The show's saving grace is that as the weeks go by, the characters begin to grow on you. That has more to do with the actors' animation than it does with the rimshot writing.

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]

Unlike Monk, a gently comic character coping with mental illness, Roday's just an overgrown kid. [10 Jul 2006, p.39]

For a scary movie, this is incredibly banal. In fact, the events surrounding fateful Flight 29 are a crashing bore.

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

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

There isn't much of a story, though. The best thing is the terrific song in the opening credits: Aloe Blacc's "I Need a Dollar." It has the sort of itchy desperation that should have driven the whole show.

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

The series' grim tone and overall look of a grimy world in perpetual need of dusting or wiping is a long way from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and closer to Japanese movies like The Grudge. [12 Sep 2005, p.45]

Gellar commands every scene. Hers is a true, potent star turn. [12 Sep 2011, p.43]

I kept wishing for a rose ceremony to perk things up. [8 May 2006, p.39]

Williams's humming energy is charming (and more softly winsome than it used to be.) The challenge is to surround him with actors with enough skill to play off or with him. Gellar, as his daughter, doesn't quite pull it off. Hamish Linklater, as an art director, does. [4 Nov 2013]

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.

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

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

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.

The drama is sci-fi lite, rendered with gee-whiz energy and a sense of levity. And it's frivolous and under-imagined.

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]

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 fun sport. [30 Jan 2012, p.44]

The show is vaguely mystical, implausible and sappy, but if you're in the right mood it's very moving. [5 May 2014, p.46]

Diaries is lukewarm and earnest. [21 Jan 2013]

The Comeback is funny, especially when it skewers the tasteless and false in reality TV.

True Blood is neglecting the potent subtext of vampire myth--forbidden sex and romance--in favor of political allegory. [24 Jun 2013, p.39]

Red Band Society, which could turn out to be one of the best new shows of the fall, is like that, constantly catching you unexpectedly.

The premise might make sense if Stults had a Rain Man intensity. Instead he's laid back and scruffy. [6 Feb 2012, p.40]

In its zeal to avoid Johnny Depp-style silliness, any sense of pirate fun is lost at sea. [3 Feb 2014, p.44]

At least Endings has something fresh at it's core....Even better, the well-cast ensemble includes Casey Wilson. [25 Apr 2011, p.44]