This season the writers have failed to get the most out of some promising situations.

It's just a tad less fabulous than before.

Grows more opaque, tangled and macabre as it goes along.

This hour-long show puts the city's locations to stylish use, and the first episode careens along with slam-bang action, but the whole concept feels-closer to slapdash.

If Carvey were actually funny and not just dead-on, I guess this would be brilliant.

Bland.

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.

Fox... retains his wonderful timing and delivery. ... But the political satire that makes up the rest of the show is toothless, corny, passé.

Home Movies meanders, but patient viewers will be amused.

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

Basically MAD TV has everything SNL has—the virtues and the defects.

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

Spade... can deliver an insult with such grace and precision it's like watching Fred Astaire dance with a prop

Though it seems a product of calculation more than inspiration, Roswell has appeal.

The new series, though well-acted, may be overcrowded with characters.

We can always count on a major-league effort from the key player, Robert Wuhl, who somehow makes us root for his character, the smoke-blowing, ego-stroking sports agent Arliss Michaels. But the show as a whole lacks the consistency of a championship series.

The two-hour premiere is sort of fun, but the plot is nutty even by sci-fi standards.

Still hit-and-miss in quality.

They should have spent less of that budget on computer graphics, scale models and sets—and more on the writing. This is drab melodrama.

The premiere episode is pitiless—more pitiless than funny, actually—as it introduces the soap-within-the-sitcom's vain, stupid, ruthless young stars.

A droll Petersen and dependable Marg Helgenberger head the competent cast, and the opener is offbeat enough to stimulate curiosity. But please don't overdo the camera tricks.

Bravura performance, but Braugher needs support—stat!

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.

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.

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

This septet just has more highly evolved communication skills. They have a problem? They sit down and talk about it. BOR-ING!!! Or maybe the novelty has just worn off this experiment.

It's part underwear ad, part catfight, part Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and part psycho ward. So far it's also pretty stiff and strident, particularly in regard to the acting.

A newsmagazine with a hip attitude is basically a good idea. A newsmagazine with a flip approach is not.

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 emergency sequences are pure adrenaline rush, but the drama, romance and humor ladled into the lull periods are pretty hackneyed.

It's diverting, if you can follow it.

The writing undercuts a talented cast. ... Still, this is a decent kind of sitcom.

Whose Line overworks a limited number of ideas (enough with those takeoffs on The Dating Game), and the quality slips when Carey joins in the improv fun at the end of each show.

It's dark, big-top sadism, and we wait for a story to emerge. [5 Nov 2012, p.41]

This new, fourth season isn't bad but it's a very different beast from the original, and it's not nearly as funny.

As the season goes on, the narrative grip will (one hopes) tighten and grow as richly decadent as the surrounding production--or Eva Green. [26 May 2014, p.39]

You go on the lam, and you find Laguna Beach. [2 Oct 2006, p.45]

It's [Bobi Kristins's] aunt Pat Houston who gives the show--and, one hopes, Bobbi Kristina--some backbone. [5 Nov 2012, p.43]

This doesn't have as distinctive a style as The WB's Supernatural--that's more like a jeans ad for the undead--but Kolchak three decades on still knows how to move. [24 Oct 2005, p.41]

Jack has an excellent cast.... Maybe the writing will catch up with them. [31 Mar 2014]

This is always a diverting junk, but if these women actually become preoccupied with preserving their dignity, the jig is up. [30 Apr 2012, p.36]

It's more shoofly than pie, but amusing. [17 Dec 2012, p.39]

Visually, it makes for odd television. Odder still is that the coaches compete too....The good news? The caliber of voices is high--better than American Idol. [16 May 2011, p.43]

The show, despite good stunt work, is clunkily overfamiliar. [1 Feb 2010, p.37]

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]

Piers Morgan's first nights filling Larry King's suspenders weren't great....He's better--thorough, thoughtful--with serious figures like Rudolph Giuliani. [14 Feb 2010, p.40]

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

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]

This family sitcom, adapted from Ice Cube's hit 2005 movie, is a modestly conceived, somewhat blandly executed story about a stepdad (Terry Crews from Everybody Hates Chris), his new wife (Essence Atkins) and her two kids. [7 Jun 2010, p.50]

Dialogue like this is an encouraging sign that the people who make The O.C. don't take it much more seriously than I do.

The show has a sheen that's distinctive from Law [& Order]--young, exfoliated skin reflects light better from waxed court floors--and promises to be more fun than In Justice. [6 Mar 2006, p.41]

The cast would do well to have more fun, but the layered storytelling has it charms. [31 Oct 2011, p.35]

Season 2 of MTV's instant trash classic moves the Situation, Snooki and Co. down to Miami Beach for a little change of scenery and no apparent change in attitude. Actually, the scenery hasn't really changed, either.

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

The end product should be called Hellkittens--not bad, but its tiny claws neither grip nor rip. [13 Sep 2010, p.47]

Though Allison is potentially worth watching as both a medium and a mother of three, someone needs to conjure up a stronger supporting cast if this show is to hold our interest.

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]

Though Krumholtz captures Charlie's combination of genius and immaturity, Morrow's straight-arrow role sorely needs a few dabs of color.

The trivia segments aren't very interesting, but I laughed at every screaming, shrieking exit. [18 Jul 2011, p.38]

Everybody here has a festering grudge or a haunting memory, and you wish they could simply sit down someplace and talk things over.

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]

Fun enough, but the nastiness could be applied more heavily.

It's slick, stylish and oh-so-sexy, but plausibility is a comparatively low priority for this second-year series about a circle of L.A. lesbians.

In all, black-ish is Everybody Hates Chris meets Modern Family, but not quite as funny as either. Well, not yet, at least.

Everyone works so hard--including Arnett, even if he never lets you see him sweat--that this comes very close to succeeding. [21 Oct 2013, p.48]

As in season 1, the acting is rich and lusty, with no costume-drama fustiness. [15 Jan 2007, p.33]

[Perry] effortlessly brings out King's sorrow and even rage--[but] it loses something when thrown in with Go On's overly broad comedy. [13 Aug 3012, p.41]

A sitcom that veers uncomfortably between charmingly cute and cloyingly sarcastic. [1 Oct 2012, p.38]

It's a light, clever performance. But Episodes never convinces us this is really Hollywood. [17 Jan 2011, p.40]

[Believing Rachel Zoe is extremely deadpan] makes her company more enjoyable as she goes about her business--developing the label, hiring staff--without much more outward joy than Christopher Walken. [12 Sep 2011, p.47]

It's pleasant enough--and thankfully it's not zany. The problem is that Danson's crisis is believable midlife comedy, while the patients' neuroses are closer to stock. [9 Oct 2006, p.41]

Copper lacks the brains or kick to lift it above being a period piece. [10 Sep 2012, p.41]

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

This show dilutes Paul Fisher's personality. [23 Jan 2012, p.42]

The show itself is standard construction, a framework of planks that will need more work. [6 May 2013, p.48]

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

The writing could use some gloss--it's Will & Grace with no grace--but Drescher still knows how to deploy her honking rasp and Higgins has exceptional comic skills. [2 Apr 2012, p.38]

This is just a nice, basic reality project. [2 Apr 2012, p.40]

A gauzy, pretty documentary. [18 Feb 2013, p.43]

The show is technically flawless--so is Macy strutting like a mangy Mick Jagger--but the Gallaghers' raucous, defiant pride never really engages me. [20 Feb 2012, p.46]

By and large, they all seem to know exactly how to play to the camera and signal they're in on this nonsense. That gives Princesses a thin but distinct edge. [10 Jun 2013, p.48]

This portrait of Prince William's courtship of Kate Middleton is better than April's plucky Lifetime movie. [29 Aug 2011, p.36]

For now, apart from the Underwoods, it's underwhelming. [17 Feb 2014, p.43]

The ensemble remains perfect, but the show's matter-of-fact crispness has been dulled. [22 Apr 2013, p.46]

The one thing lacking is writing that goes beyond fondness into truly funny. [17 Feb 2014, p.45]

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

We waste a lot of time on her gigs--not unusual for this kind of show, but we've seen it time after time. [14 Jan 2013, p.52]

An entertaining big-narrative concept. [5 Sep 2005, p.41]

This sitcom has the high-tech antics of Chuck and the misfit camaraderie of Community-not bad, but no breakthrough. [2 May 2011, p.38]

The Most natural thing here is Palin's effortless command of the camera. In That Regard, the show is fascinating. [22 Nov 2010, p.38]

[The mentor-judges are] so blandly polite they may as well be ordering skinny lattes at Starbucks. [18 Jun 2012, p.40]

The show is light, viewer-friendly entertainment, but without the conceptual novelty that gives USA dramas their oomph. [20 Jun 2011, p.48]

[Now in season 2]Courtney Cox's sitcom...is a light, fast show about friends and couples who hang together, banter together and drink together. [8 Nov 2010, p.40]

The endless sex jokes, most of them uttered expertly by deadpan Dennings to bubbly Behrs, are a pain. [12 Nov 2012, p.45]

This is all well done, and it's a great-looking production, but the weight of the drama keeps tugging toward a side plot about Braugher's 14-year-old stepdaughter. [10 Apr 2006, p.35]

For now, Sunshine is a bit busy and unfocused. [28 Feb 2011, p.43]

As Merlin, Joseph Fiennes is more like a trainer-dietitian than mentor, but he's lively. Eva Green, as Morgan, is coldly beautiful and magnificent in Camelot couture. She's enchanting. But I don't see Jamie Campbell Bower's Arthur having the resolve of a king. [28 Mar 2011, p.54]

It's a well-made hour of generic moments. [15 Apr 2013, p.44]