In its early going, Strange Angel just isn’t strange enough to warrant sustained viewer interest.

"The Good Guys" isn't really good but it is OK if all you seek from TV is bland, comfortable entertainment--the same type of program you were watching 30 years ago.

This comedy is full of stock jokes, stock characters and even a stock premise.

As soaps go, The O.C. has its positive attributes, but the show is at its most enjoyable when it's focused on the family at the core. Anytime it strays into the world of the wealthy kids of Newport Beach in Orange County, Calif., it's almost painful because the characters are so detestable and yet bland. [3 Aug 2003, p.TV-5]

If a show could get by on atmosphere alone, ABC's stylishy shot "Night Stalker" would be an outright success. It is creepy, spooky and scary.... But all this isn't enough to overcome what will likely prove to be an insurmountable problem: casting.

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.

Imagine any "M• A• S• H"-style cliche and odds are good it will turn up in Combat Hospital whose predictability makes it a dull summer entry that may encourage viewers of this week's premiere to become deserters before next week's episode.

Producers of The CW's new series have taken the bones of the Nikita story and grafted on a new recruits sub-plot, sort of ideal for young CW audience, but it also makes for a convoluted series pilot that bounces around from one hollow story line to another.

Ben and Kate has its moments of inspired, gonzo idiocy but mostly it's like spending a half-hour with someone you can't stand.

Tawdry but lacking a spirit of fun, Mistresses strives to be a guilty pleasure, but it's more likely to induce guilt than pleasure.

"Eureka" just doesn't rise to a "Northern Exposure" level of quality.

Ultimately, the real question is not "Who Do You Think You Are?" but Why Should Viewers Care? This series does not offer a persuasive response.

Great as it is to see Ms. Badler again, her appearance can't save a show that's so poorly acted and written that the characters spout exposition but rarely say anything that sounds like something a real person would say. V looks and sounds like a cheap cable series rather than the big-budget network show it should be.

Hell on Wheels is not a bad show, but it's also not engrossing.

The show isn't helped by a two-hour premiere that states and re-states its premise too many times.

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 dull Descendants.... just seems like a widget--albeit an occasionally cute, harmless widget--churned out by the Disney machine.

To call "Dad" derivative of "Family Guy" would be an understatement. [28 Apr 2005]

Cane is probably the most traditional of these soaps. Unfortunately, it's also hampered by a muddled pilot episode with ham-fisted character introductions and an ending that's likely to put off some viewers.

The new cast is certainly game, expecially Cox, who has some terrific moves in her dance routines. And Adam Lambert crashes through a window on a motorcycle to perform a rollicking number. But what plot there is goes sideways in the last half-hour, just as in the movie. At that point, I just wanted it to be over.

The show is not so much awful as it is a colorless copy of better shows that have come before.

There's little in Donny! that's surprising or unpredictable but as "soft-scripted" comedies go, it has the occasional funny moment. But mostly it's just another comedy with a cringeworthy Dumb Daddy (Donny Deutsch) lead character that's easily skippable.

Sometimes the year’s warmest months remain a dumping ground for warmed-over series. Night Shift has all the earmarks of a show being dumped.

All the cliches of unscripted cable drama (like "The Real Housewives..." shows) are present, including in-fighting by a few members of the clique and ridiculous displays of opulence.

There's too much emphasis on fictional scientific theories and not enough character development to make the few scares in "Threshold" worth a two-hour commitment.

Unlike The WB's funny, wistful, pop culture-filled "Do Over," the one-hour That Was Then goes for pathos instead of laughs and it mostly misses.

The jokes, while occasionally funny, almost all feel reheated.

Whisker Wars gives a few glimpses into the care regimen of these mens' beards but fails to ask or answer an essential question: Why do they bother?