Lee may lack the essential sweetness, or pathos, to make Earl ever seem like more than a cute variation on those lovable, loquacious losers who tumble, beer can spurting, through Coen brothers movies. [3 Oct 2005, p.39]

It's more like Seinfeld reconceived for the slacker sensibility of a director like Kevin Smith or Richard Linklater. And that's what's wrong with the show: It's hard to shake the feeling that it's just someone's project.

Kathy isn't a vehicle. It's a parking space. [21 May 2012, p.38]

The show's a letdown, especially since it comes with one of the most lovingly assembled casts of any series. [9 Oct 2006, p.41]

It's like watching The Hills with all the shallow fun, glamor and Lauren Conrad edited out. [25 Jun 2012, p.47]

Clive Owen teams with Nicole Kidman for a long, lopsided slog through the life of Ernest Hemingway and war journalist Martha Gellhorn. [4 Jun 2012, p.42]

The show's tone of enigmatic menace is overcooked. [25 Jun 2007, p.41]

Murray is more interesting here than in last season's laughable The Lone Ranger, but the writing... is junior-varsity stuff.

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

Thandie Newton is intimidatingly fierce.... The problem is everyone else. [8 Apr 2013, p.45]

It wouldn't be a crime if the contestants were consciously showing their dramatic side, but there ought to be a law against some tricks of the reality trade.

The show wants to mix in big themes (politics, money) with a family soap opera, but it just feels bloated and vague. [25 Sep 2006, p.43]

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

They all work hard at being catty, as reality format demands, but the snideness is forced. [3 Sep 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]

Cox... doesn't have the right vulgar relish to hold the show together. [8 Jan 2007, p.35]

Outsourced really needs to move beyond this sort of broad stupidity because its cast, notably Sacha Dhawan, is actually quite good. [27 Sep 2010, p.56]

Now, ma'am, no need to bolt like a horse-unless you're scared of cliches. You aren't, are you?

Allen and Travis, who are both better than you r average comic actor, seem aware that they're trapped in a particular cookie-cutter sitcom hell, forced to laugh their way through stale gags about kids while other new TV comedies explore family life with clever, contemporary touches. [17 Oct 2011, p.39]

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]

It's Jersey Shore toned up as an Abercrombie & Fitch campaign. [12 Aug 2013]

This go-round, a tired-looking Bobby Brown struggles to act like he's there for anything other than the paycheck, and Britney Spears' ex Kevin Federline (who appears alongside his ex Shar Jackson) comes off like a man defeated. Bummer, dude.

The show can be wonderfully mean... but it's too spotty. [24 Oct 2005, p.41]

The acting in the kickoff episode is awfully anemic, and that's no lie. [24 Jul 2006, p.33]

The show is rather complicated—and simply uninteresting.

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.

Here Comes Honey Boo Boo Child is one miserable half-hour. [27 Aug 2012, p.44]

Battle doesn't have much to offer that's original. [5 Sep 2011, p.44]