[A] treacly piece of tripe.

Fans of "The Sopranos" looking for a new Sunday-night must-see may find it here - though perhaps not fans driven to fits by that HBO hit's ambiguous conclusion.

"Flight of the Conchords" isn't brilliant, but it isn't awful, either, just familiar, with two likable stars who seem to be channeling the deadpan dry wit of an old Beatles movie.

Little of it adds up to much of anything but foul-minded mischief.

"Big Love" does more this year than you might expect, and more richly, more provocatively, more dramatically and amusingly, too.

Ultimately, viewers just have to work a lot harder to fathom John from Cincinnati than Tony from Jersey.

The intimate moments have a gutsy realness, and the central characterizations are bedrock enough to sell us through the stereotypes.

Don't believe the critics who tell you "Hidden Palms" stinks after they watched only the first episode.... This is a seriously involving serious show. A show about something.

A pretty nifty, if completely insane, suspense/conspiracy/ chase/road adventure.

"Drive" is less the sort of textured character study we've come to expect than an action-packed joy ride. That's not to say you won't wanna hop in. But it's hardly a journey you've gotta take.

"The Tudors" could actually use a touch of the over-the-top wildness that undermined the substance of HBO's "Rome." If we could blend the two together somehow, we might have a kickily effective history mash-up.

They've translated the radio show's aural mosaic to the visual medium so effortlessly in this first season of six half-hours, we hope Showtime orders more of this life we all can recognize.

The stories may hardly be innovative... but their very familiarity becomes comforting.

It's hard to convey all the ways that this tightly directed show goes right: quietly observant character detail, solid sleuthing, play-it-straight absurdity and sneaky "Airplane!"-style parody riffs.

"Raines" is both thoroughly conventional and thoroughly unconventional; in fact, it often revels in its conventionality.

There's nothing unexpected here, and certainly no adventure, just who's sleeping with whom, and who's the daddy, and why they're still so juvenile, and how Tom Berenger ended up in this soapy soup.

A relentlessly grim and deeply depressing viewing experience.

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

This impressive fact-based debut from cultural journalist turned director Nelson George keeps us captivated simply by honing in tight on the character of its people, sketching in fine detail not just their admirable strengths but their all-too-human flaws.

It is awful. It is truly awful. It is awful in ways that make the word "awful" seem inadequate.

The emotional reality is so true here that not only do they get away with an assortment of gags about condoms, massage parlors and other juvenile fixations, but they make them resonate endearingly.

"Donnellys" creaks and sighs, moans and slumps, and ambles along like a world-weary cliche, unable or unwilling to lift its head above the humdrum banality to which it has been consigned.

This one isn't David Spade's fault. Really it isn't.

If all this sounds like "24" has been hijacked by public policy wonks or Shakespeare profs, don't worry. Your show very much remains your show.... It's just that your show got a little smarter.

"Emergency" is sodden, forbidding, a waste of 22 good minutes.

A sweet, gentle, good-natured trifle that is (nonetheless) surprisingly airless and only rarely funny, if that.

"Lost Room" is a shaggy dog story that gets shaggier with every scene. It's a tale as tall as the Empire State Building that threatens to topple in the merest breeze but - miraculously - never does.