Some viewers will be eager to get to more zombies, but the quicker the show does this, the less unique it will be. Episode two moves the plot forward faster--more characters begin to understand what “the infected” are capable of--which will appeal to those craving zombies, but is sure to disappoint anyone wanting this show to shamble its own way.

Bates Motel takes a few episodes to get going as the writers build the world of White Pine Bay, and the story appears poised to really kick into a higher gear with a revelation at the end of the third episode. Up to this point Bates Motel is an OK character drama, but in building the broader world it inhabits the show begins to come into sharper focus.

Bellevue plays like a watered-down version of “The Killing.”

Margulies is an ideal actress to carry off this icy role. Perhaps in the hands of a more deft writer, Canterbury's Law could be the edgy show it aspires to be instead of the common courtroom drama it is.

Overall [it] is more charming than hilarious.

A self-consciously strange series can’t quite settle on a tone. Sometimes absurdly funny, other times a little dull and draggy.

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.

In its pilot, Once Upon a Time succeeds on charm but comes up short on logic.

In a cable universe where antiheroes dominate the scripted drama landscape, there's something reassuring about spending time with characters who, though flawed, usually try to do the right thing.

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

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.

When Atypical keeps its focus on the teen characters, including Sam’s ready-to- leap-to-his-defense younger sister, Casey (an outstanding Brigette Lundy-Paine), the series is at its best if sometimes most familiar. The show turns more annoyingly soapy when it turns to Sam’s father, Doug (Michael Rappaport), and mother, Elsa (Jennifer Jason Leigh).

It’s exhausting to watch Ally put through the wringer and yet also predictable about how she will emerge from the trial.

“The Politician” is sometimes a fun watch, but tonally it’s all over the place. The premiere offers some genuine emotions while episode two leans much harder into dark comedy.

The characters are engaging in their varying degrees of awfulness, and there appears to be plenty of story fodder for years to come.

The show is subtitled, which helps viewers understand the thick accents and British slang, but the whole thing is a bit nihilistic and the characters come across as somewhat debased.

It's more cheekily amusing than hilarious and full of comedy-of-the-uncomfortable moments.

The question becomes will more screen time allow the Big Secret to make sense? That will determine if the whole of Wayward Pines is ultimately worth watching. If nothing else, the first five hours are at turns intriguing, mysterious, engrossing and spooky.

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

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.

Overall, it's a mixed bag as Nurse Jackie settles into what will surely be its latter years without its creators at the helm.

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

After a slow start early in the pilot episode, the pace quickens, turning Condor into a taut, violent, compulsively watchable series for fans of “24”-style thrillers.

After suffering through too many poorly written, dramatically empty episodes of "Star Trek: Voyager," I was dreading the launch of UPN's "Enterprise" precisely because it came from "Voyager" executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. Maybe it's the diminished expectations or maybe they've actually come up with something decent, but tonight's two-hour "Enterprise" premiere is surprisingly satisfying. [26 Sep 2001]

Though the storytelling isn't groundbreaking, the setting is unusual by mainstream TV standards.

Sons of Liberty seems to get the broader strokes of history correct, but viewers who see the devil in the details will howl with laughter.

At times overly earnest, “The Red Line,” written by Chicago playwrights Caitlin Parrish and Erica Weiss and executive produced by Ava DuVernay (“Selma”) and Greg Berlanti (“The Flash”), is imperfect, but its existence demonstrates broadcasters haven’t completely thrown in the towel on quality drama and for that viewers can be grateful.

The Expanse is pure space opera with political and cultural undertones that aren’t always communicated well, but there are compelling enough stories in the foreground that perhaps in time the detailed universe the series attempts to build will become clearer.