Everything fans loved about the first season--which improved dramatically over its course, by the way--is here. Everyone is not. McIntyre is good, but he's not Whitfield, either.

Legends simply feels too loose, too campy.

It's all very exhausting. This is a terrible show. Avoid it at all costs.

It's daring, disconcerting and/or enlightening.

Slattery is fine in this bland AI thriller.

"Lost Room" is a shaggy dog story that gets shaggier with every scene. It's a tale as tall as the Empire State Building that threatens to topple in the merest breeze but - miraculously - never does.

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

Hardly a treasure, but a lively island of adventure.

First-rate actress, compelling idea but neither can escape the clutches of a shopworn formula.

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

A paint-by-the-numbers biopic with the dramatic vitality of a tree stump.

The Assets isn't flashy, but boy, is it effective. It just grinds away, laying down intriguing details of "asset" care and feeding, made vivid through determined performances and intense crescendos.

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.

Last Man Standing is that unusual red fish in a sea crowded with blue ones, and it never lets you forget that. As always and as expected, Mike gets the best lines, the easiest put-downs and literally the last word.

An excellent Trump impression, but a little too much of it.

Get past the tough-to-buy setup of the premiere, and Shades improves. The star? Initially tough to buy, too, but also improves.

Sly as "The Larry Sanders Show," keener than "Fat Actress," more sympathetic than "Curb Your Enthusiasm," this new half-hour comedy hits the bull's-eye in every direction. It's funny, sad, smart and immensely appealing. [5 June 2005, p.11]

It becomes a challenge to endure a show that jerks its audience around this much, and cannot decide whether it wants to be tabloid-level trashy television with horror leanings, a serious depiction of human failings, an expose of the dark side of the adoption world, the story of a marriage falling apart, or something else.

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.

Unfortunately, one show's a classic, the other a near knockoff. Nevertheless, Poehler's still got plenty of appeal here.

It's the old school of ridiculous sitcoms at its worst. [10 Sep 1990]

This is an extremely tough balancing act or--back to the musical analogy--this is a show where the notes have to play exactly right. They don't here.

"The Bondsman" is not for everyone. But it knows what it wants to be and has the confidence to see it through.

The setup is stagey, the dialogue slack (or--worse--obvious).... [Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin] effortlessly know how to elevate even average material--and pretty much do so here.

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

Like its net- mates, Birds of Prey boasts sharp casting of little-known performers whose personalities prove as feistily engaging as their exquisite looks. And, of course, they're smart talkers.

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."

There's just too much shtick and not enough personality, especially when the stars' previous hits found their funny in relatable human behavior.