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.

Viewers accustomed to Connie Britton playing Teflon-strong characters on “Friday Night Lights” and “Nashville” may take a minute to adjust to her role as a soft-spoken, breathy interior designer who falls for a scam artist in Bravo’s pulpy, addictive “Dirty John.”

The pilot's plot leads them in a direction where "this just in" becomes an obvious sexual metaphor--some of it is funny, but there's just too much.

The Finder is not sophisticated TV but it does have its charms, mostly stemming from star Geoff Stults.

Through its first two hours, Black Sails is entertaining enough but not nearly as addictive as "Spartacus" came to be through its first season; perhaps in time that will change.

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.

Created by writer Justin Spitzer, Superstore has its funny moments as it alternately mocks People of Wal-Mart types while trying to protect the dignity of the store’s employees. It’s difficult for the show to have it both ways. Superstore is at its funniest when it’s also at its most ruthless and offensive, but those moments are few.

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

Truly funny interactions between Triumph and celebrities in the field get dropped into the studio-based inanity. The studio stuff is often dull, less funny and pathetically produced; it looks like some of the movies I made in high school.

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.

Defiance is less gritty than Syfy's best series, "Battlestar Galactica," and the characters aren't as well drawn as on the superior "Farscape." "Defiance" lands at a slightly higher end of the murky middle ground of quality.

The Limitless pilot, the only episode CBS made available for review, offers a terrific hour of character introductions that builds on the world established in Mr. Cooper’s movie. There are a few plot holes, but they’re forgivable. Then in the last 10 minutes of the pilot, everything that made the hour unique is threatened with extinction when you can see the confines of the CBS crime procedural box closing in.

Bloated and still inconclusive, the new “Unsolved Mysteries” benefits from Netflix’s usual high production values for nonfiction programming, but there’s no reason for these episodes to drone on as they do; there’s not enough story to support their running time.

Swissvale native Billy Gardell returns in this new Chuck Lorre sitcom that has a slight premise and few laughs, but newcomer Folake Olowofoyeku as Abishola gives an effortless performance that’s equal parts sweet and tart.

The second new NBC show this fall to give a bit of a “Community” vibe, just not as funny as that pilot was. But the “Sunnyside” study group characters offer promise for bigger laughs to come.

There's definitely some amusing moments but the show will have limited appeal.

Everything else that's supposed to be a shock is telegraphed well in advance. Everything meant to surprise falls hopelessly flat. [18 June 1999, p.44]

The Menendez Murders lacks the multiple social themes of “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” settling instead for an occasionally pulpy story that takes a turn into purple prose when it begins to explore the role of Erik’s therapist, Dr. Jerome Oziel (Josh Charles). ... The presence of Ms. Falco, whose character gets a husband (Chris Bauer) and workaholic back story, elevates the proceedings, but she appears sparingly in the premiere.

Power is fine but it doesn’t live up to its title. It’s not a powerful drama because viewers have largely seen all its tricks, plots and character relationships before.

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.

As serialized mysteries go, Game isn't terrible but some of it is preposterous enough that viewers may not want to play it again.

The pieces may be familiar, but there are enough new elements that prevent this series from feeling like a total rip-off.

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

There’s timeliness to the never dull “Damnation” despite its period setting, particularly in episode two when a professor (Gabriel Mann, “Revenge”) disparages the “unwashed rural masses.” Just don’t go looking for any heroes: There are none to be found.

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

Whether Scream can overcome Noah's legitimate concerns about adapting a slasher movie for TV remains to be seen. But tonight's premiere gets the show off to a strong creative start.

It’s an interesting conceit to follow one character at three points in his life every week and see how things that happen in one era influence another. It also seems like quite a juggling act for the show’s writers. Time will tell how they manage to maintain it on a weekly basis.

While the character drama is compelling and often well-acted, the viciousness of this world proves a barrier to entry some viewers will understandably choose not to cross.