It's not terrifically awful, but it's also not as reliably fun as Scrubs was in its prime.

The conclusion is that a great cast and a singular location can't carry a scattershot script that goes in and out of focus.

the new V begins with an entertaining, well-made pilot that tweaks aspects of the original story but generally retains many of the show's familiar elements.

If you're easily offended, you will be appalled by The League. If you chuckle at smutty, raunchy humor and profanity, this show offers dirty-minded comedic rewards.

These are fantastic characters with socio-economic backgrounds we rarely see in TV dramas, and that's one of the many things that makes FNL unique. Whether you can watch the show now or won't have access to it until 2010, FNL continues to be TV worth watching.

Light with no pretensions of loftiness, White Collar offers pleasant enough entertainment.

Its frequent, gleeful skewering of NBC is just icing on the cake--and tonight's episode has a lot of icing.

If you're looking for a smart, brain-massaging sitcom, watch NBC's Thursday night lineup. If you're just seeking a few (sometimes cheap) laughs, Sherri provides.

It's not great, it's not awful. It's an adequate, conventional CBS-y medical drama about transplant surgeons set at Pittsburgh's fictional Three Rivers Regional Medical Center.

Given time, Stargate Universe may become worth watching if it develops its characters and continues to mine its premise for stories. Just hope they avoid more desert planets.

Hank is the kind of show Dr. Frasier Crane would sneer at, which makes it particularly sad to see Kelsey Grammer reduced to starring in this ABC sitcom as a Dumb Daddy.

The Middle is funny enough to merit a weekly visit.

Dexter will probably never reach the dramatic, creative heights it did in season one, but with this new season the show's producers found a way to sustain the premise by concentrating on the show's characters and, in particular, looking at how Dexter lives with his desire-to-kill rather than dwelling on the myriad ways he might get caught.

Like "Family Guy," The Cleveland Show jumps from the main plot to tangential asides often built around pop culture. But the show's tone is different because Cleveland is such a well-meaning, likable character.

By the 8:30 episode, the novelty of Pounder as a funny mother is gone, and it becomes abundantly clear the show has nothing to say and the writers are already spinning their wheels.

Whether a fantastic series follows tonight's strong pilot, well, it would take a flash forward to know for sure. But the show does offers a strong premiere that brims with future possibility.

As a single fortysomething mom, star Courteney Cox is in full frantic mode, yelling at and pushing everyone in sight, which makes for an entertaining (if not exhausting) half-hour comedy.

The family comedy gets a welcome and winning update in ABC's Modern Family, the fall's best new sitcom.

The Eastwick characters are fairly generic types who are too bland and predictable to be involving.

Unlike "Jackie," nothing in Mercy feels real or believable, particularly the naivete of the recent grad student newbie nurse, who acts as if she's never been in a hospital.

CBS's The Good Wife is both a well-written legal drama and a terrific showcase for actress Julianna Margulies, who elevates the already-good material with her perceptive, open performance.

O'Donnell and LL Cool J form an easy alliance that's filled with lighter moments of humor even as they investigate a plot that's decidedly obvious and unsurprising.

It's not as funny as either of those hits ["The Big Bang Theory" and "Two and a Half Men"]--and certainly not as good a show as the superior "Bang"--but it is more enjoyable than "Rules of Engagement," which returns at mid-season (unfortunately).

It's a generally strong episode as House attempts to annoy his doctors so much that they'll sign off on his departure.

Curb is filled with uncomfortable comedy, as always, but its humor stems from the relatable minutiae of everyday life, not unlike what viewers watched on "Seinfeld."

Sunday's premiere is a little dull, but future episodes have more entertainment value. Still, you have to be a fan of neuroses humor for Bored to have much comedic impact.

It's a typically funny Office episode that makes good use of most of the cast.

Fast-paced with snappy, smart dialogue and engaging characters that brim with potential, NBC's Community fits in well with its new Thursday night neighbor, "The Office.

Parks was disappointing in its first year but tonight's episode and one airing next week--with a storyline inspired by the Henry Louis Gates-cop kerfluffle--show that the program is making steady, funny progress.

Archer may be crude but it's far more clever than last fall's disappointing "Testees," and "Archer" wins points with its observational humor about modern life and in its mocking of mundane workplace minutiae, such as computer passwords and the lack of security at a spy agency.

If you watched Leno on "The Tonight Show," you'll probably watch him in prime time. If you didn't, I can't imagine why you would now, especially once original programming returns to ABC and CBS next week.

As teen shows go, the pilot is entertaining enough; future episodes will reveal if the show truly has much bite.

Executive producers Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer ("Smallville") tie the show's tangle of plots and relationships together with an agile skill that makes this new Melrose Place more appealing than the show's concept suggests should be possible.

Did the new network screw up the show? Not that I could tell from the incomplete first episode sent for review (no judge's remarks or eliminations).

Mad Men exists on another level. Smart, mysterious and alluring, Mad Men remains a smooth concoction of period charm and psychological character drama.

Given the ubiquity of "Real Housewives" shows, it may be a sign of equality for a show about househusbands, but adding to the lame reality show glut does not feel like societal progress.

Business buffs may love it, but Shark Tank lacks the lush visuals of "Survivor" and the star power of Trump. It just doesn't have the same bite.

Fans of relationship-driven story-telling might just get hooked on this silly, lighter-than-air summer series.

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

Against all odds, that turns out to be an odd-couple combo that results in a light, fun series--ideal fizzy entertainment for summer.

Unlike last month's ABC Family misfire "Make It or Break It," 10 Things contains clever dialogue that's rooted in its characters.

This first episode has brief nods to the deaths last season of two series regulars--Owen and Toshiko--and it acknowledges advances in the relationship between bisexual Jack and Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd). But more than anything it's a propulsive action-adventure.

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.

Virtuality is a fascinating, over-stuffed pilot episode, and as intriguing as its concept is, you can see by the end of tonight's two-hour premiere why Fox passed on making it a weekly series.

Against all odds, this week's premiere turns out to be a competent, highly watchable hour of television, the most promising broadcast network premiere since "Southland."

Merlin looks, well, typically British with shoddy production values. Worse, it tells dull stories.

Smith is a winning TV star who's adept at scenes that require great empathy or a withering stare. Given time (and more realistic characterizations), Hawthorne may grow into a series worthy of her talents.

Not only do the other stories save True Blood--before you can get sick of Sookie and Bill, Blood shifts its focus to more interesting characters--but the show's persistent humor breaks through with enough frequency to have an impact.

Tonight's pilot suffers from a few up-the-ante, "look-at-me!" moments, like when Coop grabs Jackie's breast and claims it's a nervous tic. Future episodes are more grounded and less desperate to shock for the sake of grabbing viewer (and network) attention, but they're no less enthralling with both drama and humor.

USA's Royal Pains is an amusing, enjoyable addition to basic cable.

Goode really does feel too much like the flip side of "King of the Hill." The humor comes from the opposite point of view but it's still a too-similar-to-stand-on-its-own comedy.

If you're bereft without new episodes of "House" this summer and willing to settle for a pale imitation, there's always Fox's Mental.

Glee does the teen years with some edge, but we've seen that before on Glee executive producer Ryan Murphy's previous series, The WB's "Popular." Still, Glee is delightful enough to qualify as a fall favorite.

Tonight's extended episode--it runs until 11:15 p.m.--comes off as the trashier, less sophisticated cousin to "Project Runway." If that's the appeal of "Runway," then have at it. But if you're a design fan, The Fashion Show may prove to be an unfashionable disappointment.

There are some truly funny moments in Fox's manic, animated comedy Sit Down, Shut Up, a series that requires almost rapt attention to pick up all the jokes and amusing dialogue that's hurled at viewers. If a TV series ever suffered from Attention Deficit Disorder, this is it.

It must be said that viewing Grey Gardens without prior knowledge of the Beales' story would make it easier to like the HBO version....Michael Sucsy directs an HBO version that takes a little of this, a little of that, in building toward a (sort-of) happy ending that's hard to swallow.

It's an entertaining enough diversion that may grow more intriguing as other series end their season-long runs next month and viewers become more desperate for fresh entertainment.

Of the two new cop shows this week, Southland is the more serious and realistic. It also demonstrates the potential for greater depth in its exploration of characters and their stories.

The Unusuals offers an odd combo platter of tones that don't allow the show to jell in its premiere episode.

It's difficult to imagine many "Dancing" viewers will be suckered into watching this unimaginative, predictable comedy series for more than the first couple of minutes.

It's impossible not to compare the two casts or to find the new version a pale imitation whose characters don't feel fresh in the slightest, because, well, they're not.

If you have the patience and good humor to let the back stories and mysteries unfold in the 109 minutes of the first episode, you'll enjoy spending time with Mma Ramotswe and getting to know the landscape of her beloved Botswana, a peaceful nation in southern Africa.

Party Down can't decide if it wants to be smart-funny or dumb-funny. Maybe if it does, the party will truly begin.

Set in the offices of Veridian Dynamics, a behemoth conglomerate, this single-camera, laugh-track-free comedy is the funniest show ABC has birthed in quite some time.

Kings begins with a refined approach and grows more pedestrian in subsequent episodes. Still, there's plenty to love about this series that dances with symbolism--the butterfly on the Gilboa flag is not a mere adornment--and replaces clandestine backrooms with windowed board rooms.

As reality shows go, the concept isn't bad: Two teams with four couples each operate restaurants across the street from one another in New York. But Chopping Block botches the introductions in tonight's premiere.

There's nothing in ABC's Castle viewers haven't seen a million times before, but the cast elevates the pedestrian material.

There's no question about the quality of this relentlessly suspenseful drama about former high school chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston), who turns to drug dealing to raise money for his family after he receives a terminal cancer diagnosis. Whether viewers can stand the nerve jangling they're in for as season two begins will be decided on an individual basis.

If the early Ashes episodes are representative of the series, this show will indeed be good fun.

Creatively, the show seems to be in pretty decent shape.

Canadian actor Craig Olejnik sports choppy black hair and piercing blue eyes--the only standout attribute in NBC's The Listener, an otherwise generic procedural drama.

Aside from a few head-scratcher terms (GBH = "grievous bodily harm"), lawyers and judges wearing white wigs while in court (the judge in the premiere looks like she's got a poodle on her head) and occasionally impenetrable accents, Law & Order: UK should be remarkably familiar to fans of the original series.

The humor in Eastbound is a far cry from the cerebral comedy currently en vogue on shows like "The Office" and "30 Rock," but that doesn't mean Eastbound can't do sly humor that falls left of center.

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.

Some of the humor works less well--Martin playing five instruments while flipping through a sketch pad is more strange than funny--but Martin is clearly a smart guy and his intellectual humor succeeds more often than it fails.

For fans of "Mad Men," Trust Me offers a modern, more recognizable ad agency world but the tone of TNT's series is completely different. It is not "Mad Men: The Next Generation," not by a long shot. And the show's quality lags leaps and bounds behind.

Funny and thoughtful with surprising plot twists, Being Human offers an inviting mix for fans of supernatural stories.

The episode is a fast-moving two hours that answers enough questions to satisfy fans and raises still more questions in an effort to further the intrigue.

Roth's Lightman is not nearly the curmudgeon Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) is, nor is he as entertaining, but Lie to Me has the makings of a fine procedural for viewers who can't seem to get enough of this type of series.

As entertainment, United States of Tara succeeds through humor, vivid characters and a stunning performance by Collette, who disappears into the roles of Tara's alters.

Big Love succeeds in entertaining through the nuance of its characters, especially perpetually seething Nicki (Chloe Sevigny, queen of the slow burn), one of the three wives of Salt Lake City businessman Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton).

It's so funny and so well-done on so many levels, the Conchords definitely deserve to be discovered by a wide TV audience.

The Beast, named after Barker's reference to his FBI job, seems like a pretty plain cop drama with added "Road House"-style grit until the end of the first hour, when a new wrinkle adds more intrigue.

This season doesn't really kick into gear until night two, when Bill Buchanan (James Morrison) and Chloe (Marylynn Rajskub) return, operating outside the bounds of the government.

The show's trademark time shifts continue, although it's initially unclear if they're connected to the season one story that carries over or to the season two plot.

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?).

Executive produced by Ryan Seacrest, this sucking wound of a show introduces three guys and their moms who move into a house filled with women.

Viewers who value character development, logic and plot consistency will be disappointed by this series that's sloppy when it comes to all three. It's often more concerned with looking cool and fun than making sense.

The first episode runs two hours and sets up all the characters, their relationships and backgrounds. It presents a serialized show with a lot of potential for growth and interesting plot possibilities, especially considering a scene at the end of the premiere that raises a whole host of questions.

Legend of the Seeker may thrill some "LOTR" fans, but the content of the pilot is nothing original.

30 Rock is more manic than "Seinfeld," but its smart observations on political correctness, corporate culture and life in Manhattan make it an ideal heir. This Rock continues to roll.

Stylista is a guilty pleasure thanks to its cast of catfighting, bickering characters, including one who is hospitalized following a panic attack in episode two.

They're a largely unlikable lot of crooked cops, adulterers and Hopper's long-winded, nutso music mogul. It's one thing to spend a movie with these characters, but it's quite another to tune in for 13 weeks.

The tone varies wildly from action-adventure to serious costume drama.

David Alan Grier, star of the new Chocolate News gets points for moxie, but the series fails on too many other counts.

A quality series that's the TV equivalent of comfort food, the emergence of Eli Stone from the Hollywood firmament may qualify as a minor miracle among more cynical viewers.

My Own Worst Enemy sets up what could be an overly complicated premise and miraculously makes it all seem perfectly acceptable and clear by the end of the first hour.

The new American version moves a little faster, which may sacrifice some of the subtlety of the original, but overall this first episode is a faithful adaptation.