Opens promisingly with a storyline that sets up a compelling premise for a serial adventure ... [but] is so visually arresting that the humanoid characters are upstaged. [14 Mar 1999]

It's not as remarkable as [the previous versions], but it beats most of the weekly crime dramas running opposite it this week. [25 Jan 2004]

Maybe just crazy enough to be engaging in the early going. It's the long run that looks questionable.

But the best stuff easily reminded true blue fans--and only true blue fans--why they loved this so deeply to begin with.

A stylish, intelligent production.

Sorry, not as good as “O.J.,” but Criss turns in a dynamic performance in service of a desperately sad story.

The 10 hours of PBS' immersive miniseries Carrier are frank and intimate, hard-hitting and heart-rending, rocking (with hit songs) and rolling (when the ship pitches so sharply, planes can't land).

CSI is not looking for a facsimile, so fans can rest assured that Fishburne will evolve into a unique and valued lead on his own.

With a visual sensibility that mimics a video game, Web browser and iPhone, as well as a hearty online presence with a social-networking bent, the new Electric Company seems to deliver.

Producer Beers' team is the gold standard in male-aimed reality, and these guys have grit to burn.

This three-parter often lacks finesse and sophistication. The story is rushed or clumsily told, and the tone discordant....Watch for Atkins only. She's brilliant.

This is four hours of love and music, but the film also wants to address the many controversies, then excuse them. The result: Some lily-gilding, and far too many observations we've heard far too many times before and factoids, too.

The real-world intrigue is matched in dramatic flair by Chuck-world jeopardy. His store's fierce assistant-manager competition resounds as fatefully as saving the universe from evil. Which makes the dark light enough and the light dark enough to meld into a tasty escapist treat.

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.

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.

Silly, gross, soapy, mysterious, intriguing, exotic, erotic True Blood is fun. Even more fun this season.

Bryant's a standout, the show not so much.

Watching Seinfeld knock out the oldies-but-goldies is indeed watching someone do what they were born to do. He’s a master technician who cuts through the material at a high rate of speed, while using pantomime to fill in the blanks or give the punchline a steroid boost.

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.

Humans vs. cyborgs in a movie spin-off that's surprisingly effective for fans of both action and character drama.

Smart, engaging, thoroughly updated.

The acting is first-rate, and so is the writing, but the violence is appalling, and not just appalling, but creatively appalling.

Nip/Tuck is all about appearances, but it also has something to say. [21 June 2004, p.C01]

You'll be happy to know that every second -- particularly every second with Sedgwick onscreen -- is pretty much a joy.

Bunheads seems to know exactly what it's doing.

Relatable, but especially enjoyable.

Episodes is flawless and hilarious. What a pity it lasts only seven episodes.

Arli$$ is character comedy. The humor comes out of the characters, the relationships and their work. It rings true all the time. [7 Aug 1996, p.B65]

If all this sounds heady, pretentious or derivative, then Westworld may eventually turn out to be guilty as charged. But from at least from the first two episodes sampled, Westworld is also a genuinely different new series that offers something even better than that: It’s genuinely engaging.

Not a dull or wasted moment, and Lane may have just turned in the one of the best performances of her career.

A luminous and fully alive portrait by a first-rate actress.

An inert, talky bore.

Two things are going for this latest adaptation--solid production values and a talented lead actor.

The producers ("Alias" alums Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec) have created a Dickensian (with a nod to L. Frank Baum) universe, draped in shadows, pastels and mystery, while aurally wrapped in chestnuts from the Sweet, Five Man Electrical Band and the Ramones. This new series has enormous promise.

Creator Vince Gilligan ("The X-Files") never loses touch with the mundane reality that so brilliantly magnifies its absurd horrors.

Absorbing in parts, tedious in others, but Hahn is great.

Mosaic is so entertaining (it is) and engrossing (that, too) that it flies by. These six hours pleasurably melt away, and before you know it, you’re at the closing credits.

Superb second season, if the early episodes are any indication.

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

It's hard to convey all the ways that this tightly directed show goes right: quietly observant character detail, solid sleuthing, play-it-straight absurdity and sneaky "Airplane!"-style parody riffs.

If not all things to all people, this Oscar salute should be enough for most.

This was the best comedy on TV last season.

A very good-looking pilot. That leaves Gustin, which is where nagging doubts crop up.... Gustin's Allen is blue of eye and clear of conscience. Sweet and gentle, he's immensely likable but not particularly intriguing, unlike Stephen Amell's Oliver Queen or even Tom Welling's Clark Kent.

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.

Looking occupies some fuzzy ill-defined middle ground filled with uni-dimensional characters.

Gleeks will engage; hard to imagine who else will.

Solid start to what could--and maybe should--be a future CW franchise.

A head-spinning, yet deeply humane, thrill ride.

The Writers' Room winds up more anecdotal than explanatory. Heavily edited/compressed, it makes for a breezy half-hour if not necessarily revelatory disclosure, at least in the three episodes sent for review.

Waithe proves that Emmy for writing was no fluke--script and cast are outstanding--but The Chi takes on too much, too soon, and the story loses focus and latent power as a consequence.

Almost public TV-like by current reality-show standards, this new edition is actually a lot like the original, absent the Velveeta. True-blue fans will rediscover its pleasures.

One episode in, "Glee 2.0"--otherwise known as the fourth season--looks to be a winner.

But no one from this new group makes the kind of nails-on-blackboard impression that Omarosa or know-it-all Sam immediately did last year. Initially, they don't seem as interesting as the originals. [9 Sep 2004]

“Shangri-La” offers a look into the private world Rubin has created. It may be limited, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fascinating.

Shore has written this adroitly enough and Winters and Duhamel are two good and seasoned actors who easily locate what's most endearing, or at least what's most amusing about their respective characters.

"Sleeper Cell" is nicely acted, produced, written, directed, but is still so deeply rooted in the conventions of the medium, that no matter how hard it tries, or how hard it wants to be something else, this still ends up Just TV.

Newcomer Shanice Williams--all of 19--had to capture a butterfly by the name of Dorothy. And if the butterfly occasionally eluded her grasp, her voice did not.... Leon, a veteran Broadway and TV director, decided we all needed a little dose of happiness instead. We do. He and the terrific cast of The Wiz Live! delivered.

Episodes remains funny.... Mangan and Greig, whose characters remain perfectly, hilariously, beset by that terrible Hollywood contagion: Self-loathing co-mingled with self-preservation.

A mostly superficial fast-cut of Schumer's marriage, pregnancy and life on the road that never pauses to ask, why is she subjecting herself to this?

Yes, Outlander can occasionally be a bit much for those not already enamored of its romance-novel leanings. (I plead guilty.) But for those open to textured historical sweep and/or time travel what-ifs (guilty on both counts), it's easy to lose yourself in this gritty production's pungent sense of place, character and dilemma.

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.

The 5th improves on the 4th (or at least the four episodes offered for review do).

Just like old times--make that exactly like old times. Will & Grace is back without missing a beat, or updating one, either.

Any doubts the tube can get graphic enough for today's gore-heads disappear almost instantly with tonight's premiere installment.

After a bumbling 4th — especially with regards to race — "Outlander" is back on track. A familiar one.

It's completely out-there and a lot of fun.

As a law show, "McBeal" is not as good as "The Practice." It has a lot of unrealistic, implausible, even surrealistic law. What it does well is show the compassionate, human side of the law profession, outside the courtroom. [9 Feb 1998]

With some of the zip of the original, and some of the heart too.

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

Who knew beautiful, obscenely expensive cars could be so much fun? These three guys do, and they effortlessly convey their knowledge and nutty passion.

Its tender moments register without feeling forced while the comedy comes in the form of a constant IV drip.

You can see Halt reach for that something. You can't quite shake the sense that Halt doesn't know what that "something" is.

Let's say Lone Star has its work cut out for it, and so does Wolk. His portrayal is too nice--too romantic, too good-hearted, too bland--to make Allen interesting, or at least convincing.

A work of TV art. ... It's a major, major series - a masterpiece, with great characters. The writing is textured, deep, rich. [26 Apr 1988]

Get beyond the talk, inertia and emotional overload, and there's still some truth and beauty here.

Lacy isn’t overselling her project. "And So It Goes," named for one of Joel's more ruminative songs, may not contain any true bombshells but it delves into Joel’s life in unprecedented detail. Anchored by Lacy’s lengthy interviews with Joel. .... Virtually everyone from Joel’s life — even those carrying painful baggage — shows up to speak.

Dark and thrilling, The Affair returns with a huge wallop--and glorious French star Irène Jacob is in the house.

Fun, lively, imaginative — with a whiff of Disneyfication.

"I'll Fly Away" is a drama of substance, a big subject, a show about real people with great acting, great writing and strong emotion. [7 Oct 1991]

Masters of Sex just gets better and better.

This Tick moves like a movie, each episode more a chapter in an extended tale than a half-hour payoff.

Slow start Sunday, but the drama's beauty and quality are intact.

For every instance of contestants behaving in a transcendent manner, there are half a dozen demonstrations of pettiness, impatience, anger and jealousy. [5 Sep 2001]

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

Some amusing lines, but otherwise a disappointing misfire.

To make Agent Carter work, and work well, Atwell and ABC knew she needed to be a relatable human first, and a subsidiary member of the populous Marvel universe second. Those priorities are straightened out efficiently on Tuesday's episode.

All charm and smarts, the best new NBC comedy in a long time. A winner.

It's a slow burn that can be patience-trying at times, and it's fair to wonder whether there's really enough here to support eight episodes instead of, say, a single movie. But there's confidence to spare and a real sense that the show knows exactly what it intends to be, without compromise. And whenever the pace slows to a crawl, the actors are there to keep you engaged.

Discovery introduced a compelling new hero, an even more compelling new alien, and a whole new war. But mostly it did negligible damage to a revered franchise and its legacy. Discovery is perfectly fine.

This is just an action fairy tale, a modern Saturday afternoon serial or contemporary penny dreadful, designed to keep us hanging on its every outlandish turn by exasperating us, if necessary, with characters we love to hate and contrivances we delight in dissing. ... It's insulting to our intelligence. And we can't stop watching. [28 Oct 2003]

Disney's HSM2 delivers precisely what's required. And America is all ears.

There is no apology, though hardly no remorse. ... From there, "Right Now" becomes, in a comically inverted way, a plea for tolerance,for perspective shift, for a check-out-the-world (from where I stand) riff. ... Risky show, risky strategy and both pay off.

Dutiful, respectful, evenhanded, and full of old network TV news clips that attest to the great drama of the moment, Confirmation can also be about as adventurous as a televised hearing on C-SPAN.

Forte does seem to be having a good, slovenly time, but after a while, the whole affair starts to feel a bit wanton and self-indulgent.

The second season of CBS' cult fave broadens beyond the first season's lawless action and family sentiment, even its rallying sense of community, to a wider and deeper purpose.

A fun, nostalgic, energetic re-entry that makes up for that sometimes bloated bore of a first season.

Each episode is a gem but — since you asked — my favorite is "USS Callister," which borders on genius.

Heretofore, I have never thought of Candice Bergen as a major comedienne like Andrea Martin or Catherine O'Hara. But I like her as Murphy Brown. She has the addictive personality of the character she plays, and can grow on you. [14 Nov 1988]