Sometimes compelling and sometimes too lurid to take.

It's the season's best new series, period.

The series that strains our nerves and our credulity returns with more hour-by-hour suspense, and amazingly it still works.

This show needs to make the supernatural seem less ordinary.

This is a formulaic but fairly competent series with delusions of grandeur.

If Caan grabs more screen time and the writers build on the hints of sexual chemistry between Danny and Nessa, I might place a small bet on this superslick series-provided Danny learns the virtue of occasional silence.

Promising ... Like [Out of Sight's Jennifer] Lopez, Gugino is a looker who can be tough, but she makes the character more open, more alive.

If you prize originality, this new series will underwhelm you. ... What's surprising is the goodly number of laughs it does offer.

Joe Mantegna and Mary Steenburgen are fine as Joan's parents, but the series shouldn't go out of its way to play up the dad's role as small-city police chief. Keep the emphasis on God's plan, not man's law.

Cold Case should be money in the bank for CBS. But the... premiere suffers from a predictable murder plo... and an overly arty climactic sequence that belongs in a music video, not a police drama.

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

Murray is more interesting here than in last season's laughable The Lone Ranger, but the writing... is junior-varsity stuff.

Oh, what a tangled web Carnivále weaves–maybe too tangled for its own good.

Nothing in the opener is especially fresh or intriguing except the relationship between Ryan and Seth.

Unfortunately, the hour-long show's formula grows old after a few viewings, and the Fab Five's frequent product plugs start to seem like a worse crime than household clutter.

Are they lovable? No. Are they watchable? Compulsively so.

Too bad there isn't more onstage action, which is when these folks are at their funniest. Instead, we get to see them being insecure, neurotic and nasty.

The personality dynamics are fun to watch even if the film turns out not to be.

The bizarre causes of death on the show—woman gets hit by falling piano, guy accidentally drills hole in his head—are indicative of its self-conscious quirkiness.

The odd-couple act is funny at times, but one episode is plenty for all but confirmed Buseyphiles.

Funny, but showing its age.

As I enjoyed this mystery series' second-season premiere, I recalled the satisfying feeling of watching Columbo in its prime.

The show moves methodically from one story line to another, progressing by inches yet holding our interest with its finely drawn characters and a rare ability to illuminate the gray areas of city life.

Like other reality shows, this one has its irritants.

Average.

It's more fun than most hidden-camera shows: Kutcher keeps his in-your-face energy from boiling over into obnoxious-ness.

The show has lost none of its manic lunacy.

Dreyfus... seems to be laboring to turn a so-so show into the I Love Lucy of the 21st century.

Dramatic comedy or comedic drama? This new half-hour series is hard to label but easy to get hooked on.

The early episodes of Season 3 abound in Six Feet Under's trademark qualities—complexity, humor and humanity.

At its best, the show is outrageous and hilarious at once.

A daring police drama whose growing moral complexity redeems its occasional excesses.

24 strains credulity here and there... and some of the season premiere's doomsday dialogue smacks of parody. But the real-time format builds tension week-to-week as well as scene-to-scene, and Sutherland keeps adding depth to his portrayal of a man staggering slightly with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Larry David's sitcom remains an awe-inspiring (and hilarious) exercise in comedic extremes of chaos and control.

If you pay attention, the writing and direction reward the effort.

But even if the clipped dialogue sometimes suggests cop-show parody, the well-constructed mysteries give Without a Trace a strong foundation.

What do you get by combining a fairly traditional family comedy with a less barbed version of The Larry Sanders Show? This interesting, if not wholly successful, hybrid.

Taut and stylish.

A lot of this material may be hackneyed, but Ritter puts it over with energy and a slathering of shtick. It's simple, really: Like him, like the show.

Williams is likable even when his character isn't rational.

The Sopranos remains a unique combination of brains, wit and raw power.

Parker's irresistible charm keeps us on Carrie's side even as the character's act grows old.

This is probably not a clinically accurate portrayal of an OCD sufferer, but Shalhoub's gentle earnestness keeps it from being gimmicky.

As with all reality shows, the pleasure for viewers is the cruel one of rubbernecking a disaster.

It's very easy to resist a show shaped around a joke so sniggeringly juvenile. ... After a while, though, my inner sniggler shoved its way past my adult superego and started to laugh, sometimes a lot.

Early episodes can seem as static as a stakeout, and the viewer has a ton of information to absorb—much of it conveyed in obscenity-laced slang. But as we gradually get to know the players... The Wire grows electric.

The singles scene must be pretty bleak if women would rather mass for a prime-time cattle call than go out on a blind date.

Is this show in danger of being too nice? Somebody must have thought so, because George has been given a harridan for a mother.

Scratch the gritty surface of this new police drama and you'll find it's not a totally revolutionary contribution to the genre.

Andy aspires to write fiction but basically he's an ordinary guy—a role right for Richter—and the humor springs largely from the contrast between his fertile imagination and his dull, dry job.

This challenging show offers the viewer nary a morsel of TV comfort food. But uncommonly good writing and acting are satisfying too.

Louis-Dreyfus is going for breathless charm here, but this vehicle's in too much of a rush.

What I've come to appreciate in its second season is that CSI delivers the goods—mysteries that keep viewers guessing, scientific crime-detection techniques worthy of the Discovery Channel and a consistently intriguing character in team leader Gil Grissom.

Though the cast members are photogenic, as is the city, one tires of watching them play at self-discovery.

Hard to leg-warm up to.

I'd prefer to argue that creative excellence is the real reason for the six-year-old series' ratings momentum, but it's probably the snappy salutes and cool jargon.

Going into mid-December, this third-year drama series appeared in need of a creative overhaul. The writing wavered between teen angst and tongue-in-cheek, and each plot turn seemed more desperate than the last.

Project Greenlight is a dream come true for a guy named Jones, but it looks like less of a thrill for the average viewer.

It's reliably amusing.

It's just a tad less fabulous than before.

Some of the humor here won't go down well in every home. But if you stick with the show through episode two, you'll see it's about the gap between Bernie's defiantly unsentimental attitude and the reality of his new role as a surrogate parent.

Entertaining, though short of super.

The makers of 24 needn't overuse the split-screen technique to emphasize the onrush of events. Viewers can feel the suspense start to build without seeing the seconds tick off on a digital clock. Give the gimmicks a rest. We're hooked without them.

The first two outings are uneven, but watch for a hilarious future episode in which Arthur meets a support group for disgruntled superhero sidekicks.

Subtlety is not a hallmark of the writing, nor of Christopher Rich's performance as Reba's faithless spouse.

Thanks to the mesmerizing performance of Vincent D'Onofrio as New York City Det. Bobby Goren, this new series enhances the value of the brand.

To make new fans, show more enterprise.

In the end, though, tinkering around the edges won't be enough to ensure The Guardian's future if Baker's performance remains a void at the center of the drama.

Belushi's gusto is all this show has going for it.

Garner has an appeal that transcends implausibility.

Though overequipped with distracting extras—-flashes of fantasy, slapstick sound effects—-this dark comedy definitely grows on you.

This new college comedy isn't quite in the same class [as Freaks and Geeks], but it captures the atmosphere of the dormitory as minimum-security madhouse.

I'm hooked once more.

[A] half-decent start.

For the most part, the miniseries honors the soldiers' bravery without hiding their fears or failings.

New executive producer Arnold Shapiro has made Big Brother 2 less tedious than last summer's ... But the show still has too many blah periods in which the players simply sit around and scheme.

The heart of the program is a talk show spoof in which guest celebrities try to hold up their end of the hilariously incoherent conversation.

Slightly ghoulish but engrossing.

There's no purpose in watching Fear Factor, unless the network offers you $50,000 to endure it.

Somewhat to my surprise, Sex and the City hasn't yet passed its freshness date.

It's diverting, if you can follow it.

The talent of the cast, the overall quality of the writing and the genuine New York City atmosphere should compensate for an occasional lapse in judgment.

The March 4 pilot of this X-Files spinoff is what you'd call a comedy-drama, with a pratfall and some jokey dialogue balanced by the threat of catastrophe and sober talk of lost ideals. But the show turns into a clumsy comedy-comedy on March 11.

Speaking of Probst, please send this plastic man back to Rock & Roll Jeopardy! Only James Earl Jones himself could intone "The tribe has spoken" without provoking giggles.

The Sopranos is better than ever.

The show is rather complicated—and simply uninteresting.

Once and Again can be self-conscious in its sensitivity, especially when characters confide their innermost thoughts to the audience. ... But I'm still impressed by the drama's respect for the complexity of life.

Comes off as edgy and derivative at the same time.

Without Becker and his weekly rants (mildly amusing, though hardly of Dennis Miller caliber), this third-year sitcom would have nothing going for it.

Remains a winner.

In contrast, the British original, while just as explicit, is also funny and warm, with a Trainspotting zip. You'll be happier renting videotapes of that.

This once-steady sitcom may now be stuck in neutral.

The season's nicest surprise.

Sheen's deadpan cool is the refreshing flip side to Fox's hyperkinetic heat, and his edgy chemistry with Heather Locklear has potential.

Once hot show sliding toward X-tinction.

Curb Your Enthusiasm has an unhurried, improvisational style that may cause restlessness. And David, playing himself as a cranky pessimist, is a determinedly unlovable star. But stay with the 10-week series and you'll be ensnared by his sly humor.

Even if the characters are growing overfamiliar, creator David E. Kelley's stories remain compelling and surprising.

Bravura performance, but Braugher needs support—stat!