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.