The Soul Man isn't great, but it's the best sitcom yet developed for TV Land. [2 Jul 2012, p.40]

It's an MRI that's lost its mapping capabilities. [30 Apr 2012, p.36]

Though the show lacks the inspired cohesiveness of classic sitcoms like Cheers or Seinfeld, it is bright, brisk and well-played.

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

The concept seems to be an easy one to exhaust. But if the writing manages to stay fresh, we could be looking at the '90s version of The Bob Newhart Show.

Of the large, nicely peppered cast, I especially like Vergara, who has some of the vamping yumminess of a Catherine Zeta-Jones. [8 Jan 2007, p.35]

It's more like Seinfeld reconceived for the slacker sensibility of a director like Kevin Smith or Richard Linklater. And that's what's wrong with the show: It's hard to shake the feeling that it's just someone's project.

Even with Steven Spielberg listed among the executive producers, this distant world doesn't inspire much awe. [3 Oct 2011, p.45]

When you're hot, you're hot-which is why having Betty White in the cast has generated an unusual amount of buzz for this TV Land sitcom. But her costars-ace comic actresses Wendie Malick, Jane Leeves, Valerie Bertinelli-are the ones who add sizzle to a not too promising vehicle.

Grey has been on long enough now that it has lost much of its erotic sizzle--McDreamy is edging toward Mcnappy--but the satisfyingly steady seventh season is a model of a hit that keeps fitting nee characters into the blueprint. [20 Dec 2010, p.41]

The '70s Show has a jarringly '90s slacker sensibility. Still there are some very funny moments.

Up All Night is adorable without being cute. [3 Oct 2011, p.41]

If all this sounds more painful than funny, you've hit on the show's main problem.

As a social experiment, this project fizzles because of the imposing scrutiny (even the phone is tapped) and because of the artificial relationship foisted on these instant loftmates. But as television, it's rather intriguing.

This show is so wrong. And I loved every minute of it. [5 Feb 2007, p.37]

Annie calls for some sort of inner steel, but Perabo looks less like an untested agent than an overwhelmed intern.

Trophy Wife is no prize--the pilot is swamped with exposition recited in the girlishly thin voice of star Malin Akerman--yet there's enough of a comedic brain and cast at work here that some additional polishing might do the trick. [30 Sep 2013, p.49]

The premiere us well-shot, humidly atmospheric, but a little more urgency would be appreciated.

The melodrama of it all is tasty--a jumbo macaroon. [27 Aug 2012, p.43]

This is well-produced, but it could just as well be Mission:Colonial. [1 Oct 2012, p.38]

Scandal is about as realistic as Mamie Eisenhower Witch Hunter but it has so much headlong energy, you may not care. [9 Apr 2012, p.40]

Edie Falco makes the stakes scarily real. [21 Apr 2014, p.43]

The first few nights showed O'Brien settling in with his charmingly original humor, which is sophisticated yet twerpily silly. [29 Nov 2010, p.41]

The opener sets this all up smoothly, and Collette, combining a mother's protective instinct with type A pride, is great to watch. [23 Sep 2013]

It's a temperature-controlled How I Met Your Mother. [27 Sep 2010, p.56]

Allen is one of the fall's freshest finds. But all the best punch lines in the hilarious pilot came right out of his "Men Are Pigs" stand-up routine. With the writers out on their own, the humor seems to be thinning out.

The show is a lusty soap opera that aspires to the pulsating, cutting-edge glamour of Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth. It's a little ham-fisted for that. [2 Apr 2007, p.37]

Skeet Ulrich and Corey Stoll are well-paired as detectives, and Alfred Molina, looking like an irascible owl, adds some harrumping power as deputy DA. [18 Sep 2010, p.40]

Petals doesn't have the same smothering intensity but it's compellingly crazy, the TV equivalent of outsider art. [26 May 2014, p.42]

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

This doesn't have the stiletto kick of the CW's Nikita, but it's frothy, sexy, relaxed--a brief, all-expense-paid vacation. [27 Sep 2010, p.55]

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

This partly improvised comedy is closer to Girls than All About Eve: wistful yet stinging, silly yet wise about the instability of even the deepest friendships. [24 Mar 2014, p.37]

The L Word is hot, to be sure.

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

Beyond the pilot, though, it appears to be a blandly generic precinct drama. [5 Mar 2013]

The 100 is imaginative, surprising and fun--Lost for kids. [24 Mar 2014, p.39]

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

Tudor history is irresistible, even if the bedroom gymnastics here seem more in keeping with the Playboy Mansion than a royal palace. [19 Apr 2010, p.47]

Trading on a paranoid, conspiratorial tone that recalls The Prisoner and MTV's Dead at 21, the show is jumbled but jazzy.

Crisis may not be great, but it works. [24 Mar 2014, p.35]

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 drive for revenge is what makes the pilot spark, smoke and go chug-a-chug-chug. [14 Nov 2011, p.45]

Traffic Light is better than NBC's Perfect Couples--the jokes are more relaxed, and the cast includes NCIS's Liza Lapira, whose humor has bite. Not a killer ensemble, though. [14 Feb 2011, p.42]

Holliday Grainger is an excellent Bonnie.... Emile Hirsch, a very good actor, plays Clyde as a passive nonentity.... Bonnie and Clyde seem as remote and illogical as another notorious couple of the era, Wallis Simpson and the Duke of Windsor. [16 Dec 2013]

It's like Lisa Kudrow's Comeback without the satiric contempt. [10 Apr 2006, p.35]

Until, and unless, all the elements fall into place, it's more smush than smash. [18 Feb 2013, p.41]

It's both old and new, a comfy piece of nostalgia that doubles as a fresh guilty pleasure. [18 Jun 2012, p.39]

The fast-paced craziness has a hit-or-miss quality, but I'm still laughing at the thought of an action flick pairing Jim Caviezel's Jesus with motor-mouth Chris Tucker.

The series has developed its own original rhythm, each week breaking cases down into unexpectedly punchy vignettes. The cast is excellent. [6 Dec 2010, p.50]

What really matters on Apprentice, though, are the celebs: This season's B- and (let's face it) C-listers are a good, volatile mix. [14 Mar 2011, p.42]

As a raw police procedural, Gracepoint thrives thanks to legitimately unsettling twists, sharp revelations that focus our attention on new suspects. But it's in Carver and Miller’s competing worldviews that the show finds something more substantial to work with.

It's funny and moves blindingly fast, barely giving you time to blink or gulp--Dark Shadows for the PlayStation age. [10 Oct 2011, p.39]

The show has the makings of great--what else can I say?--escapist entertainment. [23 Jan 2012, p.39]

Melissa McCarthy and Billy Gardell star in a sweet, old-fashioned sitcom. [Sep 27 2010, p.55]

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

666 Park Avenue remains good Gothic Trash. [26 Nov 2012, p.44]

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

This is less interesting than I'd hoped. [8 Jul 2013, p.36]

The show borrows from Northern Exposure, Twin Peaks, maybe the corporate drama Profit--too many to gauge how it'll develop. [24 Jul 2006, p.33]

She discusses her problems with a warm directness that makes them sound as if they could be anyone's. The show is less authentic when she learns about recovery from non-celebrities blindsided by tragedy. [16 May 2011, p.48]

Honey Boo Boo is just a little girl doing [her] best to be a beauty queen, TV star and dutiful daughter to the surprisingly levelheaded June. [22 Jul 2013]

Cove is exactly What it aspires to be--uncynical, lulling and sweet. [12 Aug 2013]

This late entry in the fall season is one of the best. [25 Nov 2013, p.43]

The first few episodes of Rake are, if anything, even fluffier than White Collar. All the better for Kinnear to gently cut through the whimsy with his sharp delivery. [27 Jan 2014, p.39]

To work, this overheated alchemy needs a magnetic Leo, but Tom Riley is miscast--too smart-alecky and brash. [13 May 2013, p.46]

Cooper is compelling as an overconfident hothead who sees creative potential around each corner. Trouble is, no matter what the writers dream up for Fleming, Fleming has already dreamed up better for Bond. [10 Feb 2014, p.48]

Thorne has the right bristling, combative energy for all this commotion, but the pilot is hard to swallow. [4 Jul 2011, p.38]

This is an old scow of a series, hefty and handsome but listing toward tedium.

This provocatively, almost boisterously violent thriller bolts into action with a clever premise and sustains it with good, unexpected jolts. [28 Jan 2013, p.43]

The formula still works. The Real Housewives of DC wasn't any fun, but the new Beverly Hills chapter delivers. [18 Oct 2010, p.37]

Attractive as well as articulate, all these high schoolers qualify for some sort of advanced placement. They're easy to watch, just a little hard to believe.

There are bright spots here, including Pompeo's skillful performance and the surprisingly touching relationship between Meredith and her mother, a renowned surgeon. But to be worthy of study, Grey's Anatomy needs more of a brain.

The series is unmatched as a portrait of the entertainment industry. [8 Aug 2011, p.39]

Their interaction is friendly, if mildly teasing, professional and catfight-free. This allows the show to have the relaxing, unchallenging pleasures of good fluff even when the premiere is actually going a bit heavy on the gore.

The only disappointment is the werewolf makeup, minimal enough that Posey could still blend in at the mall. [13 Jun 2011, p.48]

The show's tone of enigmatic menace is overcooked. [25 Jun 2007, p.41]

It's all so much fun, in fact, that I propose Dancing viewing parties: Break out the wine and crackers and let ABC provide the delicious, calorie-free cheese.

Meyers is talented and interesting enough that I shouldn't be watching his premiere and wishing that Stefon had shown up instead of Joe Biden.... The monologue was nothing much. Meyers at least seemed instantly comfortable, at home, once he finished a string of so-so punchlines and sat down behind the desk.

Alternating—or rather, wavering—between frightening and funny, the show has yet to establish a clear identity beyond its-status as a post-teenage teammate of The WB's popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Fortunately CSI: NY has something in common with its predecessors besides a taste for the distasteful: a solid lead performance.

The show runs on the same alternating current of pathos and comedy as L.A. Law, but the drama is more ponderous and the humor a good deal more forced.

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

If the musical element seems this strained in the pilot, when the vastly talented Randy Newman is the composer of all of the songs, one dreads to think how bad it will be after the show has settled in for a few weeks and is struggling for viable melodies.

At its best, Sirens has some of the emotional and comedic recklessness and shock of his FX comedy about firefighters, Rescue Me. Sirens needs to howl a little more. [10 Mar 2014]

It's an affable show, but at an hour long, it starts to feel like a slow dance that won't end. [12 Nov 2012, p.46]

Bell is key, so plainly direct and unstudied that we see the past through his eyes. [14 Apr 2014, p.50]

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

West Wing politico Bradley Whitford reinvents himself for this entertaining free-for-all, a loose blend of buddy comedy and police action that's also an affectionate nod to series like Starsky & Hutch.

This adaptation of the hit 1989 movie is emotionally ample, as any decent family drama should be, but the premiere feels like a dowdier cousin of shows already out there.

The fun comes in watching the uncynical Adams learn to undercut everyone else's cunning. [27 Jun 2011, p.46]

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.

Mad Love [is] a relationship sitcom with real chemistry. [21 Feb 2011, p.41]

This is essentially a dialogue between baffled attorney and baffling client, which makes for an arid 95 minutes. [1 Apr 2013]

Woods is every bit as entertaining as he strives to be. [25 Sep 2006, p.43]

Hennessy has the feistiness the lead role requires, and Miguel Ferrer bears watching as her tense, neurotic supervisor. Too bad the first couple of cases were too easily cracked.

It has some good jokes, but this overly familiar spoof lacks the strength to push the envelope. [2 Sep 2013]

The gutted-out city is perhaps the show's most compelling character. [26 Aug 2013, p.38]