As harrowing, dark and bloody as the premiere episodes are, and as open as the show’s direction seems to be, the comparisons [to Game of Thrones,” “Sons,” “Deadwood,” “Breaking Bad,” “The Sopranos,” and “The Walking Dead”] seem apt. This Bastard rocks.

But Nicky Fallin is about as unlikable and uncomfortable a character as television audiences have ever been asked to care for. Maybe he would unfold splendidly over time. But it's doubtful he'll get that time. [25 Sept 2001, p.5B]

Van Helsing obviously wants to be “The Walking Dead” with vampires, but it lacks that show’s production values, cast and over-the-top imagination.

Summer is traditionally the time to turn off your brain. “Panic” is for those who’ve disengaged.

Only trouble is--aside from the torture porn nature of the show--the story itself is a series of question marks that takes a plunge into the ridiculous in its climactic scene.

"Nine Perfect Strangers" is a clumsy star-driven project that, scene to scene, is never quite sure what it is. ... Hopefully there's an answer tucked into the final episodes, which were not provided for review. Whether or not you care enough to stick around that long, that's another story.

Unfortunately the pacing here is too slow and many may abandon the train before it gets where it’s going. “Behind Her Eyes” is the perfect example of a six-part series that should have been four. Its stretch marks are unseemly. Less can be more.

“Hunters” works in black-and-white and stereotypes, hiding in the bygone, but today anti-Semitism is on the rise and American Nazis apparently include “very fine people” according to one prominent source. Perhaps now wasn’t the time for a wildly uneven, superficial, comic book-type treatment of this particularly sick and unfortunately still-relevant dynamic.

Watching dad fend off guys while the girls strut around in thongs is going to get old fast. [17 Sep 2002]

With the tension of its premise and the promise of its family-driven drama, Gang Related may eventually work the stiffness out of its joints and become interesting. Or not. It’s that kind of show.

This is a solid, risky show with loads of potential. Keep it coming.

verybody apparently abandons their jobs without explanation, little irritants that add up, making for a sloppy and fairly obvious story. What’s odd is that so much talent — the fine young actress Jessica Barden plays an earlier version of Laura — is involved in what is basically this week’s content.

It’s not necessarily bad, understand, just surprisingly underwhelming considering it’s called Houdini & Doyle. One expects fireworks; instead we get consternation.

Backstrom is dicey indeed. Every time he makes a move, it's got to be part of an intricate puzzle that will be solved. More often, it's just an obnoxious guy staggering off in a direction that turns out to be conveniently right.

Mariah’s World isn’t breaking any molds. But because the supreme diva Mariah is the star, there’s a certain ridiculous, hilarious, hyper-stylized charm to the proceedings.

You’d think “The One” would have all sorts of places to go, and yet it goes to few of them. Instead the show revolves around a murder that’s neither mysterious or terribly plausible.

The pilot is a bit clunky setting all this up (there’s also Jack’s local bartender and friend, Eddie, played by Chris Williams), but the actors are all pretty sharp, as are the cross-generational jokes.

As summertime smarmy yarns go, American Gothic holds promise.

Maybe all these different storylines are going to meet up, maybe they’re all going to keep wandering around. It will take great patience to find out which.

By the end of the first episode you have little idea what’s going on; by the end of the fourth show the series is starting to gel a bit, but questions have been piled upon questions and soooo many characters have been introduced you need a scorecard.

Although this is certainly the most narcissistic talk show in memory, it depends wholly on whether you enjoy Chelsea or not.

Mostly this is see Halston go up, then see Halston go down, a far too familiar story. Just because it’s real doesn’t make it interesting. “Halston” never bothers to go beyond the obvious.

Star-Crossed never really catches fire.

Sharon Stone is a vengeful heiress and that’s all she is; Corey Stoll is an incompetent hitman and that sums him up. This isn’t acting, it’s posing. Happily Judy Davis and Sophie Okonedo — both Oscar nominees — do eventually develop juicy parts. And “Ratched” becomes watchable entertainment. But that style-over-content thing makes you wonder if Ryan Murphy shows would be better off with less Ryan Murphy.

Like "The Simpsons," "Married with Children," "Malcolm in the Middle" and other Fox sitcoms, the ridiculous reach is what makes "The Mick" work.

"The Woman in the House..." suffers from pacing issues and is stretched painfully thin at eight episodes (some as brief as 22 minutes), although it might have worked better as a movie, with the absurdity heightened, the fat trimmed and a more clear comic tone.

It’s all very breathless, as it should be, and Carter scores points by weaponizing a rather large object at the first episode’s end. But the original “24” was character-driven to a large extent by Keifer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer and elevated even further when Mary Lynn Rajskub’s Chloe O’Brian came along. No such fire or chemistry is evident here.

Despite all the talent, this relentlessly serious endeavor toggles between being dramatically inert and outright silly.