Honestly, it's a complete oddball with some charm and a few good lines.

There’s a fascinating sideshow here--Carey’s tough manager--otherwise this is a by-the-book celebrity reality series that just happens to star one of the world’s biggest celebrities.

Violent and dull.

A rare HBO misfire--but I do hope Amy finds peace.

It's pretty much impossible to describe The Beast without getting tangled in the underbrush of potboiler cliche....The good news, in fact, the wonderful news, is that Swayze really is good.

Good-hearted and gentle, Fisher struggles on the "funny" front.

Roughness still feels bland and unexceptional. Thorne remains what's best about this idea in the first place.

The show ambles along without getting viewers to particularly care about Alex or Pete. Without that requisite electricity, they're hollow, or just sad.

The third season was a two-headed monster. One was Sam and Ron; the other was Shore's typically moronic, casually vulgar, breezily amusing self. Guess which one was unwatchable.

de Cadenet's interesting. Her talk show is much less so.

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.

The target viewer wouldn't watch all this predictable--I mean, impulsive--bickering and button-pushing while thinking: I wonder why all the paintings and posters on the walls in the background are blurred out? And then think: Geez, why am I even wondering about that? The audience for Joan Knows Best? will be loving Joan's visits to three plastic surgeons Tuesday, not fretting.

Maybe the Thursday pilot's portentous whispers in candle-lighted spaces will seem less pretentious and more profound as Dominion moves past initial exposition from a cast trying not to sound like they're from all over the planet.

Sumptuously produced but glacially told, The Crown is the TV equivalent of a long drive through the English countryside. The scenery keeps changing, but remains the same.

If you thought the "Real Housewives" of New York City, Atlanta and Orange County were outrageous, you haven't seen anything yet.

Messy, discordant opener with potential.

This isn't only "Frasier," recast as a standard family sitcom. It's "Green Acres."

The River still has a quirkily eccentric charm. It's just so deliciously odd.

Hannibal isn't quite the sum of its admittedly evocative parts. The story is often strained, or like that poor synth operator, overextended; the shocks tend to be operatic--oversold as opposed to a deft sudden jolt to emotional solar plexus.

Families can watch this together nightly. The pace isn't exactly taxing. And it's summer.

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

Legends simply feels too loose, too campy.

The Latina female leads are--to put this in a way that's both politically correct and blandly inoffensive--vivacious.... That trademark Cherry wit, written in acid, is evident here. too.... But the biggest problem here is the sprawl--lots of stories, lots of characters, lots of colors--and not one them going anywhere in a hurry.

Dramatically inert, Badlands is at least technically accomplished.

The first couple of episodes are on the tedious side. Bad guys still die, things still get blown up.

A genial, old-fashioned--nay, prehistoric--family sitcom on the wrong network.

Sure, there are some fun moments. Sure Brosnan looks mah-velous. He always does. But a little less plodding plot and a lot more action, please.

Too brittle and full of bile to cleanly hit the target.