Unfortunately, The Cape fails to fly. Lyons has all the charisma of a fence post, and the leaden scripts bring no fresh twists to the genre.

Wu does what he can, bringing a steely authority and mad kick-butt skills to the role. But the show is hampered by too many overly broad characters, genre cliches and the kind of groan-worthy dialogue that leaves one restless.

Unfortunately, things just never really gel in a pilot episode that falls flat and is only intermittently funny....In fact, only Janney, whose gleefully oblivious character spews un-PC zingers and keeps a huge self-portrait in her office, makes a truly fresh impression.

The opener is riddled with juvenile humor consisting of jokes pegged to corpses, crotches and child molestation. It's almost enough to trigger a case of mad cow disease.

A pedestrian, predictable crime procedural.

It's an intriguing premise but one that comes off a bit strained in the opening hour and leaves you with the feeling that you have no idea where the show is going.

Baruchel and Johnson (who is quite appealing in his role) have real chemistry.

Baum's work almost collapses under the weight of a misguided re-interpretation.

Blanchard is lovely and plays Cher so well that you'll never miss Silverstone. Many of the key supporting actors from the movie reprise their roles in the TV series, but the chief saving grace is the clever script. [20 Sept 1996, p.3E]

The writing is smart, the production is crisp and surprisingly stylish, given the budget, and the show has a fascinating central character in kinetic blogger Dylan Krieger.

If it keeps its balance and cuts back on some of the more implausible moments in the first hour, this series could be a keeper.

This is by no means a lousy show. The performances are solid and the brothers-working-together dynamic is intriguing. But the pilot lacked dramatic oomph, and it did a poor job of actually taking viewers inside the math and explaining how it works. Consequently, "Numb3rs" just doesn't add up. [22 Jan 2005]

As TV science fiction goes, there's nothing particularly bad about this spinoff from the long-running Stargate series. On the other hand, there's nothing particularly good about it either. [15 Jul 2004]

The show does a decent job of setting up its premise, the pace is brisk enough, and there are plenty of visual flourishes, but somehow. it all feels a bit too mechanical. It doesn't help that, with few exceptions, the new characters are pretty juiceless.

Moliere it's not, but somehow it works as a sort of energized hybrid of "The Beverly Hillbillies," "Mork & Mindy" and those "Coneheads" sketches Curtin spent so much time in while she was with SNL. [7 Jan 1996]

This series is about the bonds of family and heated power struggles--with a big dose of vampiric hedonism mixed in. Sounds like the makings of something pretty fang-tastic.

If you're a sucker for tangled mysteries--and are in need of a few heebie-jeebies--the show has enough oomph to its early episodes to suck you in.

Some viewers will be riveted to the sex, violence, beautiful nude bods and sensory gluttony of Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Others will be turned off almost instantly.

There's just enough punch to it that you'll want to stick around for Hour Two.

Right now, it's a comedy in search of real laughs. [20 Sept 2002, p.1]

It tries to be edgy but misses by a mile.

It may be that in the long run, "Heist" proves to be something you can admire simply for its pure entertainment value. But right now, it's a show that looks good on the surface but is empty at the core.

This is a series trying to be fresh but succeeding only in trading on the predictable cliches.

An incoherent, almost unwatchable mess.

It shows more than a bit of promise.

I found enough mesmerizing moments, bits of character and sharp Milch dialogue in the opening episodes that I'll probably stick around to catch a few more waves.

There's nothing particularly fresh about the visual approach, the writing is only serviceable and the plotlines -- a pregnancy, a drunken-driving accident, love found and lost -- are straight out of TV Writing 101.

It's a rip-off (and not a particularly well-executed one) of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."