Viewers who want TV to wash over them as light entertainment may enjoy Franklin & Bash, but viewers who prefer thought-provoking TV programs that engage on a higher level may not be satisfied.

Football fanatics may appreciate 4th and Forever but to me it seemed more scripted than "FNL."

Given the topic, Too Big to Fail might seem like a movie made only for policy wonks but even if you don't understand the finer points of monetary policy, it's still entertaining because it features that great equalizer in American popular culture: Wealthy, well-heeled people behave like jerks, allowing the less wealthy a certain superior satisfaction.

The movie holds the interest, despite a tendency to sentimentalize.

There are scenes in the first five episodes of the new season that are as compelling as anything television has to offer. But the viewer has to wade through material that fails more often than not to deliver on its promise.

Cinema Verite dramatizes the making of "An American Family," but it dwells too long on the setup and doesn't spend nearly enough time on the public response to the program and the impact that reaction (much of it negative) had on the Louds.

A grand soap opera of epic proportions, Game of Thrones can be a bit talky in some episodes, but the series draws a viewer in with well-defined characters and a multitude of simultaneous stories whose plot turns are generally unpredictable.

Happy Endings excels at fearless humor that's sometimes shocking, not because it's gratuitous, but because it's an unexpected surprise--and a welcome one at that.

It suffers from predictable jokes that are more likely to conjure a hint of a smile, not a belly laugh.

The new Upstairs gets off to a somewhat slow start in the first of three one-hour installments, but in its second and third episodes the dramatic engines rev as the political climate of the day begins to drive the story.

With Gigolos, Showtime takes a topic that should be provocative and turns it into nothing more than "The Real Man Whores of Las Vegas."

It's a strange little show: A light-hearted half-hour caper that purports to be a comedy but isn't really that funny.

Even on the rare occasions when those shows [like CSI or Law & Order] tell stories involving the death of a child, they're almost never as raw, palpable and grim as The Killing, an engrossing, well-made drama series that viewers should embrace despite its tough subject matter.

The Kennedys has the look and feel of a 1980s miniseries, and it's not trying to be anything more exalted. Unlike "The Borgias" and "Camelot," its reach does not exceed its grasp.

The Borgias is an adequate soap but one that's also rife with missed opportunities.

This retelling of the Arthurian legend feels overly familiar and there's just not enough that's new or different to make it worthwhile.

It's less of a flash mob and more of (one hopes) a flash in the pan, the one-and-done special it deserves to be.

It's a fascinating glimpse into a culture that I suspect many Americans would prefer to remain ignorant about.

The problem with toning her down is that it means diluting the only thing that distinguishes Body of Proof from all the other crime procedurals, and what's left is a generic show with an above-average star.

The miniseries feels a little pokey in its early chapters, although it does an excellent job of establishing the primary characters, and then races too quickly toward its conclusion (wait, who is Mildred married to now?).

It's not clear to me that viewers who come to Syfy for actual science fiction will appreciate this series--"Face Off" was more on point and a better show, too--but for fans of reality TV cooking shows, MQK does add a new flavor to the prime-time cooking show palette.

There are no television breakthroughs in Breakout Kings, a pretty pat procedural that tries a little harder than some of its predecessors.

If the concept of Taking on Tyson seems odd, the execution is more predictable, framing Mr. Tyson's pigeon racing, his first competitive endeavor in several years, as a kind of therapy. Still, the show benefits from some surprisingly strong visuals of the birds in flight--at least for viewers who do not see pigeons as rodents with wings.

It's a high-quality reality show about creating a mid-range dining experience.

Celebrity Apprentice is pretty much in its typical form, which is to say, craziness involving mostly D-list celebrities, including NeNe Leakes, Star Jones, Lisa Rinna, Gary Busey, Mark McGrath and "Survivor" winner Richard Hatch.

As anyone who has used an old photocopy machine knows, a copy of a copy of a copy is rarely as good as the original. Suspect Behavior comes across as a show in search of a purpose beyond the obvious brand extension.

Of the couples comedies to debut so far this midseason--NBC's "Perfect Couples" in January, Fox's "Traffic Light" last week--CBS's "Mad Love" (8:30 tonight, KDKA-TV) is probably the best. That's not to say it's a great show, but it is the least groan-inducing.

Traffic Light seems to want to be a male "Sex and the City" or "Entourage" without the Hollywood backdrop. But the scrapes these guys get into are more recognizable and more cliched than what the "Entourage" guys encounter.