Its heart's in the right place, it's the comedy part that's not.

Outlaw isn't bad as much as bogus. The whole faulty premise creaks and groans under the weight of a now-you-see-it-now-you-don't shell game, as key plot points zip by, then are quickly tucked back under their shell in the vain hope you won't remember them, or maybe take them at face value.

With all this time spent checking off genre boxes, there’s scant space for the narrative to breathe beyond them.

Mildly amusing, though take out some of the harsh language and you've got more of a Disney Channel or TeenNick series than a memorable Fox one.

Purefoy brings some raffish charm to the role, but these days, who wants to embrace raffish philandering philanthropists--particularly ones so defiantly dim.

Dumb premise threatens to sink promising series.

Noah's Daily Show at once felt confident but also oddly tentative. Smoothly delivered but uneven.... Not quite a rocky start, but not an emphatically comforting one for fans either.

To love "Smith" is to love an ice cube. There may be a cold beauty to the craftsmanship of this enterprise, but there's a pinched, frostbitten heart at the center of it as well.

Coin of the realm - pun intended - for TV games is familiarity, but that hardly confers an urgency to watch this one.

It all floats along, watchable enough as far as it goes. It unfolds in that middle ground somewhere between utter boredom and compelling entertainment. But you can do better than that.

The ambition’s an admirable one, and Outsiders clearly has ambitions. But what it doesn’t have is much of a story or all that much conviction in the one it’s telling.

My heart tells me that any show that revolves around an honest-to-goodness native of Commack deserves an A+. My head tells me this one deserves a C.

Steinfeld is good, the cast too and the show is not terrible either. What it's forgotten is that while we're all free to make Emily Dickinson into whoever we want, at least make her interesting. Emily deserves as much.

"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.

Nothing is left unspoken in dialogue as blandly obvious as "I am the only other person who knows" and "She had a lot of secrets."

To steal from the old beer slogan, (this show) looks great, (but it's) less filling (than it intends).

Bull is sleek in look, pace and technique--and crafty enough to indulge CBS’ trademark dollop of human feeling amid the flash. But it’s essentially breezy TV junk food, leaving behind a prefab aftertaste.

A disappointing adaptation that offers a new ending, when the old one worked just fine.

Hairspray Live! is forgettable.

There is at least one troubling aspect to "Wishes" - an abundance of product placements within the show itself, which begs the question: Does salvation come with a price tag?

At first engaging, then slowly, inexorably, Succession turns into work.

The pilot is, in fact, baffling, and needlessly so.

Slattery is fine in this bland AI thriller.

Few divorces are pleasant, but the sharp, nasty scenes between Abby and Jake are the only emotionally honest moments over the first two episodes. Not surprisingly, they're the best ones, too. A shame the antagonists are so unlikable.

9-1-1 is insufferable, but it’s also watchable.

"Teachers" isn't half-bad.

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.

Not that I think The CW has any grasp of the mental mojo that made its WB network predecessor such a pop-culture kick. Really? This twaddle? Every single week?

Champions wants to be liked, and it is likable, but maybe just a little too eager to earn points.

It's as if Empire had too many antecedents, and--failing to decide upon one--embraced them all. The result is an interesting idea that can't quite figure out what that idea actually is--or where it should go from here.

Despite Salomon's efforts at visually stylish filmmaking, Justice for Natalee Holloway never puts any real meat on the bones of the much-hyped saga.

I'm punchy after an hour-and-change of lame chases, inane dialogue, ludicrous plot twists and absurdist acting techniques. But by the end of this, I pretty much had a crush on Piper Perabo and Anne Dudek (who plays her sister), so I guess it was worthwhile after all.

While it's nice to see a show that isn't cops/docs/lawyers, it'd be nicer if the show was better.

Elfman is good (as usual), but Alice doesn’t give her a whole lot of room to expand either. ... There’s not much more here, other than those standard sitcom garnishments, and that spunky, chatty fuzzball.

Some genuine charm here and Buscemi; otherwise premise, story and that joke get old--fast.

That's a lot of pressure, even for Iron Jay, and maybe why Night One felt like a work in progress--terribly rough in spots, not bad in others.

A fossilized sitcom that time-travelled all the way from the 1990s, with one calcified gag after the next, punctuated by the occasional (fortuitously rare) discordant off-color joke. ... With its trusty old-school TV verities, hug-it-out moments, beats as familiar as any from "Father Knows Best," and a laugh track that's probably turned up a notch too loud — plus bonus points for a solid supporting cast — it'll probably be a hit.

Kelly knows how to work the camera, and the camera knows how to get the best out of her. For Kelly, and NBC, that’s the good news from Monday’s launch. Otherwise, that long “Will & Grace” cast interview was a self-inflicted injury that clouded what this new show is and can be.

Too much of the carnal Amy, not enough of the smart, cultural critic Amy.

Over the first three episodes, I Feel Bad has largely erased that which (theoretically) made it stand out the most among fall newcomers--a comedy about culture as much as one about motherhood. The result is homogeneous and bland.

Mostly "The Morning Show" is a show in search of itself, uncertain of what to say about the #MeToo movement and workplace misconduct, or how to explore those real world parallels (Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer). This is because "The Morning Show" is often a mashup of verisimilitude with outright balderdashery.

13 takes the heat off itself with an over-packed second season that doesn't quite walk back the controversies of the first, but attempts to talk them back.

It's still the Meredere (or Deremere) show, and Cristina's right. It's just ... so ... over.

19 feels exactly like a Shondaland show, but far more like a crossover than a spinoff. There’s perhaps a bigger problem: NBC’s “Chicago Fire” already does this show and does it well.

Time after Time is timeworn.

Truth Be Told doesn't let its issues come from the characters. The issues are the characters. Maybe future episodes will flesh out these people, but they initially serve as stick figures on which to hang "outspoken" opinions seeming not necessarily their own.

The early hours are mostly placid, even docile. What must have come to life in the pages of the book struggles to find so much as a spark on the screen — difficult, admittedly, through the pall of smoke and shadows that tend to choke it. The characters are bland, too.

ABC's new computer animated Shrek half-hour seems to disqualify itself from the timeless category almost immediately by insisting on being "hip" (which means anti-hip), usually at the expense of feeling real.

Bitter, brutal, depressing.

This louche Lucifer is mostly a cop procedural snooze.

The first half is tautly produced, before there's a dramatic--and dramatically dull--downshift that'll get you ready for beddy-bye.

"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.

The show doesn't demand to be binged, but sampled. It could air on USA just as easily. Danza, who doesn't break from type, is another steady reminder of TV past, specifically his own. Why this is on Netflix is a mystery bigger than any the Carusos will tackle this season.

This all felt too commercial, too slick, too “American Idol”-ized. The Passion is Christianity’s foundational story. This usually--also awkwardly and regrettably--felt like just another TV one.

A well-intentioned slog.

Surface fashion styling can't cloak the underlying framework of yet another CBS procedural.

"Real Housewives" meets "Temptation Island" with an unexpected, and welcome, twist--Lohan is more or less the mature presence.

A compelling if clunky drama about an important figure.

The inside jokes pile up — a few of them actually funny — and there's an undeniable pleasure in revisiting this show and this cast. Except, of course, it's not the real "show" or "cast," but a bunch of actors pretending to be themselves, and probably wondering in the meantime whether the paycheck will be worth the aggravation.

Light as air, not much more substance, "Take Two" is a genial "Castle" redo.

There is some pleasure in reconnecting with the old gang, but that eventually wears off. This revival feels so last century.

The creators of this "High Fidelity" TV series fail to expand on the material to the point where 10 episodes can be sustained.

In spite of impressive pedigree and cast, along with a few laughs, A.P. Bio ultimately earns a gentlemanly C.

"Undercovers" is so content to lapse into genre conventions, that it feels complacent and banal. Worse, Kodjoe and Mbatha-Raw have such minimal chemistry that they seem to be shadowboxing most of the time.

Though Saget is amiable and likable here, the ratio of good quips to groaners is still only about one-to-four.

If you must, watch for the little stuff: Some good performances (Chieng, Yang, Bennet), some funny lines, a clever kicker and that compelling premise. A shame all the rest is a mess.

Fans will love Tuesday night's supersized launch. I'm just limp and weary from it all.

If only I were 12 again. The tween in me would have loved the scruff and the cute and the “wild” antics.

SPOOKY stuff happens in The Others. Windows open by themselves, ghosts spring out of walls, eerie sounds wail. Yes, indeed, it's spooky. It's spooky how script writers think this sort of stuff is actually effective after so many years of seeing these cues so many times in so many "horror" movies. [4 Feb 2000]

It's the anti-talk show, the talk show that isn't a talk show, the talk show from another planet--that would be Staten Island--talk show. And yet, in a weirdly unexpected way, it almost works--and potentially could work.

V has its fun moments, but mostly this is pure bunkum, or 1980s-era TV with a thin 2009 veneer.

Neither great, nor horrible, nor propitious nor preposterous. It was just a start, and in the late-night TV game, sometimes that's good enough.

Their [Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon's] Odd Couple feels like the kind of time-filling time killer that's chasing viewers to other options.

First-rate craftsmanship tethered to a relentlessly gloomily and ultimately unengaging story.

Matt Olmstead and Nick Santora are two solid guys who know how to make good TV and Lombardozzi and Alonzo are superior actors. But there are only flashes of promise here.

Though tension builds to a taut shudder in Monday's Part 2, it all, unfortunately, falls apart in the finale on Thursday. Weber takes so much care in restraining his character from going over the edge too soon, that when he finally reaches that precipice on the rim of madness, he never dives in. It takes courage to go as far over the top as Nicholson did in Kubrick's "The Shining." But that's what's needed to make the crazed ending more than a cartoon. Too bad. Until then, "Stephen King's The Shining" almost got it right. [27 Apr 1997]

At first glance in the two-hour pilot, none of the actors comes close to the robust presence of "SG-1" star Richard Dean Anderson, while the show relies on the technology and special effects that can send noncultists fleeing. (Good luck trying to fathom the setup, too, if you're not already "Stargate"-versed.) [11 Jul 2004]

If only the series works its way toward more effective show than tell, Las Vegas might find itself with a winning hand.

Past Life is a straight-down-the-middle cop procedural--"Cold Case" with a gimmick--when quirkiness, humor and even some bogus science or crackpot theology would have given it some heft or at least a sense of fun.

Lies very much remains a taste acquired--inconsistent with a tone that's jagged and only intermittently funny.

Because "Euphoria" is so shrewdly conceived, and often so visually and sonically striking, it's easy to overlook the fact that there's no organizing principle. Characters are introduced, then dropped. Scenes begin, then meander, then end. Segues, at least here, are for suckers. You have entered the mind of a teenager.

Skins is a bit clunky and even dated at times. Nor does it feel all that grounded in the real world, where it badly wants to be.

Too much canvas with wild splashes of paint deployed to fill it. Compared with the first, the second is a disappointment, but far from a failure. Best experienced in small bites instead of huge indigestible chunks.

The episodes’ hectic “action” often lands perfunctory or incongruous, and character development languishes in favor of sex scenes and left-field encounters “to be explained later.”

[The contestants] range in age from 25 to 41, aren't all model-pretty as often found on "The Bachelor," and include black, white and Hispanic women with a variety of jobs from executive assistant to neuropsychologist and a span of body types from va-voom to fuller figures. ... Also commendable is host Jesse Palmer, the sportscaster, former NFL quarterback and season-five star of "The Bachelor" who manages to project sincerity despite the remarkable premise. ... But otherwise vapid and regressive show.

Comey's story in black and white, with not much shading in between.

So the show seems either a subversive deconstruction of the laugh-track sitcom blueprint or a stupefying misfire built around the blandest star ever.

Murder mystery obsessives will want to check out "Scarpetta," but it's a waste of time for the rest of us.

A big, beautiful bore.

Frustrating series that has promise but no payoff. And that series title. Seriously?

Of necessity, the story is so rushed, the characters so carelessly brush-stroked, that what should be climactic--the first manned spaceflight--feels incidental, almost blase.

It's not as good as "Star Trek: The Next Generation." The premiere strikes me as a "Star Trek: The De-generation." It doesn't seem to go beyond where no "Star Trek" has gone before, or even where the other one had been creatively. [7 Jan 1993]

Ozark can be excruciatingly cumbersome. There are many moving parts, none compelled to move with haste. If the characters were more engaging and likable, pace might not even be an impediment. They’re not, so it is.

If he wanted to be a tiresome, name- dropping, motormouth, obnoxious boor, he is more than successful. But why? [20 Jun 2001]

Not terrible, not without charm, not a bad cast (in fact, a pretty good cast).... As a consequence, not particularly funny or memorable either.

The rigid adherence to the recurring segments means Animal, Fozzie Bear and many other staples barely show up, while a lot of attention is paid to the rather unsettling "Okey Dokey Kookin," in which the turkey host gobbles excitedly over dishes featuring chicken and pork and the Swedish Chef wraps a Muppet mole (yes, the mammal) in a tortilla.

Maybe there's a funny idea here, but without edge, bite or (yup) claws, we'll never know. Good heart, no claws (or laughs).

We've been down this road before and all the signposts of Underemployed look the same.