The characters can better be distinguished from one another than the ciphers in "Three Rivers" but they still need time to develop and become something approaching realistic.

The Cleaner is the latest in a string of unremarkable basic cable dramas with a brand-name star playing the tough but damaged lead.

"What About Brian" isn't a terrible show, it just doesn't offer enough unique reasons to make a weekly appointment with this gang of friends.

Harmless fluff that won't impress its intended pre-teen audience, but they'll watch anyway. [20 Sept 2002, p.40]

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

How to be a Gentleman is exactly the kind of TV comedy Johnny Drama would be thrilled to star in.

There are some truly funny moments in Fox's manic, animated comedy Sit Down, Shut Up, a series that requires almost rapt attention to pick up all the jokes and amusing dialogue that's hurled at viewers. If a TV series ever suffered from Attention Deficit Disorder, this is it.

A rote sitcom and an embarrassment for all concerned.

Lousy writing and stale characters rule in Malibu Country.

Dull and plodding, "Hunters" is no reality TV treasure.

Maybe "Mr. Mom: The Series" would have been revolutionary back in 1983 when the Michael Keaton movie was released, but 17 years later the concept is as fresh as month-old milk.

"Sex" proves to be a series with loads of appeal for viewers still mourning the cancellation of "Melrose Place."

Unlike "Jackie," nothing in Mercy feels real or believable, particularly the naivete of the recent grad student newbie nurse, who acts as if she's never been in a hospital.

There's nothing revolutionary about this story of four friends.

To be sure, there are interesting ideas floating around in Heathers but surely too many at once.

Showing the evidence really adds nothing as the story twists, turns and contorts itself in an attempt to keep viewers from tuning out before the hour is up.

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.

Make no mistake, "3 Lbs." is a show that will better appeal to the CBS audience than "Smith" did, but it's a pretty generic show.

It's an OK CBS procedural where Weatherly's character, Dr. Jason Bull, always seems like the smartest guy in the room when he's running mock trials using a mock jury.

A soapy, shallow look at how gossip is currency in Hollywood.

It's basically a one-joke show--a guy in drag plays the leader of a clique of mean girls--that pales compared with the smart unpredictable chaos of comedy in "Getting On."

Maybe as an animated sketch on "Saturday Night Live," Allen Gregory would leave viewers eager for more. But in half-hour form, it's too much of the same.

"Big Day" doesn't feel like a big hit, but it is intermittently amusing.

The show is a manipulative tearjerker that uses this poor guy's real-life death sentence to milk tears out of viewers. And that makes it a little icky to watch. It's great that Childs gets all sorts of adventures but the blatant effort to wring tears out of viewers made me uncomfortable.

The show is gently entertaining in a way reminiscent of variety shows of old.

If you're bereft without new episodes of "House" this summer and willing to settle for a pale imitation, there's always Fox's Mental.

The acting talent here is marginal compared to the sitcom it replaces, "Out of Practice" (returning later in the season), but I found "Courting Alex" more enjoyable.

The CGI dinosaur renderings vary in quality, but the plot is fairly predictable from the get-go.