These guys are so bland and their together time so contrived, it's more fun to watch the gears turn on the tired docusoap machine.

Messy pilot that doesn't offer enough backstory, or reason to care all that much about Constantine.

There's desperation here, and if Happy Endings would slow down long enough to let itself breathe, it might find a footing.

Marta as Mob Mom is not fully believable or recognizable or (for that matter) relatable on any level. Without empathy, this "red widow" is just plain dull.

The Ex List--based on an Israeli hit ("Mythological Ex"), with whiffs of "How I Met Your Mother" and "My Name Is Earl" - is a flat-out great idea for a TV series. But Ruggiero (who's since left the show) needed a strong partner to reign in her worst impulses, like a running gag about shaved genitalia.

Silly, but let's take the glass half-full approach. There's nowhere to go but up.

Nothing particularly interesting or revelatory. For this to work--at least for viewers--The Hoff needs to move past self-parody, or at least take himself seriously. He tries here, but the exercise still seems flimsy and hollow.

Sleepy, listless, dull. But it has a great set; the beach and clouds on the horizon are alluring.

It's the tired guys will be guys trope dusted off for one of TV's pre-eminent comic actors, Tony Shalhoub, who can't even break through the smog of mediocrity that's enveloped him here.

It's all got the stirrings of something that should be funny, or wants to be funny, except that it's too often not - confoundedly, relentlessly, insistently not. [3 Jan 2015]

Cheer Perfection is numbing in its ordinariness--dull, trivial and never, ever outrageous.

The first hour manages to feel both mechanical and manipulative, without feeling truly exciting or even grounded anyplace.

Whoa, pardner. Calm down. There's too much struttin' and puffin' in the pilot for our taste. Rich casting and drama possibilities get mired in improbable events. And the basic premise -white father rides in to save black city? -is asking for trouble. [6 Oct 2000, p.B51]

In its zeal to zing local TV news, "Dog" loses any flavor of authenticity, which is absolutely essential for effective satire.

Yikes, this is calculating. Ouch, is it way too self-aware (even for teens). There's a caste system in high school? Are you shocked to learn this? [29 Sept 1999, p.B03]

The women's friendship radiates authentic undertones, beneath all the gooed-up personal drivel, although it's way too convenient how they always show up simultaneously at the same crime scenes.

The pilot serves up flashy ooh-ah instead of anything tangible to wrap our arms around.

By summer's lower standards, the series is watchably preposterous. [19 July 1992, p.3]

[A] shamelessly derivative cop show set in the shamelessly overexposed city by the bay, with high-school-play-level acting performances which help make the overall effect cornier than a cornfield in Kansas. And yet ... and yet, there's something appealing about ABC's new cop drama.

There's greatness begging to be grasped here, and nobody has a handle on it.

A mini-triumph of style over substance (of which there is almost none).

An energetic attempt ... What there isn't, unfortunately, is enough character development to make you care about anybody or anything. [1 Jan 1998]

Aside from the snappier editing and Sisco's greater sexual aggressiveness - like "Sex and the City's" Samantha, she gets the men on her most-wanted list - this could almost be a "Police Woman" episode from 30 years ago. [1 Oct 2003, p.B23]

There's nothing to relate to here, just to observe from afar, and only Tambor's as-always deft comic distraction gives us anything worth glancing at.

It's also one of those shows composed of such familiar ingredients, it already feels like a rerun. [22 Sept 2003, p.B02]

Yes, "Deadwood" was incomprehensible last season. It is incomprehensible this season. Fans will be delighted.

While neither awful nor even particularly bad, there is an earnest silliness to the whole thing.

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