The acting is snappy and the characters are funky, while the cinematography is grainy and pleasingly unpretty. [17 Sept 2002, p.D1]

Hannibal is a sturdy offering, one that keeps viewers guessing and tensions simmering. Most TV crime shows have a tendency to quickly fade from memory. This one just might haunt your dreams.

'Weeds' stumbles at times during its first few episodes. It makes some of its points with too little humor and subtlety. But for the most part, this is a nuanced comedy with interesting characters performed by a first-rate cast. [5 Aug 2005]

Community can be too consciously zany at times and occasionally misses more than it hits. But from the early looks of things, it seems to be holding up just fine.

Whatever the case, it's a blast to watch Valley's character squirm his way out of a major mess, while keeping his droll sense of humor intact. Human Target never will be a big-time Emmy magnet, but as a piece of good, escapist fun, it definitely hits the mark.

The good news is that Kaling and her writers have crafted a character who is competent at her job, not a goofball in scrubs. And they've offset the show's dreamy sweetness with plenty of snarky bite.

The juxtaposition of the sometimes off-the-wall comments and the cuddly creatures is what makes "Comforts" so amusing.

Monday's opening hour is a bit disjointed stylistically. But the individual pieces are so compelling that you're still going to be sucked into the saga. And the show gets far more consistent in future episodes.

Lux is one of those cute, quippy, ultra-mature teens you find only on TV. And several plot points unfortunately come across as false. But it doesn't matter. The lead characters in Life Unexpected are so likable, and the interactions between them feel so natural, that you find yourself willing to give the show lots of slack.

There are a lot of characters and budding plotlines crowding the "Soul Food" pilot, which give it a disjointed feel at times (It tales a while to sort things out). In addition, the deployment of Ahmad as a sporadic narrator comes off as rather clumsy. ... But "Soul Food" eventually gains traction and becomes thoroughly involving especially by its second episode. [26 Jun 2000]

This is a cast that jells immediately, hitting on all cylinders from the very first scene.

The show crackles with witty (and jargony) banter and mostly succeeds at making its tech world fun and engaging -- something Randi Zuckerberg's "Start-Up: Silicon Valley" reality series too often failed to do. But the problem with Betas is that it's an uneven endeavor that's just good enough to make you wish it were better.

The series is not great television by any means, but it has a kind of breezy charm and sly wit that make it one of this summer's better new shows.

We don’t know if Pitch can sustain its uplifting premise, but after a fun and engaging pilot episode, it’s ahead in the count.

There is more tension to the interaction between the characters and more emotions in play. [23 Sep 2002]

The good news is that Sunday's two-hour opener answers several key questions in relatively rapid fashion and in ways that don't seem totally unreasonable. The bad news is that it also puts Sarah back at square one, and therein lies the problem.

It's fast-moving eye candy and that's about it. [12 Jan 1997, p.4]

The trick for Midler's writers will be to make sure the show is at least somewhat grounded in real-life situations while keeping the inside-Hollywood stuff from being too inside. It's funny, for example, when she expresses vengeful bitterness over losing the 1979 Oscar to Sally Field ("Norma Rae"), but it might not be so funny to hear references to her 1982 celluloid stink bomb "Jinxed." (Remember that one?) [11 Oct 2000, p.D01]

The show doesn't look as if it will get too complex for its own good, the mystery has an internal logic that works and, best of all, there are moments... that suggest the creators are constructing some real flesh-and-blood characters.

I suspect that if I were a 10-year-old girl -- which I'm not -- I would love this film... That being said, I can still recommend the movie because, despite some sugary-sweet moments,... [it] isn't condescending to its young target audience and actually has some bite to it.

There are lots of problems with the Special Victims premiere, chief among them being the focus on Olivia Benson, the female detective played by Mariska Hargitay. In a misguided rush to establish the character's background story and motivation as a cop, the episode's key moment is a revelation about an intimate detail of her life. It comes way before we have enough reason to care about her. [20 Sept 1999, p.7C]

The show isn't exactly laugh-out-loud funny, but it's smartly written and the cast jells from the start.

It is an extremely challenging bit of filmmaking, since almost nothing is initially what it seems and you have to pay very close attention to the complex storytelling.

The Riches is not a perfect show (the story's twists stretch the rules of plausibility every week), but it has something to say about such concepts as freedom and what constitutes a normal life. In addition, you won't find any better lead performances on television than those offered by Driver and Izzard.

Definitely worth your time.

Though Nikita is certainly dark, it's not as unbearably so as the USA cable version, which was too slick and soulless for its own good. The new version feels much more like a rollicking popcorn thrill ride.

One of the best-written and well-acted pilots of the fall, this spunky dramedy is full of small surprises. [29 Sept 2000, p.T034]

The boys are at their best when mocking the absurdities of what they find on television.