The soapy drama turns out to be a bit too much, and if that’s what the creators think is necessary to sustain the show, it might hint at structural flaws that a TV series can’t overcome.

The Originals deserves credit for a mostly clear set-up for newcomers.

Killing Reagan is pretty much the expected, rote bio movie of the assassination attempt on President Reagan by John Hinckley Jr. (Kyle S. More).

You may not come away knowing whether you like it, but you won't be bored.

Dollhouse isn't awful, but neither is it remarkably good. It's a passable hour of entertainment that shows potential to improve but flails and confuses (and occasionally bores) from the start.

The songs, while hummable, aren't all that memorable, but the jokes about surf movies are amusing, although sure to be lost on the film's target audience.

So much about Incorporated is predictable and rote, it's tough to buy into the story or its characters.

To be fair, "Three Wishes" is touching. It is heartwarming to see nice things done for people in need. But it also feels like the show manipulates viewers.

The show is becoming somewhat repetitive and a bit dull to the point that it feels like Downton, already renewed for a fifth season, needs to wrap it up sooner rather than later lest it overstay its welcome.

Madigan Men fails creatively for one simple reason. Its rhythms are all wrong for a sitcom filmed in front of a studio audience. This show is screaming to be a single camera comedy shot on film, similar to "Sex and the City." The humor is subtle. It doesn't warrant the guffaws of the studio audience that interrupt its natural flow. [6 Oct 2000, p.44]

A perfectly serviceable teen drama.

The investigations are intriguing. The investigators are blah, their relationships a poorly defined muddle. [6 Oct 2000, p.44]

It’s a serviceable drama that’s well-calibrated to the interests of the Bravo audience but it seems unlikely to appeal beyond that particular subset of viewers.

The over-long season premiere--it's 63 minutes without commercials, so expect it to run close to 90 minutes on air; set yoru DVR accordingly--feels disjointed and the characters seem underdeveloped.

Mr. Kinnear certainly has the charm to play this rakish character, and the overstuffed pilot introduces a lot of characters who might help propel the series' stories in the future. But if "House" is the model, Rake is a somewhat stale successor.

Code Black brings nothing new to the genre, except, perhaps, more chaos than usual for an ER show, and the dialogue is heavy with exposition and barked medical show cliches.... It benefits from a strong cast and a brisk pace, so there’s reason to hope for improvement.

Fans of teen soaps may enjoy Happyland for the lark that it is but veterans of the genre may also move on quickly: Even the happiest place on earth gets old after a while, and the same goes for what’s ultimately a likeable but fairly generic series.

"10 Items" isn't a great comedy yet, but it often takes time.

It's possible that Hung will lighten up as time goes on. The weak ending to Sunday's pilot is trite and feels like a half-hearted effort to be uplifting. It doesn't work.

TNT’s Proof is not a terrible show, but it is a terribly ordinary TNT drama.

There are no television breakthroughs in Breakout Kings, a pretty pat procedural that tries a little harder than some of its predecessors.

It's a mixed bag of un-PC attempts at blue collar humor as four guys yak and try to avoid doing their jobs.

Written by series creators Andrew Mogel (“Allen Gregory”) and Jarrad Paul (“Living with Fran”), The Grinder sets up a decent one-joke premise--actors, they’re so vain!--but it remains to be seen whether there’s more comedy to wring out of that joke in subsequent episodes.

A children’s reality competition — one that would be at home on Nickelodeon. ... HBO Max waters down the brand with shows like this.

It’s similar to History’s “Six,” which aired earlier this year, as well as CBS’s own 2006-09 show “The Unit.”

Like other Sci Fi shows of the recent past (think: "Eureka"), Warehouse 13 begins with a strong concept and suffers from weak execution.

Parks has its funny moments but the comedy's first episode also has a distant and chilly feel to it.

In practice, Grandfathered is cute but forgettable.

"Big Day" doesn't feel like a big hit, but it is intermittently amusing.

Mr. Wilson does his best to make the character unapologetically snarly, and Backstrom does benefit from a lighter tone thanks to the unpredictable nature of the lead character. But in form and style, Backstrom is exactly what viewers have come to expect from "House" wannabes.

Mars feels somewhat familiar, but combining the fiction and nonfiction elements is an interesting attempt. Give NatGeo credit for trying something different. Whether this hybrid satisfies fans of either genre remains to be seen.

A decent if not extraordinary action hour.

When the show is focused on Mr. Ritter and Ms. Metcalf, The McCarthys rises above the usual sitcom slop that it feels like whenever the other characters get screen time.

Much of the comedy comes out of that type of awkwardness but Doll & Em is less a comedy-of-the-uncomfortable series (a la a female "Curb Your Enthusiasm") and more just kind of slow and boring.

You can't shake the feeling that "Watching Ellie" is the most vain vanity project to hit TV in recent years.

If only what's new about Scandal was supported by something better than blah writing, ludicrous situations and cardboard characters.

The obvious, soapy stories plod along at a too-languid pace, leaving talented actors in their wake.

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.

The musical numbers are terrific, and the film has its strong moments.... But these individual, scattered scenes don’t add up to a cohesive story, which marks Bessie as a disappointing missed opportunity.

The single-camera comedy is not particularly memorable, but it could have been much worse.

A rote sitcom and an embarrassment for all concerned.

There are two shows struggling to exist in one in the ABC comedy Back in the Game. One is about former all-star softball player Terry Gannon Jr. (Maggie Lawson) and her relationship with her hard-charging, estranged, ex-athlete father, Terry Sr. (James Caan), who goes by “The Cannon.” This show is pretty terrible.... The second show is not at all novel but it’s at least easier to take: Back in the Game is essentially a “Bad News Bears” reboot.

If anything, The Arrangement plays it a little too straight and sedate. An injection of just a little crazy would make the whole enterprise more fun.

Hour fits comfortably, if unimaginatively, among CBS's other crime procedurals, but with only two regular cast members, it seems like it will have less character development than any of the "CSI" series.

Nine Lives may satisfy undemanding teens in the ABC Family target audience but it'll feel like a retread to others.

It's not terrible, not great, just sort of so-so.

The problem with toning her down is that it means diluting the only thing that distinguishes Body of Proof from all the other crime procedurals, and what's left is a generic show with an above-average star.

"Weeds" tries unsuccessfully to balance a lot of stories that are too disparate in tone. [7 Aug 2005]

This needs to evolve into a smarter, less formulaic show before it's worth watching.

The humor in Other Space is largely of the absurd, what-would-happen-if-we-put-idiots-in-a-serious-space-setting variety. Sometimes the jokes hit, other times it feels like the kind of space opera I filmed with friends while in high school in the late 1980s.

[The Get Down] has its excellent musical moments and winning performances from a young cast of newcomers but too often it’s an indulgent, rambling bore, particularly in its overlong, almost 90-minute pilot.

It's just kind of meh and a TV show with a devil at the center should be more fun than that.

While there are some things to recommend about Lucky 7--the fresh faces in a cast of mostly unknown, diverse actors--the show is also one of those frustrating series where every character is desperate and too many of them make bad choices.

It's uplifting, but not hugely entertaining. After a while, I sort of think the show will feel tired; once you've seen one good deed done, you've seen them all.

Harmon brings a light touch to this schizophrenic show. He's a sensitive cowboy who does his job and then goes home to work on a boat he's building. [23 Sept 2003, p.B1]

She's maybe-sorta a prostitute but the show's tone is light, frothy and downright sentimental when Riley gives emotional support to her male clients.

Shepherd plays good-naturedly off her narcissistic image and the writers get off a few good lines. But this is just the kind of show that has to score with the quick zinger because it has nothing more solid to stand on. [01 Jan 1995]

The Brink is just silliness. It takes a while to get used to that, but this broad humor may win over some viewers.

The solution to whodunit ends satisfactorily and in keeping with the book. The leads, though, display little chemistry, and that’s something Jane Austen’s sensibilities would never have allowed.

The show's tone slips between sitcom cheese and push-the-envelope absurdity.

"Crumbs" elicits laughs from time to time, but given the subject matter, I still think this particular story would have been better told as a comedic drama than as the occasionally dramatic comedy that it is.

If Mr. Goyer fumbles the pilot in introducing Leonardo's world, he salvages the endeavor in episode two with a good story about da Vinci's inventions for the Medicis.

Filmed in Austria, The Quest boasts high production values but its stated goal to populate a fictional, serialized fantasy world with reality show contestants doesn't find quite the right mix in early episodes.

Reminiscent of "Seinfeld" but not as funny.

Demons quickly devolves into a bland mission-of-the-week show about a boy who doesn't want the responsibility of saving the world ("You can't just hijack someone's life. I had plans!") who is aided by an older mentor (sound familiar, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fans?).

Second Chance is pretty much another Fox attempt at a crime procedural crossed with a high concept.

Credit Becoming Us for not skimping and showing the impact of changing genders on the children of trans parents in seemingly stark realness, but it's uncomfortable to watch a child endure such life changes publicly.

Beneath that glossy sheen, it seems like it will be a procedural crime show like so many other programs on CBS.

Yes, it’s all a lot of hokum in this mostly lighthearted adventure series that situates Ms. Stone as the boss while she watches Agent X run missions via video link.

Nobodies has its amusing moments--and plenty of celebrity cameos in the premiere, including Maya Rudolph, Jim Rash and Jason Batema--especially when it explores the disdain more successful writers have for, say, animated kids show writers. But tolerance for uncomfortable comedic moments will vary by viewer.

Compared to so many other crime procedurals, Grimm offers a twist on the usual. It remains to be seen whether that twist will be superficial or substantive.

Camp has a sweetness that makes it a nice summer diversion but nothing that elevates it above past comedies set at sleepaway camp.

Celebrity Apprentice is pretty much in its typical form, which is to say, craziness involving mostly D-list celebrities, including NeNe Leakes, Star Jones, Lisa Rinna, Gary Busey, Mark McGrath and "Survivor" winner Richard Hatch.

As frustrating as it is fascinating, watching the quarterlife characters is like gazing at animals in a zoo.

At its best, Big Love is an intricate soap opera rooted in family, but in this new season the show is spinning off into too many directions. None, taken individually, is terrible, but altogether these myriad plots create a lack of focus.

I kept watching last year and I'll probably keep watching this year, although I think the show is already starting to repeat itself.

It's a mildly entertaining reality series designed to encourage controversy to draw viewers and goose ratings.

While Ms. Alexander is an appealing lead actress, Blindspot feels like a too familiar, warmed-over series premise even though it’s the only “original” series concept among the three thrillers debuting in the next two days.

The concept is unique, the performances solid or better, but when so many similar shows are competing for attention from viewers who are only willing to commit so much time to watching ongoing TV series, "Six Degrees" just isn't good enough.

Deception is fairly charming in spite of its blah procedural trappings thanks to Mr. Cutmore-Scott and his character’s bag of tricks and magic team.

"SG-1" is a passable action series on a par with most syndicated sci-fi fare. Its only real distinguishing feature is [a] ludicrous, completely gratuitous nude scene. [26 Jul 1997]

Would be revolutionary -- if the year was 1980.

Daytime Divas has its funny moments as it recounts the petty behaviors of daytime chat show stars but too often in its first two episodes the show moves in all the expected directions and feels like a lesser Lifetime entry.

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.

A cute enough pilot from writer Emily Kapnek (“Suburgatory”). But is there really a weekly TV series to be had here? Time will tell.

At its heart, beneath all the high-tech whiz-bang CGI, Minority Report is a procedural crime drama with serialized character relationship stories threaded through it.

If the show can rein in some of its more outrageous plot tendencies and focus on music and social issues, it could grow into a Club viewers will want to frequent.

The series does hint at Carlisle's motivation, and maybe the show will get more interesting once his reasons for wanting the president dead are revealed, but the pilot doesn't exactly demand viewers tune in for episode two.

Perhaps in time Helix will develop into something more substantial but in its first two hours it sets up a lot of questions without providing answers or a compelling reason for viewers to stick with it.

Sometimes I think she's brilliant, other times I think she's full of herself. Both sides come through in this fairly dull reality show.

CBS remakes Hawaii Five-0 as just another piece of turn-your-brain-off escapist fare, a loud, action-packed pilot with little heart and less humor.

Constantine seems like a good fit tonally for Friday night companion series “Grimm,” but Constantine will need to more clearly establish its world--and the rules of its world--and better define its characters if it hopes to become a fanboy favorite.

The characters are all caricature-y stereotypes and the jokes are of the ba-da-dum! variety, but the pilot made me laugh more than some other new comedies, mostly due to the performances.

If "South Park" traffics in occasionally brilliant satire, "Lil' Bush" is far more juvenile humor.

As a psychological thriller, it's not terrible--certainly better than Fox's dreadful monotonous "The Following"--but Those Who Kill suffers from character/relationship incoherence.

Not great, not terrible, Welcome to the Family is another occasionally amusing but not really funny family comedy.

It's a cute concept but producers don't seem to have a knack for proper execution, filling time with terribly padded segments--picking teams takes an eternity--and challenges (watching people play chess in the premiere) that, try as they might, don't make for compelling TV.

Childhood's End is more thought-provoking than many Syfy miniseries of the recent past even as it stumbles through plot holes.