[Skip's] part is virtually unplayable, especially since Bill Pullman and Jenna Elfman, as the first couple, give restrained, relatively natural performances, and Skip's siblings are written more along the lines of Modern Family. [14 Jan 2013, p.52]

The show moves along with the dull, humming smoothness of commerce. [19 Mar 2012, p.42]

The show makes Survivor look like a utopia. [17 Apr 2006, p.43]

The pilot has come under fire for racist jokes, but at Cheap Laffs there's not enough of a creative sensibility for that to matter. [23 Sep 2013]

Saddled with stars who neither clash nor click, breaking In appears to be broken. [19 Mar 2012, p.46]

It hyperventilates when it means to be breathless. [18 Feb 2013, p.44]

The show might work if Steven Pasquale had a script that allowed for bolder contrasts. [2 Feb 2013, p.40]

There's no erotic pull between him (Jay Ryan) and the detective (Kristin Kreuk). [15 Oct 2012, p.49]

Kathy Bates' surly gravity can't prevail over the silliness of this new series. [24 Jan 2010, p.43]

Playboy Club makes the mistake of aping Mad Men's Stern social seriousness. [26 Sep 2011, p.54]

Like the world cares. [6 Jun 2011, p.46]

No zest, no fun. [26 Mar 2007, p.37]

Mostly it feels like an instructional film about disaster preparedness. [2 Oct 2006, p.45]

Can you say "ill-conceived"?

The show makes little effort to create a sense of the potent clash--or erotic attraction--between cultures. [24 Feb 2014, p.38]

Actually watching Big Brother five nights a week (total air time: 3½ hours) seems like the entertainment equivalent of enduring gavel-to-gavel convention coverage on C-SPAN.

[A] dreary, derivative sci-fi series. ... Such silliness might be palatable if Alba were more than the sum of her svelte, zippered bodysuits. Instead she pouts throughout, speaking in a Valley Girl drone.

An irritating comedy-drama. [15 Jul 2013]

Everything has the familiar mechanical deadness of a sitcom assembled from old ideas. [12 Feb 2007, p.39]

The premiere hour is abysmal, and the women's cluelessness is profound.[2 Jun 2014, p.49]

The only good thing is Anita Barone. [19 Sep 2005, p.48]

CBS prounouces $#*! as "bleep," although the Twitter account that inspired the show uses an actual profanity. Either works as a short critique. [4 Oct 2010, p.38]

The production is gorgeous and the tedium unrelenting. [8 Apr 2013, p.42]

The characters are dislikable, the farce is strained, and the show's mind has just one track.

This blah drama about kids living in an LA apartment complex while hustling for big breaks is a Canadian import. [7 May 2012, p.46]

Though not much of it seems real, we're calling this a reality show for want of a better label. FOX uses the term "unscripted comedy," which would fit better if the series were funny.

The show is The Odd Couple redefined by psychosis and whimsy. I'm not wagging my tail. [27 Jun 2011, p.46]

It's Court TV's first original scripted drama, and it's bad. [16 Apr 2007, p.43]

Consider it dead on arrival. [27 May 2013, p.40]

Here, with no force of personality, the format is just a congress of faux-fabulous. [28 Feb 2011, p.39]

Contrasting the then-and-now lives of a group of high school students, class of 2000, the show is drearily familiar. [27 Sep 2010, p.56]

Love Hewitt goes for soft, cozy sentiment. [16 Apr 2012, p.53]

FX's spy parody Archer is funnier, and AMC's short-lived Rubicon was a more sharply realized fantasy of work life in a shadow bureaucracy. This is a botched mission. [4 Apr 2011, p.50]

Stunningly dull.

It's hard to imagine a flimsier enterprise than this new detective series.