The horror is carefully and strategically placed; one mustn't have too much of a good thing, after all.... So settle in. You will be grossed out.

Better, richer, more compelling than season one.

[The Canadian comedy all-stars] give it good vibes. But the scripts, despite mad moments of whimsy, can't keep pace with the cast's comic timing and tone.

All charm and smarts, the best new NBC comedy in a long time. A winner.

Finding Carter isn't some teen show. It's a stellar drama.

The opener is absolutely superlative--a thing of real beauty, even elegance.... Berry delivers a performance that's surprisingly layered and nuanced.

Successfully cross-breeding "Three's Company" and "Full House" may be achievement enough to earn the show's creators a Nobel Prize in genetics, but the audience for a family sex farce may be limited. ... Misgivings about the sexual content aside, "8 Simple Rules" is, indeed, one of the better sitcom prospects of the 2002-03 season. The writing is uneven, but Ritter is a rarity, an actor who doesn't need funny things to say because he can say things funny. [17 Sep 2002]

The actors hit that soap sweet-spot between honest reality and lurid theatricality under direction from pros like Michael Apted and Catherine Hardwicke.

Some excellent special effects are in Monday night's episode, but nothing particularly shocking because it's become abundantly clear by now that The Dome can do any damn thing The Dome--or the writers--want.

A baffling, beautiful, maddening, provocative puzzle.

Disney should be sent to detention for passing off such aural plasticity [laugh track], unfairly fouling the repute of the live-audience sitcom. But the rest of Girl Meets World does its job of bringing tween-based family viewing into the 2010s.

What this show isn't: fresh, witty or even well constructed.

The pilot is itself uneven, with the go-for-bonkers impudence of a live-action "Family Guy." But without it, Mystery Girls might be just another ABC Family-com for viewers who have aged out of Disney Channel and silly situations with sentimental topping for studio audience uproar.

This is a show that can't escape the shackles of that old mismatched-buddy-cop formula, even if one of them does happen to drive a cab.

It's not particularly funny, but it does have style and energy. [26 Feb 2002]

It's not so stylish or energetic anymore, and it's still not particularly funny. ... The problem isn't just rim-shot jokes, though. It's the whole conception of this comedy's situation, which is riddled with illogic and overstocked with annoying characters. [15 Apr 2003]

Tonight's preview/pilot can get so intoxicated with hip-hop scratching - jump-cuts, slo-mo, video backtracking - that it forgets to remember style best serves substance. [14 Apr 2003]

Content is the much bigger issue here. In the pilot, Tyrant at times comes perilously close to embracing derogatory media stereotypes of Arabs.

Colorfully drawn. But all inside the lines.

Passable summer thriller with some decent (for TV) action sequences. The plot? You've been there, done that.

Headaches will be induced just in trying to unravel the plot mess Bon Temps finds itself in. At least this will be the last headache.

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.

Despite the predictable conclusion, "Stargate SG-1," leaves many character threads dangling tantalizingly. If you aren't careful, this series could definitely hook you. [27 Jul 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]

As episodes unfold, the relationships resonate, and the characters run deeper.

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

Freddy, the series, is for the mature mind. Not the 9-year-old mind, but the 11-year-old mind. ... It's not funny, but ghastly, the sickest, most violent, blood-spurting TV imaginable. [6 Oct 1988]

Good, cleanly told newcomer that can be a bit pokey.