Tales From the Crypt scared the living bejesus out of me...We are talking major league fright time here, folks. [9 June 1989, p.5]

There's substance in Jill with hubby Andy and with her doctor best friend (comic KK Glick, a Huntington native), all proving levelheaded and likable. That helps leaven the snooty stereotypes of our initial path into Jill's world.

A series that can still be occasionally talky and turgid.... Hardwick's the better and smoother actor, and certainly the more appealing one. But it's Jackson who gives this show bite and--to a considerable degree--life, too.

[The stories] mostly do stand on their own. Some are better than others.... a winning cast.

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

Nightingale is really about David Oyelowo, a magnificent actor with astonishing range who draws viewers deep down into the darkness with his character. His skill in accomplishing this, of course, makes Nightingale something to be admired rather than loved, and, depending on your mood, maybe even something to be avoided.

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

With feet of clay, Aquarius plods relentlessly toward a climax everyone already knows, while making just enough fictional detours to make the journey truly exasperating.

Not exactly the freshest premise for a comedy. But what Coach lacks in flash or originality, it makes up in steady execution. A winning cast and decent writing will do that. [28 Feb 1989, p.II-13]

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.

Powerful story. A shame Bessie rarely conveys the story's emotional wallop.

Enjoy the atmospherics. They're good. Just don't expect them to lead to a satisfying payoff. It might never come.

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.

I've watched tonight's show, the pilot, three times already - and not because I'm searching for the clues that Affleck and Bailey have embedded in the film. I love hearing nerdy IRS agent Jim Prufrock's improbably forceful declaration of why he loathes tax cheats. I love the way the Push residents talk about their local "slow-dance bar" as if it were as commonplace as a KFC outlet. I'm curious why all the couples in Push make love every other night at precisely the same time. I admire the creative visual presentation, which rivals that of a good commercial or music video. [17 Sept 2002, p.B03]

What's most intriguing here is deconstructing the process, when Stewart outlines the surprisingly demanding "skill set" needed by "Daily Show" correspondents (with supporting clips), when Colbert clarifies how their shows are only "curating the news" to the point of setting up "the joke you wish to tell."

This is far more than a generous compilation but a two-hour fast-cut that attempts to reassemble a fractured mind from its own filings.

Where "Batman" played it straight, and was therefore kinky, Scorpion smugly thinks it's cute, and therefore isn't. Its cops are Keystone, its star is personality-free and its plot progressions are dippy-dumb. But Lintel's poppin' chest is always well-lit, gunfire is frequent and spectacular explosions keep topping themselves. [4 Jan 2001, p.B31]

By losing the emotional core of the film essentially after the first act--the death of Kinnear's saintly Fairbrother--the film spends the next three-plus hours trying to fill the void. Fools rush in to fill it, but because most of them are treated with such contempt, or pity, none can or possibly could.

[Shalom Auslande's] worldview is one part Christopher Hitchens, one part Samuel Beckett, one part Louis CK.... If all that makes his funny-ish new show sound bitter, angry, provocative and even compelling, then (well) that's because it is. But Happyish can also be wildly uneven and a little too smug in its certitude.

This remains an intelligent, well-made drama that wants to get most of the history right, or at least not adulterate it too much.... But, alas, same virtues, same flaws.

The show also feels more nuanced. If season 4 was like a giant exhaled breath, then season 5 is an inhaled one. The story beats are more deliberate. There's also a sharpened sense of building anticipation--or impending doom.

As a team, they [Billy Crystal and Josh Gad] are better than the shows--both the real one and the fake one--they're in.

Tragedy is hard, comedy harder, while mixing both together seamlessly is just about impossible week after week. That Louie usually succeeds is a minor miracle. That it doesn't always is inevitable. Thursday's opener, "Potluck," has a funny twist but ends up in a strange, bitter place--even by Louie standards.

Bleak and desperate? Possibly (the song [Peggy Lee's haunting cover of the classic Leiber-Stoller song "Is That All There Is?"] is just a sad song). But here's the surprise: Severance makes the opposite case.

Wolf Hall really is one of the great pleasures of the small screen this year, even if it doesn't initially make much of an effort (like Cromwell) to curry your favor. But stick with this one. The rewards are considerable.

There are, in fact, too many plates. At worse, they induce vertigo, or prevent close inspection for logical consistency (and there is some). But at its best, they promise something unique, even smart.

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.

Because this [Manhattan-cetric romcoms where self-absorption ultimately gives way to romance] is such an overly familiar TV trope, it demands great chemistry among all the leads and sharply funny dialogue to match. I wandered through this purgatory for three episodes and found zilch.