Taken on its own, Marry Me offers a fast-moving, often hilarious debut episode that traffics in pop culture references as it establishes Annie as the loon and Jake as the tolerant, abiding guy who loves her.

It’s a series about the complications of life, relationships and especially perspective. It’s also the most innovative new TV series of 2014, especially from its fractured approach to storytelling.

A fairly standard family sitcom that rises above its pedestrian premise thanks to star Cristela Alonzo, a comedian who makes a favorable impression in this series about an Hispanic Texas family.

The Jane pilot whips through story quickly while setting up all kinds of potential entanglements for the characters. Whether subsequent episodes can maintain that breakneck pace, which helps accentuate the comic absurdity of the show’s premise, remains to be seen, but Jane certainly gets off to a strong, entertaining creative start.

The over-long season premiere--it's 63 minutes without commercials, so expect it to run close to 90 minutes on air; set yoru DVR accordingly--feels disjointed and the characters seem underdeveloped.

The premiere feels a little overly long--it clocks in at 53 minutes--but it capably creates the show’s insular world of blood, sweat and cheers, ending in an inevitable fight that features Nate as Ryan and Jay offer encouragement from the sidelines.

Town of the Living Dead, though entertaining, does not feel at all real.

It’s not a revolutionary show but at a certain level it is a step away from the angst and a return to the positive, uplifting feelings evoked by the 1978 Christopher Reeve “Superman” movie.

The first three hours of the new season that Showtime made available for review suggest Homeland is up for new challenges that move the show somewhat closer in tone to “24” while still maintaining a prestige sheen that it’s smarter, less formulaic and more believable than the Fox terrorism drama.

Mulaney feels dated, a throwback to '90s sitcoms that's out of place in Fox prime time in 2014. Maybe it would feel more at home on TV Land.

Cute, light and--most importantly--funny.

The pilot is not that funny as it trades in predictable gags about a woman who's competent at the office but a mess in her personal life.

The first couple of Gracepoint episodes follow the same plot [as "Broadchurch"]--even some of the same camera angles in some scenes--with such stringency it will be difficult for "Broadchurch" viewers to avoid a sense that this new show is a rerun.... For the murder-mystery fans [who haven't seen "Broadchurch"] among them, Gracepoint is fine, but they’d be better off seeking out the superior "Broadchurch."

[The pilot episode] winds up having a decent if unlikely resolution to its primary mystery. Even if it’s possible to get past the ugliness of the violence against women in the pilot, it’s hard to imagine that a procedural with such a tight focus won’t get old fast.

Although a TV series about the trappings of sudden fame could be cliché, Mr. O’Malley roots the show in specific, believable characters that make Survivor’s Remorse one of the fall’s stand-out new shows.

Fans of teen soaps may enjoy Happyland for the lark that it is but veterans of the genre may also move on quickly: Even the happiest place on earth gets old after a while, and the same goes for what’s ultimately a likeable but fairly generic series.

Manhattan Love Story is simply an unfunny study in tired male/female stereotypes.

A cute enough pilot from writer Emily Kapnek (“Suburgatory”). But is there really a weekly TV series to be had here? Time will tell.

Fans of “Six Feet Under” are likely to enjoy Transparent while those who find characters who make consistently poor choices frustrating and may be less enamored. “Transparent” isn’t funny all that often, but at its heart it does tell a relatively new, original story in a way that’s grounded and heartfelt without being at all saccharine.

How to Get Away with Murder is not by any stretch transcendent TV but it is great, gonzo fun, a breakneck-paced, well-made prime-time soap that, if future episodes are as entertaining as the pilot, may easily become viewers’ new TV addiction.

It’s the conversation about race and African-American culture in the pilot that gives Black-ish a little bit of edge. Whether that will be maintained in future episodes or dulled into familiar family sitcom pabulum remains to be seen.

For some viewers this sameness will be like slipping on a comfy pair of slippers; for others NCIS: New Orleans might be too much the same.

If Scorpion were better suited to today’s TV landscape instead of bringing to mind a TV series from 30 years ago, it could be an of-the-moment series worth watching. But it’s not.

Forever is not a bad show--the pilot is pretty well made for what it is--but aspects of the premise feel awfully familiar.

Fans of sophisticated drama may feel there's a dearth of smart new shows on the broadcast networks but The Good Wife continues to be broadcast's best answer to the scripted dramas on cable.

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.

It’s unclear from the pilot how all these players fit together.... Gotham could rebound from its overly familiar opening episode. Maybe the villains will become more than the sum of their early cameos. And certainly the presence of actors of the caliber of McKenzie and Logue, capably playing odd-couple police partners, offers promise.

"Glee" benefitted from the novelty of its musical performance and high-camp humor. Red Band Society has almost no unique attributes, which renders it an OK but not outstanding teen soap.