off the screen, and pleasingly so. Her series, less so.

We know how this ends (he becomes commish) but there's little evidence suggesting how or why that happens, and even less reason why we should care. Meanwhile, the best stuff in Golden Boy is the little stuff--sharp, brittle dialogue, nice performances and a street cred that's a cut above average.

As a quirky cross between Reynolds' Gator McKlusky and John Cazale's Fredo Corleone, Whitford pretty much hijacks the show. He's fun to watch, even if the show will knock your IQ down a few points.

Despite the slightest everything's-up-to-date vibe, Cristela is really just another old-fashioned sitcom with roots that reach all the way back to the dawn of television, where shows neither offended nor scandalized.

Overall, "The Irrational" is decently acted, competently written, and adequately directed.

Sweet, sad, nice, and a tad dull.

Capable enough time-killer, but nothing compelling.

Props for a diverse cast and first-rate performances, but "4" does sprawl, occasionally sag.

It’s great have an old friend back, even better to see he’s still the best part of his own joke. It’s also reasonable to wonder whether that joke has grown just a little bit stale.

A nutty sprawl that's often amusing, occasionally interesting, sporadically informative and almost completely off the rails. A hoot.

Good (and good-looking) production, but without contemporary relevance, urgency or edge.

It's fun, but totally insubstantial.

This necessary reset looks great, but if the 2nd taught us anything, just watch, don't think.

This reboot of a cartoon classic does well by the original. But what's missing is its cultural cachet and wit.

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

Strictly fan service, but fans will love it.

This series has an underdog spirit of its own, even if it's not quite the triumphant crane kick it could be.

Initially sullen and bitter, Kidding improves as it goes along. At the very least, you get used to Jim Carrey as an ersatz Fred Rogers.

Some (make that a lot of) funny lines, but far too fat a target.

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

Quirky, strange, dark — and engaging.

Underwhelming open that feels underfunded too.

Gadd remains a first-rate talent; anything he does is worth watching. But it's hard to sit through this one.

A compelling series in fits and starts that doesn't amount to much more than a trip through an extremely strange world filled with extremely strange people.

Decent pilot that promises a decent series--just not a particularly novel one.

Aduba's episode stands out among the first four episodes of "Solos," which collectively illustrate how difficult it is to pull off single-character drama on-screen.

This is a handsome, lavish romance that will appeal to a large audience, but it's also painstakingly insubstantial.

As the light of democracy dims, Carrie has become more manic (understandable), and Saul more resolute. The world has turned upside down, and only they can set it right. We know they’ll eventually save the presidency, hopefully the president, too. We know real news will eventually prevail over O’Keefe’s incendiary fake variety. We know all this, but we also suspect the ride would be a lot more fun if Peter was along for it.

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.

As usual, the production is immaculate, and Bernthal--who never disappoints--is his usual self. You may, however, wish (I did) that his Punisher wasn’t such a humorless, unmitigated jerk.

The show itself is a charmer--full of color and vitality, while the craftsmen and women clearly have the talent and skills to make something worth looking at. The actual crafts part, however, is rushed. You hardly ever see the detailed process of making something but instead the finished product.

It’s an unconventional love story that needs another season to figure out what it really wants to be, and how best to get there. At least the most important elements--or both of them, anyway--are in place.

Stick with "Zoey." Get past the treacle, network cliches, and force-fed emotions, and it does improve. Earworms, too.

Painfully familiar hospital drama that starts off sloppy but improves.

Great cast, funny lines, but "Deed" loses momentum after a strong start.

Faithful, intelligent adaptation, and an overstuffed one too.