Fans of Goldblum will enjoy the half-hour “World According to Jeff Goldblum” because viewers get a concentrated dose of his personality but beyond that interest may vary based on the topic.

If you can see past the Walt Disney hagiography, it’s well made and includes some rarely seen footage and new interviews with ride designers who occasionally take viewers behind the scenes.

The series feels padded and the lack of Kristen Bell’s presence – she does introductions for all the episodes but only appears in a few – is a disappointment.

All the best moments are in that [trailer] preview and everything else is OK but very much a tween show with higher, streaming service-level production values.

“His Dark Materials” benefits from a mesmerizing Lorne Balfe-composed theme song and early on introduces an intriguing element of travel between dimensions but then bogs down as it moves forward to bring all the requisite characters from the book together.

Entertaining at times, “Dickinson” surely has some appeal to certain segments of the audience but it’s tonally all over the place to a distracting degree.

Dull, predictable, scuzzy drama set centuries in the future after everyone on the planet has lost their sight.

“The Morning Show” offers engaging, soapy elements with a layer of resonant, semi-believable corporate politics on top.

“For All Mankind” continues to improve in subsequent episodes, propelled in part by an inspiring theme score by Jeff Russo (“Fargo”).

“Watchmen” is not as fun as HBO’s “Succession” — “Watchmen” is more serious — but HBO’s newest offering proves itself a significant and entertaining series that’s resonant and relevant in our fractured America.

“Living with Yourself” busts through some of the expected guardrails on the story. Other characters do learn that there are two Miles so the story pushes forward without spinning its wheels too much.

“The Politician” is sometimes a fun watch, but tonally it’s all over the place. The premiere offers some genuine emotions while episode two leans much harder into dark comedy.

What makes “Batwoman” stand apart is that Kate is a lesbian, and by the end of the premiere she’s caught up in an unconventional-for-TV love triangle. Beyond that, this superhero show is admittedly more of the same.

The pilot offers fine post-teen drama, but it lacks the nod and wink of lead-in “Riverdale” and so far is more grounded and less insane, a positive or negative depending on one’s love of the crazy.

Consistently funny but also sweet-natured, “Harts” quickly proves itself a blessed addition to Fox’s Sunday animation lineup.

The cutesy new-sisters vibe sits awkwardly next to the dad’s-accused-of-sexual-assault plot.

Consistently funny pilot.

The second new NBC show this fall to give a bit of a “Community” vibe, just not as funny as that pilot was. But the “Sunnyside” study group characters offer promise for bigger laughs to come.

On paper, this show sounds dreadful, but it rises above its premise largely thanks to Goggins.

The age jokes are in the CBS wheelhouse, and some of the gags are occasionally funny, but the whole endeavor seems predictably rote, from the cold, aloof chief resident to the uber-confident intern (Jean-Luc Bilodeau, “Kyle XY”).

There’s an enjoyably spooky “X-Files” vibe and also a little too on-the-nose will-they-or-won’t-they? chemistry between the married Kristin and the presumably celibate David. “Evil” evinces a welcome cheekiness.

Actress Colbie Smulders (“How I Met Your Mother”) elevates this well-made procedural private eye drama.

The concept isn’t overly complicated — no heavy mythology in the pilot — and the cast, including Clancy Brown and Donald Faison, has strong appeal.

Fans of “black-ish” are likely to enjoy this period comedy that gets a boost from Gary Cole (“Veep”) as Bow’s paternal grandfather.

Malcolm cut off communication with his dad 10 years ago but turns to him for consultation on a new case. These scenes are far less entertaining than those with Malcolm’s mother, played by “Scandal” star Bellamy Young, hamming it up. These moments give “Prodigal Son” an occasional “Castle” vibe.

Swissvale native Billy Gardell returns in this new Chuck Lorre sitcom that has a slight premise and few laughs, but newcomer Folake Olowofoyeku as Abishola gives an effortless performance that’s equal parts sweet and tart.

“Bluff City Law” is to legal dramas as last season’s “New Amsterdam” is to medical dramas: emotionally manipulative and meh.

Yeah, there’s a lot of stuff that would never happen in a real courthouse here, but the characters are quite likable, especially Wilson Bethel (“Hart of Dixie”) as an assistant district attorney and Ruthie Ann Miles as Carmichael’s know-it-all judicial assistant.

Filled with clips from the original series, “A Very Brady Renovation” offers nostalgia galore — “The Brady Bunch” celebrates its 50th anniversary on Sept. 26 — but it’s also a surprisingly satisfying home makeover show.

Entertaining. ... Jeselnik still puts on his smug, aging frat boy/jock persona but beneath that façade some of the repartee reveals the host’s serious approach to dark comedy.

While this series also begins with an unwieldy amount of place-setting involving a war that led to the current refugee crisis, “Carnival Row” proves more palatable than “The Dark Crystal.” The Amazon series is easier to follow even as it introduces initially-unconnected characters in multiple social classes. This gives “Carnival Row” plenty of areas to explore. If only it all felt more unique.

The show’s visuals — often achieved through a combination of puppetry and computer-generated effects — can be enchanting, especially in a library location, but the backstory of Thra society requires a lot of unpacking. Telling the puppet characters apart sometimes proves a daunting challenge, and it’s difficult to mount much enthusiasm for the task given the first episode’s plodding pace.

“On Becoming a God…” entertains even as it observes the unfortunate circumstances Krystal finds herself in.

Atmospheric and chilling as ever – generally without being gory beyond clinical crime scene still photos – “Mindhunter” remains one of the current era’s best series. ... Season two widens its lens to give each of the three lead characters more equal footing.

If you’ve been missing “Desperate Housewives,” the new CBS All Access show “Why Women Kill,” debuting Aug. 15, is the series you’ve been waiting to see. But if you were over “Desperate Housewives” before it finished its eight-season run, well, “Why Women Kill” is kind of more of the same.

“David Makes Man” offers haunting themes as serialized drama, some familiar (drug dealing) and other less so, particularly the impact of abuse and trauma, which is shown through David’s dreams, waking reveries and imagination. While the latter is the most challenging aspect of the series, it’s also what makes “David Makes Man” distinct.

Granted, the genre is horror and horrific stuff is expected but so far “Two Sentence Horror Stories” is pretty one note and a discordant note in this #MeToo era.

“BH90210” offers a delicious, entertaining return fans will want to gorge themselves on at least initially.

Has its moments, but the whole story drags, especially in the first half. There’s just not a good enough mystery at the heart of this season to justify eight episodes.

The United Colors of Benetton crew fights among themselves a lot, but viewers get such slight sketches of each character in early episodes, it’s hard to care about many of them. At least the space stuff is more interesting than the homefront melodrama.

With the Chicago setting and local politics at play, “Pearson” sometimes resembles a watered-down version of “The Good Wife”/”The Good Fight.” Fans of “Suits” and Ms. Torres may still want to give “Pearson” a try but no one can blame them if they choose not to stick with this series.

The characters are all the shades of unlikeable – lazy, thieving, selfish, etc. – but surely there’s an audience for this kind of humor, based on past bad boy successes, so it’s fair that the women get a turn. The humor is often not subtle and the dialogue tends toward the unpleasant with some regularity.

The third season, streaming Thursday on Netflix, delivers more forward momentum. ... The eight episodes of “Stranger Things 3” generally hang together well if sometimes predictably, although a few character turns offer genuine surprises.

Ailes’ now-infamous skulduggery may have irrevocably damaged political discourse, but recounting it all makes for a wildly entertaining, occasionally painful, deep dive into the history of Fox News Channel and an excavation of one of the ways the current polarized American political climate came to exist.

It’s all fluffy, sexy, mindless fun, the TV equivalent of a summer beach read.

It’s funny and occasionally freaky as the pilot introduces the characters who form a team that concocts horror scenes, whether at a quinceanera celebration or a will reading.

A funny, fresh comedy half-hour, “Alternatino” offers some welcome laughs amid the drama-heavy diet of summer TV.

“Pose” remains an above-average character-driven cable drama, but it all feels a little more forced this year as the writers attempt to invent new stories for this collection of generally likable, striving LGBTQ characters.

This second season is worth it just for the opportunity to watch Streep have fun. ... “Big Little Lies” still takes time for the gauzy flashbacks as Celeste grapples with assorted emotional responses during sessions with her therapist (Robin Weigert), but the whole enterprise feels peppier, poppier and more entertaining as viewers spend more time with these pretty people with pretty significant problems.

With the passage of time — all the characters look older, some more world-weary than others — there’s an elegiac quality to the tone of the whole piece as we see in the eyes of some characters the contemplation of what might have been and the quiet acceptance in some that their lives are drawing to a close. Knowing that series creator and the film’s writer, David Milch, 74, now suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, makes the whole endeavor feel even more personal and acute.

The new season, written by series creator Neil Cross, has multiple callbacks to season one (the denouement brings things full circle) and fills in the blanks on where Alice has been and on her relationship with Luther, perhaps with too much information at times (allusion and mystery works better for their relationship than flat-out explanation).

Mr. Quinto is creepy from the get-go. As Manx ages backward, he remains disturbing even as he comes to resemble a contemporary Quinto. ... But all that effort does little to make “NOS4A2” compelling television. The stories are disconnected at the outset and Vic’s home life is one-note rote.

American Princess” feels like it wants to be a “My Name is Earl”-style coterie of oddball characters but once it introduces the main cast over the first two episodes it does little with them that’s funny.

Showrunners Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson, veterans of “Under the Dome” and “Smallville,” sprinkle in enough science to balance the crazier elements of “The Hot Zone,” Peak TV’s version of a summer disaster flick.

Six hours may be an hour too many given the repetitive nature of the plot (the required mission count rises, then rises again and again) but star Christopher Abbott makes for a likeable, relatable Yossarian. It’s sometimes difficult to tell the supporting flyers apart but as the episodes unroll their personalities come through a bit more.

OK-not-great Indiana Jones-inspired series that adds terrorists — who blow up a pyramid in the first five minutes of the premiere. Tonally, it’s very similar to ABC’s “Whiskey Cavalier.”

Episodes improve after the pilot with a shift in focus to the characters and their relationships, but the season finale shifts tones again into a gear that seems like blatant begging for a second season.

The 15-minute episodes are an easy binge and the two lead characters — Ryan and work friend Kim (Punam Patel) — are often a hoot even if some of the secondary characters (a witch-on-wheels boss, in particular) and situations undercut the show’s attempts at realism.

Fans of dialogue-heavy, character-driven storytelling will be intrigued, but the redundancy of the setting renders “State of the Union” less bingeable.

At times overly earnest, “The Red Line,” written by Chicago playwrights Caitlin Parrish and Erica Weiss and executive produced by Ava DuVernay (“Selma”) and Greg Berlanti (“The Flash”), is imperfect, but its existence demonstrates broadcasters haven’t completely thrown in the towel on quality drama and for that viewers can be grateful.

Much of the humor is of the predictable, fish out of water variety ... but “Bless This Mess” is at its funniest when it gets weird with characters like Rudy (Ed Begley Jr.), who lives in the couple’s barn, and Jacob (JT Neal), the dim-witted son of the neighbors.

Fosse/Verdon proves to be a darker, more sorrowful meditation on the personal and professional lives of artists, but the eight-episode series benefits from Broadway tunes and re-created dance numbers from the pair’s many successful productions.

There’s not much to cracking “The Code,” which is a paint-by-numbers show if ever there was one.

Ms. Wilson delivers an Emmy-worthy performance that’s equal measures vulnerable and determined as Alison seeks the truth of her husband’s infidelities.

In episode two the tone lightens up a good bit – you can see network notes at work – and more typical CW storylines set in, including a romance with a bearded hunk (Casey Deidrick). This makes “In the Dark” more bearable but less unique.

When “WWDITS” hits a comedy vein, it can be extremely funny. It would be improved if viewers had the opportunity to dine out on the humor of its continuing storylines with greater frequency.

The Fix is not sophisticated drama, but it is smarter-than-average melodrama and Ms. Clark’s involvement adds an opportunity for viewers to play armchair psychologist.

The Act sags a bit near the middle of five episodes made available for review--perhaps fewer episodes would have made for a tighter run--but Ms. Arquette’s nuanced performance remains top-notch, and Ms. King proves a talented newcomer with a bright acting future.

Ms. Bryant is not as zany as she’s called to be on “SNL,” instead giving a down-to-earth performance in a grounded roll that’s sometimes searing in its emotional honesty.

“The Village” is certainly better and more ambitious than “Rise,” but it’s no “This Is Us.” Often, “This Is Us” comes by its emotional moments believably and naturally. For its lack of subtlety, “The Village” would be more aptly titled “All! The! Feels!”

In these new episodes, The Good Fight is at its best when the characters get honest about race within the majority black law firm in ways that feel startlingly real and, frankly, unique for a TV show.

Now Apocalypse is bizarre and will certainly be off-putting to many. For others, surely a smaller audience, there’s some titillating fun to be had in this guilty pleasure’s kinky weirdness.

Fans of CBS crime dramas will probably find “Gone” perfectly acceptable. Viewers who gravitate toward more complex, character-driven cable/streaming dramas will be unimpressed with the plots but may enjoy the local scenery.

Viewers have seen all these elements before, but in “Whiskey Cavalier” they’re deployed in a fun, fast-moving way that the show and the charm of its leads is hard to resist.

It turns out Erica’s betrayal was not diabolical, but the excuse she offers is weak and only proves the whole series is based on a preposterous contrivance.

Fast, frothy and fun, “Flack” only falters when it slows down and tries to get serious about Robyn’s issues – her mentally ill mother committed suicide; Robyn may have some mental health challenges, too – but when it sticks to its soapier agenda, “Flack” moves like a runaway train.

Doom Patrol offers an entertaining, illuminating pilot episode that distinguishes itself by doing a deep dive into the backstories of its characters.

Sure, there are moments of winning courtroom drama — mostly of sub-“The Good Wife” variety — but the show packs in a lot more. Early in Friday’s pilot, that pace works, but, eventually, it bogs down after the show piles one too many bits of ridiculousness on top of the last.

This seven-episode limited series is both cynical (about God as CEO) and full of hope (about the potential for humanity). It’s also consistently clever and funny.

Sure, it takes time to build characters, but “Night” feels super sluggish.

One has to wonder why the true story wasn’t dramatic enough that the memory loss plot got added, because the resulting film is pretty paint-by-numbers dull. If the goal was to goose the drama, “Escaping the Madhouse” falls well short of its intent.

No reservations, just a ringing endorsement for Comedy Central’s The Other Two, a smart half-hour comedy.

The show’s cocaine-fueled energy is undeniable, although some may find it exhausting. In early episodes “Black Monday” seems to be trying to find its footing while rushing headlong into schemes and character development at as loud a volume as possible.

It’s not that great.

At just six one-hour episodes (two airing each Sunday for three weeks), “Valley of the Boom” runs out of gas well before its conclusion and begins to feel padded, especially in its last hour. The series also suffers from tension-free drama as the stories mostly go the way viewers will expect.

[Discovery season premiere] offers a mix of resetting characters and action sequences. But it also embraces Pike’s mandate for a lighter tone thanks largely to the Pike character--a warmer, more likable leader than season one’s cold, aloof Capt. Lorca (Jason Isaacs)--and a new character played by comedy actress Tig Notaro. ... So far, so good, but what any of this signals for the rest of the show’s second season is unknown.

Aggressively unpleasant and unrepentantly nihilistic, Syfy’s Deadly Classis likely to have limited appeal.

Potentially intriguing moments feel entirely manufactured, and the plots in between are paint-by-number plain with sometimes painfully bad dialogue.

Sometimes the aliens-as-immigrants rhetoric is a little too on the nose but as remakes go, this iteration of “Roswell” seems like it will appeal to the current CW audience.

It’s a warm but smart confection in a TV universe overpopulated with series vying to be the darkest, most brooding show possible.

There’s nothing epic about Nightflyers. It’s basically a haunted spaceship story--filled with what has to be a record number of uses of the F-word on basic cable--that does a poor job in its first hour giving viewers reasons to care about the characters before putting them in jeopardy.

Viewers accustomed to Connie Britton playing Teflon-strong characters on “Friday Night Lights” and “Nashville” may take a minute to adjust to her role as a soft-spoken, breathy interior designer who falls for a scam artist in Bravo’s pulpy, addictive “Dirty John.”

A smart, realistic drama with believable characters brought to life by dynamic performances, particularly from Ms. Arquette and co-stars Paul Dano and Bonnie Hunt.

The pace is deliberate in “Homecoming,” but the show is rarely boring thanks to the visuals and an investment in the characters. (After episode eight, when a major reveal happens, “Homecoming” gets a little draggy, but by then invested viewers will carry through to the end.)

The hammy wink Mr. Spacey brought to these breaking-the-fourth-wall moments was fun in the beginning, but they grew tiresome and predictable. At this point, it’s probably better to breathe fresher air into the proceedings, which Ms. Wright does. Claire as the lead offers a different perspective, a worthy way to end a series that launched hundreds of other shows.

The show is at its best when it deals with the ways in which she is torn between two cultures--the mortal world of her high school and the witchy world of her birthright--and when it depicts how Sabrina’s avowed feminism conflicts with aspects of her religion.

To be sure, there are interesting ideas floating around in Heathers but surely too many at once.

Some of the problems that existed on “Roseanne” this past spring are still areas of concern in “The Conners,” most notably the acting by some of the show’s secondary cast members. And there are occasional groaner bits of dialogue. But reliably winning performances from stars John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf and Sara Gilbert continue to carry the series.