It's not atrocious, just sort of bland -- the kind of show we've watched a million times before.

Tonight's City of Angels premiere offers toothless, almost bland TV drama. It's not hyper-revved like "ER," and is probably most similar to "Chicago Hope" in its depiction of behind-the-scenes hospital politics. With both of TV's existing medical dramas growing tired, the time is right for "City of Angels," but it needs work... It's pretty uninspired melodrama with a dash of attention-grabbing weirdness.

The guys behave badly in mostly cliched and predictable ways.

Once again, a reality show that could have been an entertaining diversion is ruined by an over-long running time.

It's not that the show is terrible--it's not--but it brings nothing new to the firefighter drama format.

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

It’s not as well done and not nearly as funny or relatable [as Modern Family].

It’s not that great.

There are moments when Shades of Blue feels like more than the sum of its recycled parts but then there's a manipulative, tension-filled scene that tacks in just the direction a savvy viewer could predict.

The Firm tries to marry case-of-the-week stories with a conspiracy plot. It doesn't succeed.

It's not funny enough, the characters don't make much of an impression and the "Porky's"-style humor is too tame to have the requisite impact.

The result is not all that funny but more interesting than what most stand-up TV programs deliver.

It comes across as a rather dull, ineptly produced program that looks like it was filmed with dated technology in plodding style.

Gigi has a one-joke premise.... It's occasionally funny but not funny enough to tune in on a weekly basis.

Each of the three opportunities to deposit or keep the money is preceded by a financial discussion between each couple, which usually reveals one person to be more giving and the other to be more concerned with No. 1. These getting repetitive and boring fast.

Maybe if the cardboard secondary characters develop more dimensions and if the writing improves, "Battery Park" will have a longevity similar to that of its closest cop comedy antecedent, "Barney Miller." But don't count on it.

Maybe "Mr. Mom: The Series" would have been revolutionary back in 1983 when the Michael Keaton movie was released, but 17 years later the concept is as fresh as month-old milk.

Fashion Star remains a cool idea. But its execution and formatting need work.

Give this show the “Space Force” medal for unfunny comedy. And as bad as “Space Force” was, Netflix’s Steve Carell disappointment was still better than this dud.

A preposterous action-drama.

Everything about MacGyver feels rote--from the constant bombardment of brotastic banter between Angus MacGyver (a bland Lucas Till, “X-Men: Apocalypse”) and ex-military sidekick Jack Dalton (George Eads, “CSI”) to the entirely predictable plot of the pilot that lays track for a seasonlong arc--and imbued with a CBS house style.

It's not terrible but it is quite MTV-y with a soundtrack that at times feels more like any typical teen angst drama and looks that suggest of-the moment fashions (male elves sport a variation on the manbun hairstyle).

All style, no substance.

At one time, it was possible to enjoy Nurse Jackie even for viewers who were over Jackie's drama because the supporting cast was so much fun. There's something less entertaining about them these days, too. Their plots sometimes feel like a stretch, as if the writers are grasping for stories for them.

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.

American Odyssey too often lacks the gritty realism of cable series that attempt similar, convoluted plots. It doesn’t catch viewers in a plot that feels real; rather, it feels like a planned, plotted, manufactured-for-your-enjoyment TV show.

More often than not, watching Drunk History is like being the only sober person at a party where none of the people present are your friends.

Imaginary Mary would be more generic if it didn’t have Mary, but when she appears on screen with a grating voice that betrays Alice’s independent career woman id, it adds little comedy to the show.

It's also similar to Fox's "Raising Hope," except that "Raising Hope" offers smart comedy and Baby Daddy is stuck in the realm of TGIF humor.

The show remains crazy in its plotting, but it does move at a quick clip, fast enough that some viewers will forgive it for some obvious twists and turns. ... Other than an effort to goose ratings with the return of a familiar title, is there really any creative reason for more “Prison Break”? Probably not.

No question, "Big Brother 2" makes for better TV than its boring predecessor, but it's still no "Survivor." [7 Jul 2001]

Mostly the show, as these reality series are wont to do, follows the dysfunction within the family.

Its ratio of energetic, entertaining segments to time-wasting, self-indulgent filler (on the part of Harris) just doesn't pencil out in the audience's favor.

It's one thing when a TV show sets up a concrete mystery whose resolution you have faith will come, something like, "Who killed Mr. X?" But it's quite another when the show is so abstract that you aren't even sure what questions it asks. Kevin McKidd ("Rome") is an excellent actor, and it's only his skill that makes Journeyman tolerable.

British comic actor Stephen Fry is the best part of The Great Indoors, playing the company’s top honcho but his presence alone isn’t enough to salvage this stale series. A second episode proves to be no improvement on the lackluster pilot.

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

Most of the young, relatively untested actors in Ground Floor are not nearly as talented at creating endearing characters; in the first two episodes the characters are mostly just ciphers.

"Meadowlands" demands too much of a slog for too little in return.

Networks want their shows to look like movies these days, but the Intelligence pilot makes the border of Pakistan and Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., both look like Vancouver, where the pilot was filmed. It's a minor but telling detail in this unimaginative rehash.

The mystery has largely been replaced by a dystopian soap opera that disrespects one first-season character in particular by having the character take an action that doesn’t reflect the character’s first season strength and resolve.

While Ms. Leigh’s character is a pastiche of cliched archetypes, Mr. Ido’s taxi-driving scoundrel is a charmer. But it will take more than charm to watch Taxi Brooklyn and not feel like you’re being taken for a ride you’ve been on too many times before.

Allegiance is not terrible, although its characters are paper-thin, and, beyond feeling derivative, the show isn’t all that credible.

George Lopez’s Saint George [is], another mediocre, three-camera sitcom with nothing new to say.

Surviving Jack allows for a smidgen of heartfelt earnestness now and again, but it’s less heartwarming than the steadily-improving “The Goldbergs” because at heart Surviving Jack is the one-joke premise of its title: My dad’s a jerk.

The same old thing.

Elf offers some slight, warmed over charms.

The problem with Sense8 is that it’s glacially paced and not nearly as riveting as it thinks it is.

Sheen's obvious, minimally funny new sitcom.

When a wannabe TV thriller doesn’t work, the show devolves into a morass of characters making repeated bad decisions, like “Groundhog Day” but without the intentional comedy.

The characters can better be distinguished from one another than the ciphers in "Three Rivers" but they still need time to develop and become something approaching realistic.

It's an (occasionally) frothy mix -- comedic moments tumble into serious scenes of forensic examination -- that's not altogether terrible, but neither does it beg to be watched on a regular basis.

She's not a Ewing, but grandma Ryland (Judith Light) is far more entertaining than any of the young hunks fighting around the pool at Southfork.

Though there are surprises and crosses and double-crosses in the show's waning minutes, Alias fails to make me care much about its characters, their future or understanding who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. "La Femme Nikita" kept these mysteries beguiling in its early seasons; Alias can't manage to do that in its first episode. [30 Sept 2001, p.TV-5]

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.

Killjoys tries to build a mythology, but both the low-rent look--a red filter for this scene! a green filter for this scene!--and the emphasis on fights over character development dooms the show to medocrity.

The writing in "Old Christine" is occasionally funny in a low-key way, but too often the show is a bore.

Too many NBC dramas are now all about conspiracies and secret societies. That’s getting tiresome. Case in point, NBC’s The Player.

A pedestrian procedural, "Ransom" follows the team at Crisis Resolution as they resolve kidnappings and hostage situations in the most rote, CBS fashion you can imagine.

[The Mist] resurrects many of the small­town tropes that were in “Under the Dome” but with a cast of largely unknowns and B­-movie effects, writing and performances.

It's one thing to laugh at characters on TV shows who behave foolishly, who deserve to be mocked. Valerie's crimes for the sake of comedy are nothing more than aging with an undiminished Hollywood ego. It's a little funny at first, but it quickly turns sad, something you want to look away from, not laugh about. [2 June 2005, p.WE-37]

The CGI dinosaur renderings vary in quality, but the plot is fairly predictable from the get-go.

It's not that Lopez is terrible, just terribly unoriginal as it depicts its lead character as slightly out-of-touch, overly concerned with his image, etc.

There's little that's surprising let alone interesting about Carpoolers despite the best efforts of an enthusiastic cast, most notably O'Connell.

Imagine a low-rent “Game of Thrones” wannabe with bargain basement special effects and a paint-by-numbers plot and you’ve got a good conception of the fantasy drama "The Outpost."

Ultimately, dull, dreary Krypton does feel like a waste of time.

The new season’s more-is-more approach feels forced. Even the pretentiousness seems turned up a notch.

This new season seems more forced than usual.

The whole show is paint-by-numbers predictable, from the wayward cousins’ unhappiness, to their slowly grudging acceptance of their aunt and uncle saving them from getting shunted to a random foster home.

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.

As far as medical stories go, there's not much in Saving Hope viewers haven't seen before (and better) elsewhere, including on "Grey's Anatomy."

"What About Brian" isn't a terrible show, it just doesn't offer enough unique reasons to make a weekly appointment with this gang of friends.

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.

It almost feels like a weird, little indie film if indie films were somewhat flat and predictable.

If Scorpion were better suited to today’s TV landscape instead of bringing to mind a TV series from 30 years ago, it could be an of-the-moment series worth watching. But it’s not.

With a premise that's at least 20 years past its "fresh until" date, the issues in Star-Crossed get handled with mostly predictable, rote exploration to the point that one has to wonder, does this show matter? Probably not.

It's one crazy mess of a TV "event series" that doesn't make much effort to clarify what it's about in the early going, plopping viewers into two concurrent plots that will presumably intersect at some point.

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

The show never allows itself to stand down from ill-fated, continuous attempts at heightened hilarity.

NYC 22 is very much a prototypical CBS show--it lacks ambition but it's not terrible.

Viewers who don't mind being dragged along for a ride, who are gluttons for punishment ("X-Files" faithful, perhaps), may want to join in John Doe's search. For the rest of us, Doe will remain the personification of an unsolved mystery. [20 Sept 2002, p.40]

Mostly the show dutifully doles out a lot of the special effects viewers expect from a supernatural series. But it’s all noise and explosions of light with scant attention to character development or relationship building (beyond the one obvious romance), something “True Blood” got right early on.

If you're able to get past the ridiculous premise--and, admittedly, I was not --Outlaw still suffers from other problems, including two-dimensional supporting characters.

I watched two episodes and with the exception of one riveting segment on security failures pre-9/11, I was bored out of my gourd.

A lackluster entry that's unessential viewing in this age of #PeakTV.

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

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.

Someone more philosophical than Shatner might have ruminated on the nature of reality in the world where technology can make anything seem real. But the space cowboy opts instead for action -- often shot in sluggish slow motion -- and humor, some of which seems blissfully unintentional. [18 Jan 1994]

Although I'm wise enough not to cross Jordan, I don't really want to watch more of this formula-driven show. [24 Sep 2001]

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.

There are a few lighter moments here and there--including some played for laughs that seem like they'd play better if they were serious, including the first time Kirsten gets stitched--but mostly Stitchers is a ho-hum procedural with an unlikeably emotionless lead character with daddy issues and the promise of hanky-panky with a not-nerdy scientist

The Salem pilot is rather plodding except when occasionally punctuated by these more gonzo scenes.

Fans of this hit-or-miss crime serial--and of Linden and Holder, in particular--may want to stream these final episodes just to see what kind of miserable state the show leaves poor Linden in, but The Killing long ago ceased to be required viewing for cultural currency.

Every reality show needs a mix of those you cheer for and those you jeer against, but "Texas Ranch House" has too many of the latter.

Every plot turn is predictable, no trope goes unexplored.

Great TV always flows from the specificity of a show's characters; "Happy Town" traffics in banal generalities.

The series improves slightly in a sketch that's filmed backstage where the improv comics are filmed from above sliding around on the floor on a set designed to make them look like they're standing upright.

A paint-by-numbers action-comedy.

Tonight's premiere is often a huge time-waster, but when it's not boring viewers with the umpteenth meet-the-judges segment and sticks to introducing wacky inventors, it's kind of a hoot.