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

Viewers hungering for a twisty-turny, who's-right-who's-wrong thriller will find it in Showtime's domestic terrorism drama Homeland.

Suburgatory is fall's most consistently funny comedy pilot.

The series remains an intense, engrossing crime procedural with strong moments of character development, but Mr. Cross gets a bit sloppy in his plotting.

How to be a Gentleman is exactly the kind of TV comedy Johnny Drama would be thrilled to star in.

Terra Nova walks a fine line and how well it manages to stay on that path will likely determine its ultimate success or failure.

Perhaps with more attention to concrete character details and less reliance on silly stereotypes, Hart of Dixie will manage to grow into a show that does not provoke multiple fits of eye rolling.

Every television series launches on a wing and a prayer, perhaps none more than this entertaining, glossy drama.

There's no question that A Gifted Man is the network's best, most creatively successful effort in the past five years.

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.

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

Prime Suspect improves as the hour goes on. The guys' attitude toward Jane evolves.

Hey, with a name like Charlie's Angels, at least viewers have a pretty good idea of what they're going to get: action, attractive women and gorgeous locations--but not much else.

Overall [it] is more charming than hilarious.

Unforgettable is completely forgettable because it brings nothing new to the increasingly creaky crime procedural. CBS has gone to that well over and over, and, credit to them, it's worked.

If Revenge can curb its more outlandish tendencies, this soap could become a welcome guilty pleasure.

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.

Depending on your tolerance for edgy humor, 2 Broke Girls ain't broke, but a greater effort by the show's writers to be funny without being overly crude/cruel would help fix it for a broader audience.

There's nothing wrong with any of this except that it doesn't feel fresh or new; there's no added, bewitching spark to a familiar concept.

H8R feels contrived whether there's a happy ending or not, so there's not much point in watching except perhaps for the initial confrontation between the hater and the object of his/her scorn if that's the kind of uncomfortable drama you crave.

It's a familiar concept that elicits some minor laughs.

It moves fast and doesn't wait for viewers to catch all the jokes that are made. Some of the dialogue is clever but it's more savvy than it is hilarious and viewers come to broadcast network comedies for the funny stuff. Making matters worse, the two leads are humorless sad sacks.

Twists begin to pile up like they're falling out of a How To Write Noir handbook. And that may be the show's biggest problem: It feels contrived, which makes the audience feel manipulated.

FX's Sons of Anarchy returns to form in its fourth season premiere this week with the action set squarely back in the motorcycle club's hometown of Charming, Calif. Even better, the show's wannabe hero, Jax (Charlie Hunnam), is fighting again, putting forth a plan to get out of his current situation.

The Hour looks fantastic but it moves at a snail's pace that's sure to irk impatient viewers.

The Lying Game is not great television by any means but it's an adequate teen soap filled with attractive performers playing characters much younger than their actual ages, something the target audience for this type of series has come to expect.

The whole lot are a terrible example of, well, humanity, and the only reason to spend time with them is to feel superior, which most viewers probably are.

Gratuitous elements aside, Strike Back is a decent enough cops 'n' terrorists drama.

It feels like a retread--and a toothless one at that.

Whisker Wars gives a few glimpses into the care regimen of these mens' beards but fails to ask or answer an essential question: Why do they bother?

It's a comedy that's more likely to draw recognizable smiles of been-there, experienced-that than it is to conjure real laughs.

The humor in Friday Night Dinner is often as surprising as it is rude. But there's a spirit of good-natured goofball charm evident in this family whose members clearly love one another, quirks and all.

Against the Wall is not nearly as ambitious as "Chicago Code" was but there's a warmth to the characters and their relationships that should satisfy Lifetime's core audience.

Entourage offers a reason for fans to be encouraged about the quality of its last episodes.

Same Name is a show made for people who live and breathe E! and TMZ.com. Cynics need not tune in.

It's a static look that makes these half-hour shows a bit tough to endure visually (don't try watching two episodes back-to-back). This format lends itself better to web shorts but it is fun to see Dr. Wallice's world expanded, especially for fans of comedy that doesn't telegraph a joke well in advance.

Thanks to clever dialogue, Awkward manages to rise above its been-there, watched-that premise.

None of these twists are for the faint of heart, which is why Breaking Bad is a smart, thought-provoking TV show that elevates the artistic achievements of the medium.

As has always been the case, Damages remains a mystery-thriller whose characters and their psychological quirks are more intriguing than the plot.

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.

The problem with the show is that it's pretty dull, particularly if you've ever watched any of the similar shows that preceded Alphas. None of the characters feel new, nor do the situations.

Science fiction often is at its best when it raises big questions, but early on it's unclear what the true source of Miracle Day is and where that will take this batch of Torchwood episodes.

Love in the Wild is undeniably a waste of time and brain cells.

There is some decent dialogue but it gets lost in the scenery chewing maw of the show's star.

If plot is incidental to your enjoyment of a show--and especially if you're already a fan of Ms. Thorne's all-in acting style--then Necessary Roughness offers OK entertainment.

Tonight's episode feels like a reset, a fresh start for the characters but if they just lapse back into their old ways, I'm not sure what the point of another season of this show will be. And yet, if they do not return to selling drugs, some viewers may be disappointed.

The Big C feels much more alive, even though it's a show about a woman, Cathy (Laura Linney), who's dying of stage 4 cancer.

On a scale of TV series that shoot for the high end of mediocre, USA's Suits fares far better than the recently introduced TNT legal drama "Franklin & Bash." The guys in Suits are more likable, and the legal stories a little more grounded in reality.

Expedition Impossible, executive-produced by Mark Burnett ("Survivor"), is [not] the worst reality show ever (not by a long shot), but it reveals how challenging it must be for producers to introduce a whole mess of teams in a season premiere.

It seems like the show will basically be a weekly dose of two-steps-forward-one-step-back for Ryan with Wilfred as his teacher/tormentor. Wilfred certainly has moments of high (and low) comedy but it's also hard to imagine the premise won't get stale pretty fast.

Clearly this show is not for the easily offended. Not everyone will appreciate this kind of humor, but anyone who values smart, provocative comedy that's about truth telling will be intrigued.

Imagine any "M• A• S• H"-style cliche and odds are good it will turn up in Combat Hospital whose predictability makes it a dull summer entry that may encourage viewers of this week's premiere to become deserters before next week's episode.

The characters lack the depth of those in smarter, premium cable dramas like "The Walking Dead," but they do show some growth as the series goes on. What Falling Skies does best is create a sense of the struggle for survival.

Despite strong production values and an intriguing premise, Outcasts lumbers along, perhaps done in by trying to tackle too many themes.

It's a strange show and I'm sure some people won't find it funny at all. But if you have just enough of a cracked sense of humor, it's worth giving Jon Benjamin Has a Van a try.

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

The Protector is fairly routine plot-wise but the breezy tone--conveyed through upbeat music and snappy dialogue--and strong, collegial performances make this series a welcome summer diversion.

As with any pilot, there are questions about whether the show's initially strong production values and special effects will remain high quality in subsequent episodes. And it remains to be seen how the characters and their relationships will develop. But at least Teen Wolf puts its best foot, er, paw forward.

The first season of Hilton's 2003 Fox series "The Simple Life" was an amusing sideshow. The World According to Paris is not nearly as entertaining. The bloom is off the Paris Hilton rose. This new show just proves she's a person no one in their right mind would spend time with in real life.

The primary problem with all this bragging is that it takes time away from seeing the designs, which would seem to be the show's purported raison d'etre.... Million Dollar Decorators also suffers from feeling completely constructed.

Viewers who want TV to wash over them as light entertainment may enjoy Franklin & Bash, but viewers who prefer thought-provoking TV programs that engage on a higher level may not be satisfied.

Football fanatics may appreciate 4th and Forever but to me it seemed more scripted than "FNL."

Given the topic, Too Big to Fail might seem like a movie made only for policy wonks but even if you don't understand the finer points of monetary policy, it's still entertaining because it features that great equalizer in American popular culture: Wealthy, well-heeled people behave like jerks, allowing the less wealthy a certain superior satisfaction.

The movie holds the interest, despite a tendency to sentimentalize.

There are scenes in the first five episodes of the new season that are as compelling as anything television has to offer. But the viewer has to wade through material that fails more often than not to deliver on its promise.

Cinema Verite dramatizes the making of "An American Family," but it dwells too long on the setup and doesn't spend nearly enough time on the public response to the program and the impact that reaction (much of it negative) had on the Louds.

A grand soap opera of epic proportions, Game of Thrones can be a bit talky in some episodes, but the series draws a viewer in with well-defined characters and a multitude of simultaneous stories whose plot turns are generally unpredictable.

Happy Endings excels at fearless humor that's sometimes shocking, not because it's gratuitous, but because it's an unexpected surprise--and a welcome one at that.

It suffers from predictable jokes that are more likely to conjure a hint of a smile, not a belly laugh.

The new Upstairs gets off to a somewhat slow start in the first of three one-hour installments, but in its second and third episodes the dramatic engines rev as the political climate of the day begins to drive the story.

With Gigolos, Showtime takes a topic that should be provocative and turns it into nothing more than "The Real Man Whores of Las Vegas."

It's a strange little show: A light-hearted half-hour caper that purports to be a comedy but isn't really that funny.

Even on the rare occasions when those shows [like CSI or Law & Order] tell stories involving the death of a child, they're almost never as raw, palpable and grim as The Killing, an engrossing, well-made drama series that viewers should embrace despite its tough subject matter.

The Kennedys has the look and feel of a 1980s miniseries, and it's not trying to be anything more exalted. Unlike "The Borgias" and "Camelot," its reach does not exceed its grasp.

The Borgias is an adequate soap but one that's also rife with missed opportunities.

This retelling of the Arthurian legend feels overly familiar and there's just not enough that's new or different to make it worthwhile.

It's less of a flash mob and more of (one hopes) a flash in the pan, the one-and-done special it deserves to be.

It's a fascinating glimpse into a culture that I suspect many Americans would prefer to remain ignorant about.

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.

The miniseries feels a little pokey in its early chapters, although it does an excellent job of establishing the primary characters, and then races too quickly toward its conclusion (wait, who is Mildred married to now?).

It's not clear to me that viewers who come to Syfy for actual science fiction will appreciate this series--"Face Off" was more on point and a better show, too--but for fans of reality TV cooking shows, MQK does add a new flavor to the prime-time cooking show palette.

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

If the concept of Taking on Tyson seems odd, the execution is more predictable, framing Mr. Tyson's pigeon racing, his first competitive endeavor in several years, as a kind of therapy. Still, the show benefits from some surprisingly strong visuals of the birds in flight--at least for viewers who do not see pigeons as rodents with wings.

It's a high-quality reality show about creating a mid-range dining experience.

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 anyone who has used an old photocopy machine knows, a copy of a copy of a copy is rarely as good as the original. Suspect Behavior comes across as a show in search of a purpose beyond the obvious brand extension.

Of the couples comedies to debut so far this midseason--NBC's "Perfect Couples" in January, Fox's "Traffic Light" last week--CBS's "Mad Love" (8:30 tonight, KDKA-TV) is probably the best. That's not to say it's a great show, but it is the least groan-inducing.

Traffic Light seems to want to be a male "Sex and the City" or "Entourage" without the Hollywood backdrop. But the scrapes these guys get into are more recognizable and more cliched than what the "Entourage" guys encounter.

The season premiere is a little clunky as it cleans up the mess left after the show's first-season finale--the sooner the show moves beyond that, the better.

Smart and well-acted with clearly defined heroes and villains--all painted in varying shades of gray--this Chicago-set show feels familiar and new at the same time.

Archer hits the comedy bull's-eye with smart, provocative writing.

When Betty White is on screen, the emotions are real, and she's on screen a lot. It's a safe bet that tears will be shed.

[Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler] debuted this week on what seems to be a kinder, gentler and certainly much hairier version of American Idol.

The show remains a not-terrible throwback to the kinds of sitcoms the broadcast networks used to make.

Like any sketch comedy show, IFC's Portlandia has hit-and-miss sketches, but when they hit, they do so with a laughter-inducing amount of comedic force.

For fans of the original, which is only a few years old, this Americanization may be a bit like going to see a road company version of a Broadway show: It's pretty good but definitely less morose (for some viewers that will be an improvement, for others it will be a betrayal).

The 90-minute Fairly Legal pilot, written by series creator Michael Sardo, moves at breakneck speed and fairly effortlessly welcomes viewers into spastic Kate's world. It's not a bad place to visit--but I probably won't be checking in on her on a regular basis.

What the show lacks in originality it makes up for in crisp, politically tinged dialogue.