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

I like how the show shifts from sitcom laughs to soap opera tremors. [21 Feb 2011, p.45]

[Forest Whitaker as Sam Cooper is] an arresting, oblique performance, and it works well amid all the procedural muck. [21 Feb 2011, p.42]

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

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]

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]

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]

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

As police superintendent Teresa Colvin, Jennifer Beals gives a revelatory, no-nonsense performance that should make Tom Selleck's mustache bristle with envy....This should be lots of fun. [7 Feb 2011, p.39]

It's well cast but conceptually unadventurous. [31 Jan 2011, p.39]

Parks, in a sense, is Li'l Sebastian: shaggy, small-boned, charming and lovably stupid. [31 Jan 2011, p.39]

What keeps it from being exploitative--just--is the sense that these kids know such dangerous exhilaration won't, can't, lead to the happiness they're looking for. [31 Jan 2011, p.40]

Beneath the grit, this is a tale of chivalry. [31 Jan 2011, p.40]

This enjoyable series from the Grey's Anatomy team is sort of Doctors Without Borders--who are also without too many clothes. [24 Jan 2011, p.41]

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

Every time he flaps into view in his baggy hoodedness, he looks like Batman in need of a tailor. [17 Jan 2011, p.40]

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

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

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.

Regina King heads the solid ensemble. these folks are dutiful, proud and bonetired. [10 Jan 2011, p.40]

The show has a very sure grip on how these minor events, accompanied by small satisfactions, play out in a household of two middle-aged parents, two teenage kids and one inscrutable 9-year-old. [13 Dec 2010, p.46]

The show is cornball, but I'm willing to grant him this small, soft lob toward career rehab.

In its second season, Patricia Heaton's family sitcom seems to have found its natural resting point.

Eight Seasons in, this sitcom about a sex-crazed party animal Charlie Harper and his nerdy brother Alan is still a big hit. [13 Dec 2010, p.45]

[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]

ABC's reality powerhouse has just launched its 11th season untweaked and to great ratings.[11 OCT 2010, p.37]

This remains far and away the best prime-time sitcom: crisp and farcical, but very kind. [25 Oct 2010, p.37]

Gabriel Byrne plays the part flawlessly, and he's up against tow especially rewarding talents. [1 Nov 2010, p.42]

The high school musical comedy occasionally flies off the rails. But maybe that's to be expected from this aggressively inventive pop fantasy. [1 Nov 2010, p.41]

What we have is a light, fast show about friends and couples who hang together, banter together and drink together. [8 Nov 2010, p.40]

Defenders at least has a sure grip on its tone. [8 Nov 2010, p.40]

Gilbert seems like the one you'd most like the one you'd like to have in your actual mom's group. The others, not so much. [15 Nov 2010, 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 acting is what keeps the show addictive--particularly good is Julia Stiles. [29 Nov 2010, p.44]

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]

Now in season 7, the onetime groundbreaker has become merely sweet and amiable. It crumbles like a soft-baked cookie. [6 Nov 2010, p.49]

Awesomely clever, it's the Inception of sitcoms. In season 2 the show has preserved its core concept of friendships in a community-college study group while piling on daringly odd jobs. [6 Dec 2010, p.49]

Now in its seventh season, ABC's classic prime-time soap opera remains slickly watchable, but the momentum is seeping out. [29 Nov 2010, p.44]

She's at her best mapping out the messy web of relationships that come with being the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and the late Eddie Fisher. [20 Dec 2010, p.44]

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]

Migrations' animals provide a humbling lesson in resilience and determination. [15 Nov 2010, p.44]

Some of it's funny, but revelatory? Not too. [6 Dec 2010, p.52]

Shake It Up doesn't shake up the kid-com formula one bit, but it's something more than the usual shiny-sparkly cuteness. [20 Dec 2010, p.44]

It's very entertaining in its low-key, waist-widening ways. [20 Dec 2010, p.44]

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

A zombie-apocalypse fantasy set in Atlanta, this is the scariest series U've ever seen. [8 Nov 2010, p.39]

The interplay of the sexes has been used to better effect on other action vehicles--including FX's animated Archer--but the actresses lighten the tone, adding zip to a show that thrives on speed. [29 Nov 2010. p.42]

The series goes overboard on cutesy domestic details but as a Bret Bulletin, it should gratify and reassure his fans. [1 Nov 2010, p.42]

Therapist Paul Weston a human-shaped cloud who grumbles with the low thunder of the maladjusted, has drifted back for a gripping new season of HBO's In Treatment. Gabriel Byrne plays the part flawlessly, and he's up against two especially rewarding talents. [1 Nov 2010, p.42]

In its second season, the high school musical comedy occasionally flies off the rails...But maybe that's to be expected from this aggressively inventive pop fantasy, where mundane details like homework never matter. [1 Nov 2010, p.41]

Bloods isn't groundbreaking, but there are hints of a deeper scandal woven into the solid plot. Worth checking out. [25 Oct 2010, p.39]

Modern Family flows along as seamlessly perfect as it did last year. [25 Oct 2010, p.37]

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

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]

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

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]

The cast plays out the adjustment with the right touch of pleased humor. [4 Oct 2010, p.37]

The wives are overwhelmed by the prospect of an addition, but this group ]is as comfortable with the camera as the early-era Gosselins. [4 Oct 2010, p.38]

Outsourced really needs to move beyond this sort of broad stupidity because its cast, notably Sacha Dhawan, is actually quite good. [27 Sep 2010, p.56]

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]

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]

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]

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

Fall's best new sitcom has the manic zip of Malcolm in the Middle and the diabolical humor of raising Arizona. [27 Sep 2010, p.55]

I just wish he'd [Will Arnett] run away from this dead horse of a sitcom. [11 Oct 2010, p.38]

O'Loughlin's an impressively taciturn, tense presence" You get the sense that McGarrett could go to a luau and still experience it as a hurt locker. As McGarrett's sidekick Danno, Scott Caan is the opposite: all quick, bantam energy. He steals scenes as coolly as surfers catch waves. [27 Sep 2010, p.53]

I look forward to The Payoff. [27 Sep 2010, p.54]

This is Dallas with out all the barbecue sauce, a soap about dynastic Texans that feels closer to Friday Night Lights in its understated leanness. [27 Sep 2010, p.54]

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

The show is gorgeously produced and spectacularly violent but its success depends chiefly on Buscemi....A brilliant, brutally funny performance. [20 Sep 2010, p.51]

Smits is breezily bold, but the show feels fussy--flushed out with "interesting" details and characters. [20 Sep 2010l p.54]

The show promises to be sexy fun. [6 Sep 2010, p.47]

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

Here's one of the most offbeat new shows of the new season. Also one of the best. [13 Sep 2010, p.48]

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]

Despite the backstory, the humor is conventionally jolly. [30 Aug 2010, p.38]

The show is cluttered with cutesy sidekicks, including Gabourey Sidibe as a student and John Benjamin Hickey as Cathy's homeless brother. But Linney's a big deal. [30 Aug 2010, p.37]

Season 6 staggers from incident to incident as Nancy and family run from their enemies--and the authorities. [13 Sep 2010, p.50]

This is competent reality fare, but coming after the besotted Ali and Roberto, it's like tying cans of nitroglycerin to a honeymooner's car. [23 Aug 2010, p.35]

Sorry, this one doesn't cick. [9 Aug 2010, p.35]

Challenging but engrossing.

This makeover series isn't breaking any new ground: A wallflower, repotted and pruned, blooms overnight into an assured woman willing to tackle her dream date. The real asset here is its charming British host, style adviser Louise Roe.

The inspiration can be heavy-handed, but how can you not feel for the couple?

Season 4 launches with an episode focused on TV's most mysterious ad executive-and since Jon Hamm's watchful yet charismatic performance makes the show tick, that's excellent.

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

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

There's no real awe or fear-just a relatively safe Haven. So, no go.

This is a carefully assembled, emotionally attuned drama about obese teens stuck in a summer weight-loss camp.

The premiere feels sort of like "The Closer" but doesn't clinch the deal. I'm just not sure what to make of Jason Lee without his Jason Lee-ishness. But there's a crackle of eccentric touches, including an abundance of Elvis impersonators and the charmingly off-kilter Celia Weston as his mother.

Whether the show can figure out what to do with Madsen's semi-reformed brood is the challenge. Right now the show feels less like FX's recent, underrated The Riches than Brothers & Sisters set among the criminal element.

At a full, commercial-free hour, this can all start to drag a bit. But L.A. is strongly evoked as a casually sensual backdrop and-thank you!-that awful L Word theme music is gone.

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.

Chef remains the model for cook-off competitions, balancing casual insight into culinary art with psychological snapshots of the aspiring chefs. This recipe can't be improved on.

Eclipsing even last summer's BBQ bacchanal involving an ancient spirit, the new season feels like one big undead sex party-a kinky alternate lifestyle where vampires and monsters do the nasty (and other violent acts) in roadhouses, backrooms, backwoods and the occasional antebellum mansion.

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