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.