It's impossible not to compare the two casts or to find the new version a pale imitation whose characters don't feel fresh in the slightest, because, well, they're not.

A series that doesn't give viewers enough reason to care in its premiere episode.

Viewers who come to TV for smart, serious, sophisticated fare will likely hate this show while viewers just looking for something innocuous and entertaining will be more forgiving.

The show's premise has enormous potential--it's essentially a live-action version of "The Incredibles," about a family that gains superpowers--but Tuesday's premiere disappoints with its slow-moving plot and whiny characters.

Everything in Neverland is a quest as characters run from one large set piece to another without much character development except in minor strokes that are predictable and rudimentary.

All of the beats are overly familiar and the jokes are just as tired.

The first episode does a nice enough job juxtaposing scenes from the original with parallel scenes in the present, but enjoying Fuller House will require a high tolerance for laugh tracks and corny sitcom humor.

"24" still maintains some of its trademark intensity, but too often in these first four hours, the show is smack-your-forehead laughable.

Aggressively unpleasant and unrepentantly nihilistic, Syfy’s Deadly Classis likely to have limited appeal.

Written by I. Marlene King ("Just My Luck"), Tuesday's premiere is a generally predictable introduction that too often plays like a bad "Saturday Night Live" parody of a teen soap.

There's no sophisticated humor in FX's Unsupervised, which plays like a less witty "Beavis and Butt-head."

Sex Box is not dull despite being a talky show, but it's also unclear how many times viewers can watch this before the relationship issues gets repetitive. As for the "therapy," it's pretty shallow and fleeting.

The whole affair seems like a major miscalculation: Of Kings and Prophets seemingly features too much sex and violence for some churchgoers and not enough clarity for anyone else.

The pilot offers a deft introduction to the characters and their situations. It's just unfortunate that more care wasn't taken to create a show that feels fresh--The Deep End is rather moldy.

While it's hard to imagine that the show won't continue if it's a hit, Sunday's premiere marks an inauspicious debut that ignores the sound advice given to all writers: show, don't tell.

The galling part is how Cohen betrays satire by making it hollow and toothless. "Da Ali G Show" is a sheep in wolf's clothing. [21 Feb 2003]

Bill Nye Saves the World is just not that entertaining a show all-around. While the format is geared to adults, the content is too simple to be of interest to them. For kids who might try to watch, all the talking heads will be a bore.

Whodunnit? asks its contestants to become actors when they are chosen to be killed off, which gives this show a cheesy vibe that's accentuated by contestants screaming at the top of their lungs when they find a body that they obviously know is just someone playing dead. Add in pacing problems and reality show cliches and Whodunnit? may prompt a big "Who cares?" from discerning viewers.

"Day Break" is both dark and frustrating.

Bad Teacher relies on a one-joke premise that's funny enough in the premiere but seems like it will wear poorly over time.

Viewers who value character development, logic and plot consistency will be disappointed by this series that's sloppy when it comes to all three. It's often more concerned with looking cool and fun than making sense.

But like so many other shows in recent years, this concept would work better as a one-shot movie than as a weekly series.

The relationship between Ironside and his ex-partner, Gary (Brent Sexton), is somewhat interesting but everything else in Ironside is a well-worn cop show cliché, from Ironside’s tough guy routine to the dialogue.

Director Kirk Thatcher is saddled with a fairly dated concept--family in crisis finds salvation off the grid with magical woodland monsters--that might have worked as a one-hour special but feels stretched to fill the film’s two-hour running time.

Thoroughly average and unfailingly adequate, NBC's Lipstick Jungle is easier to like than ABC's cold, cynical "Cashmere Mafia," but that's like putting lipstick on a pig, albeit a pig dressed in couture.

This sitcom may elicit a few laughs, but the premiere episode is pretty lackluster overall, with obvious punchlines and predictable characterizations.

Tonight's premiere goes from spooky to goofy to intriguing to incomprehensible -- in that order. [6 Oct 2000, p.44]

The plot of the $#*! premiere episode marks an improvement on the first pilot as it scraps an uncomfortable real estate scheme story in favor of better establishing the relationship between Henry and Ed, but the show's humor is still too often as crude as its title.