The Exes is New Girl fallen off the back of a truck. [19 Dec 2011, p.44]

The supernatural drama lacks in dramatic tension and suffers without the self-aware humor that made the similarly themed American Horror Story: Coven work so well. [28 Apr 2014]

The Real World is an insult to anyone who lives in the real world.

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

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

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

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]

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 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]

It's only fun, though, when the would-be mates turn on each other and the bat guano flies: Romancing the Stone morph into The War of the roses. [25 Jul 2011, p.40]

The show is cleverer than you'd expect. [20 Aug 2012, p.41]

Only Visnjic, immaculately groomed and vaguely continental, seems to understand that this over-the-top story requires not only a constant flame to boil the plot but a flirtatious sense of fun. [11 Mar 2013, p.45]

[It] looks like Sex and the City relocated to Northern Exposure. [18 Sep 2006, p.39]

Mostly it feels like an instructional film about disaster preparedness. [2 Oct 2006, p.45]

Every so often, Alley extracts a solid laugh from an unexceptional joke. [9 Dec 2013, p.45]

A fun, body-flinging, old-fashioned epic.... As Kublai Khan, British actor Benedict Wong gives an impressive performance, one of the best of the year: You absolutely believe his ruthlessness, his power and his calculating thoughtfulness. As Marco Polo, on the other hand, Italian actor Lorenzo Richelmy, who looks like a more lyrical Emile Hirsch, mostly has to be put up with.

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

Brosnan remains totally believable whether he's borderline batty or bravely resilient. [19 Dec 2011, p.44]

This is advertising with a side of bruthah (and muthah)-ly love. [10 Feb 2014, p.50]

The characters are too uneven a group: Some of them you instantly overlook, like the olive in a cocktail. Even so, thus has potential. [3 Mar 2014, p.41]

Chalke and company are all expert comic actors, but the pilot is leapingly frantic, a puppy wanting love. [8 Apr 2013, p.45]

Saddled with stars who neither clash nor click, breaking In appears to be broken. [19 Mar 2012, p.46]

It's like a David Mamet parody of Roseanne. [19 Jun 2006, p.37]

The banter is warm and fast and easy, and the sisters' personality types balance out well. [17 Oct 2005, p.39]

Makes a nice first impression but quickly wears out its welcome.

King’s characters inspire indifference—except for the ones who are actively annoying—so you’re unlikely to care that some of the ghostbusters wind up dead. The author has a cheeky cameo in part 2 as a pizza delivery man, but instead of wasting his time acting he should have thought up a satisfying ending. After six hours of Rose Red, it’s truly scary to contemplate that the story may not be over. Bottom Line: Bring on the wrecking ball.

There are enough positive signs in the two-hour premiere that I'll probably take a look ... when the series moves to its regular time period.

Can you say "ill-conceived"?