The premiere hour is abysmal, and the women's cluelessness is profound.[2 Jun 2014, p.49]

Is there anything here that Bruce Springsteen hasn't already sung about? [19 Mar 2007, p.39]

Something like Entourage without the manic, kick-start fury of Ari Gold. [2 Apr 2007, p.37]

Like the world cares. [6 Jun 2011, p.46]

Apart from the fact that the gags aren't funny... it's off-putting to see something sacred being mucked around with. [30 Apr 2007, p.37]

It's a hair-sprayed cobweb. And not funny. [9 Jan 2012, p.40]

The pilot has come under fire for racist jokes, but at Cheap Laffs there's not enough of a creative sensibility for that to matter. [23 Sep 2013]

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

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

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]

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]

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]

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

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]

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]

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

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

The show, now in cycle 16, moves with a brisker confidence, and that's better. [28 Feb 2011, p.43]

Her own unhappy childhood haunts her, giving the mommy thread a weird poignancy. [7 Mar 2011, p.38]

Both shows [NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles] have an old-fashioned but relaxing simplicity, with an upbeat emphasis on the value of being a team. It's family entertainment. [21 Mar 2011, p.43]

It's the usual stupid fun. [11 Apr 2011, p.47]

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

The 90-minute premiere sets up what could be a very good--by which I mean crassly turbulent--season 3. [23 May 2011, p.41]

If you look past them, at their star projects and their own homes and offices, you can see that their tastes are impeccable and inarguable. [13 Jun 2011, p.46]

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

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

This is a happy carnival of singers, Magicians, dancers and --this season-0- what appear to be gnomes. On the judges' panel, Howie Mandel has turned out to be a improvement over the thumpingly earnest David Hasselhoff. [25 Jul 2011, p.39]

Without Bentley;s cruel cunning, the rest of the show has played out predictably. [1 Aug 2011, p.39]

Jake & Vienna's sense of self-importance in this crowd is ludicrous yet also fascinating. They make Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt look earnest. [15 Aug 2011, p.34]

Stranger isn't nice--not with the mortar shells she routinely fires from her mouth--but she's one of reality TV's most vivid characters. [29 Aug 2011, p.36]

The challenges are ludicrous, but the results can be dazzling. [5 Sep 2011, p.44]

Battle doesn't have much to offer that's original. [5 Sep 2011, p.44]

Big Sexy could have used less glamour and more Mike & Molly star Melissa McCarthy's salt-of-the-earth power. [Sep 2011, p.46]

[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]

In such grossness is greatness. [19 Sep 2011, p.65]

This is a well-constructed, old-school sex farce. [15 Nov 2011, p.43]

James Spader, as the cryptic new CEO, is better. Everything he says sounds like a parable intended for stupid children. That's how to manage Dunder Mifflin. [15 Nov 2011, p.43]

This is close to sitcom, but the show's skeleton is strong enough to bear it. [28 Nov 2011, p.62]

In it's second season, Endings has clicked as one of prime-time's most sophisticated ensemble comedies. [28 Nov 2011, p.58]

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]

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

This feels like an assembly line for the soul. [6 Feb 2012, p.40]

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]

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]

Kathy isn't a vehicle. It's a parking space. [21 May 2012, p.38]

[The new women are] all promising, if too polite, to take on Ramona....Luckily, previews indicate they all end the season quaking and screaming. [11 Jun 2012, p. 44]

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

Bachelor Pad ups the ante this season with a cheesy gimmick that turns out to be ingenious. [6 Aug 2012, p.37]

The show's dependable high point finds him banishing everyone from the cooking area and screaming so many bleeped words that it;s hard to track a whole sentence. [27 Sep 2012, p.43]

On Masterchef, he's more considerate.... The true terror is fellow judge Joe Bastianich. [27 Aug 2012, p.43]

They all work hard at being catty, as reality format demands, but the snideness is forced. [3 Sep 2012, p.40]

Cosmetically frozen and emotionally infantile. [17 Sep 2012, p.40]

The show consists mostly of cheap re-creations of cases in which a marriage is undone by infidelity--and murder. [10 Sep 2012, p.40]

The sitcom banter is actually delectable: zingy and absurd. [8 Oct 2012, p.57]

Revenge's second season recaptured its melodramatic mojo after a muddled month. [12 Nov 2012, p.39]

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

It's still a great cast, but there's a whiff of baffled frustration. [26 Nov 2012, p.44]

It's lighter, smaller--West Condo!--but still a pleasure. [17 Dec 2012, p.37]

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]

If sparks (and ratings) weren't flying, what matters most id Delany's satisfyingly forthright portrayal of a woman who trusts her intellect and instinct. [18 Mar 2013, p.42]

This likable silly series has entertainment value. [8 Apr 2013, p.42]

Imagine Twin Peaks for preteens.

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

An uninvolving melodrama with a large undifferentiated cast.

Contrived? And then some. But it's shot with the kind of So-Flo art deco shine we haven't seen since Miami Vice.

A crackling good British police procedural. ... The British accents and idioms can get dense, but don't let that throw you, you dozy punter.

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.

It's the gleeful goriness that sets the series apart. This is a show with plenty of guts.

Few programs are as genuinely youthful in look and altitude.

What it lacks is wit, depending instead on Lawrence to do shtick. He overacts terribly, hammily mugging for the camera.

The drama is clumsy and over-baked and the plotting implausible. ... Still, an energetic cast and the musical setting combine to make this silly show watchable.

This program is a little more loopy and labored than Bloodworth-Thomason's other shows and has to forage around longer to uncover its punch lines. But the leads are very adept at playing up what humor there is.

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.

When the focus is on the trio's fractious home life, the show is lively enough to overcome its formulaic nature. But Curry also plays a substitute teacher, which means he's often surrounded by precocious little smart alecks.

A capable cast makes this the best of Fox's dopey young adult melodramas.

The crime at the heart of the matter isn't quite as intriguing as the one Mirren faced first time around. But the actress is again superb as a woman tenaciously pursuing a demanding job.

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

The animation is clunky (about on a par with The Pink Panther); the gags are gross and not even remotely funny.

The show has a refreshing sense of humor and whimsy.

The humor is raucous and raunchy.

On balance it's a good, fun show. But it's not a true standout.

It's a traditional, timeless sitcom scheme that would have worked as well in the '50s as it does in the '90s. ... The show's strengths are its uncluttered concept and its cast.

At its best, it's still several strides behind the savage, protean wit of The Simpsons, and the humor sputters when the focus is personal—detailing Sherman's dating woes or his relationship with his son.

The show is a train crash of sight gags, puns, spoofs and mock-existential ponderings. Inventive and daft, this cartoon is just plain ducky.

Mirren is once again marvelous.

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.

Mantis's costume is cool, but the plots and action scenes are lukewarm at best.

Baseball is a monumental achievement, perhaps too monumental for TV. For fans, it is a sumptuous feast. But its 18 1/2-hour length will daunt those without an acute interest in the game.

[Homicide]... continues to be the best drama—-not just cop drama—-on TV.

This is hysterical entertainment for grown-ups.

If only the show had a more energetic atmosphere, its characters wouldn't seem so lost in space.

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

The writing can be clever.

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.

Too bad none of the five participants have much spark, and nothing unique seems to happen to anybody.