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

The show is light, viewer-friendly entertainment, but without the conceptual novelty that gives USA dramas their oomph. [20 Jun 2011, p.48]

[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]

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

This is all well done, and it's a great-looking production, but the weight of the drama keeps tugging toward a side plot about Braugher's 14-year-old stepdaughter. [10 Apr 2006, p.35]

For now, Sunshine is a bit busy and unfocused. [28 Feb 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 a well-made hour of generic moments. [15 Apr 2013, p.44]

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

Soul Food is inconsistent, but it whets the appetite.

The premiere episode of Madam Secretary, for the time being, suggests that the show is very much the little sister [to The Good Wife].... But Madam Secretary, in which Téa Leoni plays the newly appointed secretary of state, deserves to hang around long enough to formulate and declare itself.

The show could be compelling, especially if the cast pulls off two decades' worth of aging. [12 Sep 2005, p.46]

It's a promising setup, but Deception doesn't allow us the dirty pleasure of enjoying the awful Bowers. [14 Jan 2013, p.56]

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

Scott's performance is totally believable, but that doesn't mean you want to ride shotgun with him in such a tired vehicle. [19 Jun 2006, p.37]

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]

Too bad the show can't resist taking itself seriously as a "social experiment."

This new hour-long comedy is a bustling, rather scattered affair. [15 Jul 2013]

Sedgwick embraces the character's quirks, including a weakness for sugary snacks, while conveying her keen intelligence.

It's like watching someone try to flirt while stuck in a revolving door. But Gummer has a whirring charm that never settles for mere adorkability. [22 Oct 2012m p.42]

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.

The show isn't all that different from Bravo's recent Real Housewives of Orange County, although the production values are much higher--everything has an expensive, carefully lit feminine gloss that perfectly matches the homemakers. [19 Jun 2006, p.37]

It feels so close to actual American life that it lacks the gut excitement that would take it over the line into true entertainment. [9 Oct 2006, p.41]

The show is likable, in a channel-surfing way: So-So Rosie. [31 Oct 2011, p.36]

This is less interesting than I'd hoped. [8 Jul 2013, p.36]

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]

[Viewers] may get a kick out of the mix of adrenaline and murk. [26 Jun 2006, p.41]

It's an enjoyable enough whodunit. The problem is McCormack. [23 Jul 2012, p.38]