The "nuttiness" is contrived, but Johnny Argent, Roseanne's boyfriend of eight years, is amusingly droll. [1 Aug 2011, p.41]

It has some good jokes, but this overly familiar spoof lacks the strength to push the envelope. [2 Sep 2013]

It's well cast but conceptually unadventurous. [31 Jan 2011, p.39]

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

Comes off as edgy and derivative at the same time.

If anything, it moves so tentatively through the baffling investigation and trial that Hayden Panettiere seems to play a dozen Amandas: cheerful, furtive, erratic--and at times literally clueless. [28 Feb 2011, p.40]

It's a temperature-controlled How I Met Your Mother. [27 Sep 2010, p.56]

Speaking of Probst, please send this plastic man back to Rock & Roll Jeopardy! Only James Earl Jones himself could intone "The tribe has spoken" without provoking giggles.

The March 4 pilot of this X-Files spinoff is what you'd call a comedy-drama, with a pratfall and some jokey dialogue balanced by the threat of catastrophe and sober talk of lost ideals. But the show turns into a clumsy comedy-comedy on March 11.

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

It is nice but overly familiar in its reliance on pop-culture signposts and snuggly sentimentality. [30 Sep 2013, p.53]

If the musical element seems this strained in the pilot, when the vastly talented Randy Newman is the composer of all of the songs, one dreads to think how bad it will be after the show has settled in for a few weeks and is struggling for viable melodies.

Innocently goofy. [30 Apr 2007, p.37]

Not a bad concept, but the casting is out of whack. [21 Mar 2011, p.46]

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

The cast has an ordinariness that's a little too believable. [16 Apr 2007, p.43]

The scale is wrong. This is an overelaborate piffle, a crate-size bon-bon. The best thinge is Papa.

The show is overworked and overthought. [25 Mar 2013, p.43]

So far, it's of interest only for watching Lithgow--who likes to shout his lines with quivering urgency, as if he'd just seen a UFO--as he goes over the top to get a laugh. [16 Oct 2006, p.39]

Feels like a retread.

Her mind has repressed the clues [to her sister's murder]. Clever paradox, but as a result the show is an unsatisfying mix of razor-sharp thinking and befogged gloom. [10 Oct 2011, p.44]

The series makes a weak slab at the Hill Street Blues mix of humor and pathos. But Chiklis is a marvel of believability, vividly creating a character who is disarming, droll, clever and compassionate.

The redeeming feature here is [Sallly] Wheeler, who makes her free-spirited character genuinely appealing.

Belushi's gusto is all this show has going for it.

To make new fans, show more enterprise.

If this weak, artificial and strained sitcom tickles your funny bone, you might be a redneck.

Kanakaredes is appealing, but the series is too fond of flaunting its eccentricity (Mom inhabits Syd's dreams), too short on authentic Providence atmosphere (despite some location filming) and too eager to remind us that the title also refers to God's will.