[Brooklynn] Prince is a real find and Hilde’s relationship with her father forms a heartwarming backbone for the series. But the tone is confusing: Too dark to be a family show, even though it has a family at the core, “Home Before Dark” offers a dark mystery plot instead.

The good news is the fashion competition at the heart of “Making the Cut,” as in “Project Runway,” remains strong. The competitors are mostly serious designers. They’re not gimmicky distractions to be laughed off stage (except maybe one). ... Despite episodes with long-ish running times, “Making the Cut” doesn’t show the judges offering post-runway critiques to every designer, just the top two and bottom two.

“Council of Dads” is a better show and less blatantly manipulative than last year’s post-“This is Us” NBC series, “The Village,” but “Council” still piles on the dramatic plot turns in ways that are easy to spot a mile away, though occasionally unpredictable (and maybe even confusing for some viewers). It’s a LOT of drama to absorb all the same.

The types are all pretty obvious and plot turns are telegraphed well in advance, yet the show fails to clearly explain what is going on in this alternate America. The witchiness of the young women is even underplayed to a frustrating degree until late in the premiere episode.

Three episodes in, this season three reboot offers some hope but. ... The problem: when nothing in “Westworld” is reliably real, there’s little for viewers to cling to, which makes the entire enterprise more exasperating than cleverly twisty drama.

An emotionally moving period drama that feels timely and recognizable in the present.

“Fires” burns bright in its first episode and beyond, promising an engrossing, fast-moving, character-driven drama that becomes deeper and more disturbing as the story unspools.

The pilot episode of FX’s new dark comedy “Breeders” will be instantly relatable to anyone who’s ever parented young children. ... Subsequent episodes draw focus away from Paul and Allie and their children and expand to include more attention on Paul’s elderly parents and the addition of actor Michael McKean as Allie’s unambitious American father. None of this is bad per se, just not as funny as what’s established in the premiere.

It’s a niche series that can be visually stunning but chilly and dark. ... After one episode, I had no interest in watching more “Devs”; after four, the series has me quite intrigued.

Daring and different, but not dark. It’s a rare feel-good contemporary series that’s not dumbed-down.

While there’s sometimes a sameness to Fox’s recent animation efforts — comedies centered on families filled with oddballs — that doesn’t necessarily diminish the laughs. Newcomer “Duncanville” certainly prompts multiple guffaws in its first two episodes.

In its first couple of episodes “Mythic Quest” carves out its own niche, mining comedy from the specific realm of video game creation. A sociopathic intern who worships the boss, in particular, offers consistent laughs.

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

It's not every day that I feel like a new TV show merits success -- and rarer still that I feel that way about a reality competition -- but "Lego Masters," already successful in the U.K. and Australia, offers family-friendly fun as it shows off brick building skill and creativity. It deserves to be a hit.

It’s all a little too on-the-nose and predictable. Falco is fantastic as always, but the writing in early episodes lacks anything approaching the nuance and sophistication of Falco’s past series, “The Sopranos” and “Nurse Jackie.”

“Picard” certainly introduces a deeper “Star Trek” which has its appeal but at times it also seems a little convoluted with talk of a “shared mythical framework.”

The show is intermittently funny but not consistently hilarious, too often going for the low-hanging fruit of old people saying dirty things.

HBO made the first five episodes available for review, and in the early going “Avenue 5” doesn’t entirely work but neither is it the disaster that befalls the show’s ship and passengers.

Sticks close to the original in tone, but, oooof, it suffers from a clunky introduction. ... The exposition is heavy-handed, the justifications for some plot twists are dubious and the dialogue often laughable. It’s just so on the nose.

The pilot doesn’t even really play into the absurdity of war a la “Catch-22.” It’s unclear what “68 Whiskey” is trying to do but whatever it is, it’s not doing it well.

The verdict? Not as gosh-awful as I expected...sort of a "Hunter" with heart. [4 Apr 1993]

While “Everything’s Gonna Be Okay” addresses myriad issues, it does so with good humor, warmth and fresh approaches to an orphaned family, Nicholas’ sexuality and a child on the spectrum. Yes, this newly formed-by-circumstance family faces crises but they’re realistic with an equal mix of drama and comedy, just like real life.

The immigration angle is new and does add an element that wasn’t there before but the rest of “Party of Five,” while admirable and certainly watchable, doesn’t demand to be seen.

It’s filled with music and some high-energy dance numbers. But what comes between those highlights is often dull and without stakes. It’s the perfect show to do laundry to; it only beckons viewers to lean forward and pay attention during the occasional musical number.

In between firefights and car crashes, the clichés pile up quicker than dead bodies.

A smart, thought-provoking drama. But for some it will be tough to sit through the show's unrelenting gloom....TV viewers who like to be challenged -- I'm thinking of the "Homicide: Life on the Street" fans out there -- will cotton to the murkiness of Wonderland.

With its emphasis on dysfunction, Titus allows for dramatic moments that actually ring true. But they're few and far between in this show punctuated by flashbacks that interrupt the narrative flow. Titus suffers from a TV version of Attention Deficit Disorder, similar to the tangents on Fox's "Family Guy" but a lot less funny. [20 March 2000]

Occasionally funny but mostly sort of dull, “The Moodys” seems unlikely to become a Christmas classic.