Entertaining. But is it worth eight hours of your attention? Not unless you’re laid up with a bad flu bug you just can’t seem to shake.

Lindsay pulls us into her space and makes us feel protective. [31 Mar 2014]

It takes a few half-hour episodes before the tone gels. [16 Jan 2012, p.39]

The show's comically choreographed mayhem is a difficult premise to sustain, like trying to stage a big bumper-car pileup again and again. So be sure to watch—and tape—this week's pilot directed by Lynch. It's a doozy.

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.

Grabs you so forcefully that you won't shake free even when the drama strains credulity.

A solid, well-done series. [19 Jan 2012, p.42]

The one great redemptive asset--and it's significant--is Kiefer Sutherland. [26 Mar 2012, p.41]

This is the best "family" reality series since Honey Boo Boo or even The Osbournes from several centuries ago. [31 Mar 2014]

Rivers scarcely pretends any of the setups are real--it's just more material for her. [7 Feb 2011, p.41]

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

Flowers, both the book and the new movie, is completely absurd--if you want to gauge the absurdity, just know that one of the darkest secrets in the narrative involves a doughnut--but somehow also psychologically coherent. It has a grip.

Anderson gives the character an irresistible goofy charm, and it's nice to see a western that doesn't take the genre too seriously.

Garner has an appeal that transcends implausibility.

The show needs to guard against the cutesies ... and allow both principals to do more than talk about their sex lives.

This TLC series has hit a cultural nerve, partly because it offers practical, price-cutting tips in an era in which people are jittery about inflation. Also because it's bonkers. [26 May 2011, p.46]

So cheeky, sexy and alive that you can't help enjoying it.

I found 1 vs. 100 much more enjoyable [than Deal Or No Deal]. [23 Oct 2006, p.37]

The show is gentle, winning and sympathetic. [7 May 2012, p.48]

Jack is back, and he's still a lot of fun. [12 May 2014]

We're betting that with experience, this inconsistent show can find a way to win.

Hot Properties has a loose, engaging silliness. [31 Oct 2005, p.39]

Luckily the characters are so fully formed, and so fully inhabited by the cast, that the whole mess staggers up out of the trenches and keeps going. [9 Jan 2012, p.39]

Dream On doesn't seem quite as inventive as it used to be. Still, it is superior to most of the dreck on the networks.

Not too original, but the cast makes this King more than a commoner.

It's tense, engrossing, mildly ludicrous--and worth checking out before the Cold War melts. [11 Feb 2013]

We'll see how season 10 holds up once the chosen contestants move on to Hollywood, but for now Idol remains firmly on its pedestal. [14 Feb 2011, p.39]

In her enjoyably ridiculous reality show, she's self-consciously restrained, perhaps trying to project old-fashioned noblesse oblige-even while goosing her Google profile with this project in self-exposure. She just ends up neutralizing herself. The show is dominated instead by a supporting group of rich kids who take the reverse tactic of whole-hog shamelessness.

Shatner has a ball playing a paragon of inappropriate behavior and lends the egocentric character a surprising touch of poignancy in his rare moments of introspection. But it's going to be tricky finding the right balance between Shore and Crane while allowing each to stay in touch with his inner devil.

The Class doesn't necessarily generate more laughs than other sitcoms, but it has more charm--like a kinder, gentler How I Met Your Mother--and that's incentive enough to stick with it. [16 Oct 2006, p.39]

Slick and often witty, this is a show with its high beams on. But the device of having Dey and Thomas directly address the camera isn't the only false note struck. The characters are thin, and the chemistry doesn't cook.

At this point the show may lack in si-prises, but like one of Miss Kay's lovingly prepared brisket dinners, there's pleasing comfort in its familiarity. [26 Aug 2013, p.37]

House stands out on the strength of its misanthropic main character.

It actually improves upon the successful formula by downplaying any romantic entanglements, which, at times, have weighed down the leads of Rhimes's other shows.

It wouldn't hurt to pick up the pace, but Graceland is a successful move toward true grittiness. [3 Jun 2013, p.43]

The jokes are, for the most part, more clever than funny.

The tone of Central Park West is so facile, glossy and brittle that its visual style often resembles some frosty Eurotrash perfume commercial. But the first episodes hit the ground sprinting.

The anecdotes slam into each other with a punch-drunk indifference--but director Spike Lee's style is a series of swift jabs. [18 Nov 2013, p.47]

The show has a sophisticated sense of humor that suits Silverman's talents. But he is surrounded by an anemic cast.

The show doesn't have the sinister intelligence of ABC's short-lived Invasion, but it's good family entertainment. [27 Jun 2011, p.45]

This eighth season finds him spending time in New York City, and the trip rejuvenates him. [18 Jul 2011, p.35]

Season 2 of the Hollywood satire still plays too broad, [...] But Matt LeBlanc's understated performance as himself has gotten even better. [9 Jul 2012, p.36]

I don't much care which duo ultimately comes in first and collects the $1 million prize, and the personality conflicts aren't dramatically different from those on other reality shows. But at least this series covers a lot of interesting ground.

About Face addresses some deeper implications--Gia Carangi's early death is a cautionary tale--but knows better than to over do it. [6 Aug 2012, p.39]

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.

Smits and Alda clearly increase the show's charisma quotient, and it's good to see Matheson's character stirring the pot once more. ... But the writers seem almost shameless in their resort to medical crises.

The show continues to be soft, captivating fun. [18 Jul 2011, p.36]

The show's weakness is a negligible supporting cast, particularly Diedrich Bader and Ryan Stiles.

You may well have misgivings about yet another season for this show, particularly with Haysbert out of the picture. ... But the plot, which involves the abduction of a high government official, will absorb viewers once again.

It's not clear how seriously Patinkin takes the whole thing--it's the same actorly mystery that makes David Caruso's whispery bitterness such a kick on CSI: Miami. [31 Oct 2005, p.39]

A well-crafted, surprisingly intelligent update of ABC's late-'70s Star Wars clone.

The tenuousness of the situation, and the underlying hope for emotional growth by all, makes for a touching hour. [25 Jan 2010, p.43]

This Victorian-era prequel to Peter Pan works. [12 Dec 2011, p.48]

There's always a laugh or two. [30 Jan 2012, p.44]

It's fun sport. [30 Jan 2012, p.44]

The best thing from Season 1 remains the same: Mary-Louise Parker. [21 Aug 2006, p.37]

It's bright and obvious as a cartoon yet written with a clean, precise patter of jokes. It's also very well cast. [12 Dec 2011, p.45]

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.

The show is sloppy, vulgar fun, even if it's hard to detect much likability under the layers of lacquer. [9 May 2011, p.43]

The pilot establishes an eerie claustrophobic dread, and well-budgeted special effects add intensity. [1 Jul 2013, p.35]

[The Newsroom] is much stronger and more solidly entertaining. [29 Jul 2013, p.37]

The Inbetweeners is a companion to the network's hit Awkward. And equally funny. [27 Aug 2012, p.48]

With many clichés coming straight from romantic comedy films, A to Z gets slightly cheesy at times, but Feldman and Milioti's easy chemistry makes their banter believable and, well, downright adorable.

Here we have the spirit and courage of the settlers, only without the time to settle. It's CBS after all, not Conestoga. [9 May 2011, p.39]

The visual components of the show—particularly the armament and the battle scenes—are sleek enough to excite younger viewers. But the plots and characters in Space are as thin as the air up there, and might leave adults floating out in the cold.

What I found in the first two shows was a lot of smart, pointed humor aimed at corporate bureaucracy, mendacity and absurdity. I didn't even notice till late in the second episode that the animation itself was something less than eye-popping.

The show is solidly American. [9 May 2011, p.39]

The show needs work-—why all the breast jokes?-—but [Lithgow and Curtin] don't.

Forget the tech background; the cohosts are a natural comedy team. That's why this show is a hoot, even if it's a little like grown-ups playing in a sandbox.

Gregg has a deadpan ease that makes the engine purr. And his team is good-looking and stamped with just enough personality and humor: Without killing the fun, they ground the show. [14 Oct 2013, p.43]

Season 3 will bring on two new wives, but the show will probably always belong to NeNe Leakes. [11 Oct 2010, p.38]

[A] pleasurable, cheeky new crime drama. [21 Oct 2013, p.47]

This is all good, capering, costume-ball fun, even if Mary's life was dismal. My chief complaint is that pretty Adelaide Kane, as Mary, lacks any spirit or presence. [21 Oct 2013, p.50]

The girls, who keep breathlessly repeating the phrase "high fashion" as if it were a mantra, nonetheless behave as they always do, which is most of the fun. [13 Sep 2010, p.48]

Devotees are probably poised to dismiss the adaptation out of hand, but I found enough funny business here to overcome my sales resistance.

Burton and Taylor is a wry, bittersweet take on a celebrated Hollywood romance. [21 Oct 2013, p.48]

This is Amazing Race of the damned, with something of the open-ended, Pandora's-box mystery of Lost, and it has the potential for out-there adventure. [23 Apr 2007, p.37]

If [Metcalf's] character can develop into more than a foil, it may be worth tuning in to this show for a weekly update.

In its second season this gritty frontier drama still boasts the most colorfully eccentric ensemble of any show on TV. But Al Swearengen, the malignly glowering saloon boss, played to the hilt by Golden Globe winner Ian McShane, is first among equals.

The conflict often seems manufactured, but Cowell continues to lift this above the Star Search level.

Think of it as a newsmagazine program unbound by considerations of taste or balance.

This air of finality throws the many small, fine details of Parker's performance, the main reason for the show's existence, into sharp relief. [13 Aug 2012, p.42]

It's a good show, powerfully acted--especially by Katy Segal as tough mama Gemma--and true to its convictions. [20 Sep 2010, p.52]

A tricky show with serious potential. [5 Mar 2012, p.45]

Fun, swanky nonsense.

The history behind the story is tremendous--you feel its pulse. [5 Aug 2013, p.48]

This FOX version of a family sitcom isn't as irreverent or formula-free as it thinks--ABC's "The Middle" is actually edgier--but it scores points for never resorting to mere cuteness and for throwing in a bizarre sight gag about frozen squirrels.

Set on the eve of the 1936 abdication crisis, it has melodramatic bustle and tender affection for its characters--of all classes. [18 Apr 2011, p.46]

A pallid imitation of The Larry Sanders Show, the series works best when its real-life guests are funny.

A fun buzz. [1 Jul 2013, p.36]

The badinage with his wife plays nice and easy, like Home Improvement, while that with his parents and brother across the street has more of a Seinfeldian silliness.

The color, pace and performance are vibrant, often crazily so. [10 Sep 2012, p.39]

Director John Power establishes good pacing, as the mounting suspense alternates with scenes of banal normalcy and campy humor. The action is spread around on a solid supporting cast that includes Joanna Cassidy, E.G. Marshall, Allyce Beasley, John Ashton, Cliff DeYoung, Robert Carradine and Traci Lords...The thriller is like an attenuated, more pastoral version of the original 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But once it gets its hooks in you, you’ll be back for the conclusion the following night.

I hope the guy finds forgiveness and love. Until then, the squirm-factor is fun. [10 Jan 2011, p.39]

An attractive, multi-accented cast and far-flung locales make it worth the trip. [1 Jul 2013, p.36]

Branagh is very fine as Wallander. [10 Sep 2012, p.40]

Even if his acting feels like a sentimental stunt, Gervais wrote and directed the series with gentle skill. [16 Sep 2013, p.41]

In the golden age of narrative TV, cartoons offer countervailing subversive pleasures: They're juvenile, satiric, surreal. Those words all apply to the wild spree Rick and Morty. [23 Dec 2013]