Plot contrivances aside, the new season of Chuck gets off to a decent start as friendships rekindle (Chuck and best friend Morgan become roommates) and new parties get involved in subterfuge.

It’s an entertaining enough hour for kids — my 8-year-old was spellbound — but whether it attracts adult viewers as “Rebels” and “Clone Wars” did probably depends on how the show’s serialized story develops.

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.

Designated Survivor pilot has its share of gaps in logic but it’s engrossing, if not entirely believable, and features the best opening scene of fall’s broadcast drama pilots.

Manhunt, clocking in at eight hours total, makes for fine if unexceptional storytelling. It’s a scripted true crime drama that may hook fans of psychological thrillers but lacks the panache and visceral punch of FX’s “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”

Fans of Mr. King's Bill Hodges Trilogy might wonder how a mostly internal cat-and-mouse game between Brady and Bill, a retired police detective with too much time (and drink) on his hands, is played out over 10 episodes. Very well, as it happens, and to chilling effect.

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.

It’s a niche series that can be visually stunning but chilly and dark. ... After one episode, I had no interest in watching more “Devs”; after four, the series has me quite intrigued.

Disposable as it may be, Starter Wife still has more to recommend about it than, say, NBC's "Lipstick Jungle."

It's an entertaining hour sure to appeal to fans of A&E's equally fast-paced British import "MI-5."

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.

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.

[Lansbury] made this show, which depended on smarts, instinct and the force of J.B.'s personality, not CSI evidence.

It’s unclear from the pilot how all these players fit together.... Gotham could rebound from its overly familiar opening episode. Maybe the villains will become more than the sum of their early cameos. And certainly the presence of actors of the caliber of McKenzie and Logue, capably playing odd-couple police partners, offers promise.

The second season premiere is a stronger hour than the show's pilot that aired in January with more character definition and lighter moments.

Smart, clever and punctuated with moments of warmth that avoid treacle, ABC’s Downward Dog delivers delightful comedy thanks to an angsty canine character with a psyche that is more human than mutt.

Executive producer David Eick said, "We wanted to make it less about escapism and more about moral complexity and great characters." In its early episodes, Caprica certainly succeeds in achieving those goals.

It’s always hard to tell how any series will go, especially one as reliably twisty and turny as American Horror Story, but in its first hour at least, Coven offers a clear, entertaining set-up for a potentially strong season.

It's not every day that I feel like a new TV show merits success -- and rarer still that I feel that way about a reality competition -- but "Lego Masters," already successful in the U.K. and Australia, offers family-friendly fun as it shows off brick building skill and creativity. It deserves to be a hit.

While the realistic depiction of college is not in question, "grown-ish" borders on depressing in its sobering depiction of modern college life.

Valerie is still thin-skinned, self-absorbed and occasionally pathetic. Fans wouldn't want her to be any other way, of course, but there's a limit on the variety of ways one can wring comedy from this character premise.

In Evil Genius, Mr. Borzillieri offers an attempt at an “ah-ha!” moment in the final episode. But the filmmakers’ thesis is not completely convincing. Other evidence presented in Evil Genius suggests a less clean cut, more nuanced scenario may be closer to the truth.

Just enough modern references so these new 10-minute episodes don’t feel like reruns.

Stack, Stern and the other executive producers created "on of the Beach with "over-the-top" as the show's mantra. It may not hold up on a weekly basis, but this first trip to the "Beach" is outrageous fun.

Don't Trust the B---- in Apt. 23 gets off to a strong comedic start with a quick-witted, fast-paced premiere episode.

While the show's premise seems like it could be difficult to maintain, Faking It holds up in two early episodes sent for review.

Vinyl drags in its occasionally predictable, too infrequently surprising premiere and invites viewers down a rough road. It feels authentic; it looks and sounds believable. But the situations and characters in Vinyl are overly familiar in this post-antihero, peak TV era.

The recurring gag is the absurdity of nerdy Forrest reviewing often illegal/immoral activities, and it’s a pretty good joke in the early episodes. It remains to be seen if that joke holds up or grows tiresome over time.