It's essentially interested in the ways in which lonely, damaged characters allow themselves to find comfort in a world that has no fixed moral moorings, and the wounded tenacity of these people is every bit as intriguing as the progress of that mystery briefcase.

This show only occasionally works, and I increasingly think it would have been a better bet as an animated show.

One of the best things about "Happy Endings," however, is how the character relationships all work--each combination of characters brings its own pleasures. Suburgatory isn't quite there yet.

Happy Endings has so many things going for it that the occasional weak story line or meh scene is not a big deal at all.

It's to the credit of Asylum's writers, directors and cast that the emotional pain of the characters often feels as real as their uncertainty and terror.

Tactical wins, taut storytelling and zombies munching tasty, tasty braaaaains: All that plus the addition of Michonne and David Morrissey as the Governor in upcoming episodes make me pretty damned happy that The Walking Dead is back.

It's a high-class entertainment that takes its locale and its characters seriously and treats the audience to some enjoyable music along the way.

Structurally, the whole thing feels fresh again, and even if I have doubts about how the writers will wring two worthy seasons out of the new dynamics (Showtime has committed to airing at least one more season), the three 2012 episodes I've seen efficiently pulled me back in.

There's nothing about the two episodes I've seen that makes me think the second season won't be as addictive as the first.

If you can accept Midwife for what it is--and at its core, it's a pleasant, even romantic period piece about divergent people who learn to take care of their own--there are quite a few pleasures to be found here.

I'm not discouraged by the show's early growing pains; the cast is still full of good actors, Last Resort displays an admirable amount of forward momentum and the hiccups along the way are just another indication of how many chances the show is taking.

For all its predictable moments, however, Made in Jersey is still more or less watchable, thanks to Montgomery, who is an effortlessly appealing actress.

The two leads lack any kind of chemistry, platonic or otherwise, and the storytelling lacks the smarts and insight of one of TV's best Sherlockian creations, "House."

I'll keep watching, given the caliber of the cast and the solidly made pilot, and I'll hope that Vegas gives these actors more to do than standing over bodies and leveling shotguns at city slickers.

It's the kind of show that could well settle into a nice groove once it gets a few episodes in, especially given that all the performances are top notch, including those from Lucy Punch and Echo Kellum as friends of the title duo.

There's a weird stew of ideas about expectations, desire and anger roiling around in Mindy, but as they're explored here, those ideas don't cohere into a show that's either funny or cogent.

This just doesn't work on any level and creates very little suspense, even in life-or-death situations.

Feisty is one thing, rude is another. But all of that is of a piece with the show's generally lazy approach to storytelling: A couple of supporting characters are cardboard villains, and a subplot about a minor's surgical procedure doesn't make a ton of sense if you know the first thing about medical privacy laws.

CBS programs generally display a level of basic competence that this "comedy" falls woefully short of.

The clash between the callow and the compelling set off an ongoing debate between the hopeful part of my brain, which wants to like a sci-fi-ish show dreamed up by executive producers J.J. Abrams and Eric Kripke, and the scarred part of my brain, which has been burned dozens of times by genre-flavoroed shows that had interesting elements or cast members but also disappointing executions and annoying younger characters.

The women here are shrewish, the vibe is both manic and tired, and overall, the decent cast (which includes the wonderful Anthony Anderson) is given nothing funny to do.

The New Normal needs to work in a more linear and emotionally direct fashion, and there's not much about this NBC pilot, which is fueled by a mixture of cattiness and slick manipulation, that reassures me on that front.

It's weird that in the show's fifth season, the stakes actually feel lower than they did a couple of years ago.

Frankly, it's avant-garde to the point of feeling overwrought and pretentious.

As it is, the decent but unspectacular Copper comes off as "Deadwood Cop," minus the Milch.

There are fitful moments that work, but the show also manages to shoot itself in the foot regularly.

The second season of this Western finds it marginally better paced and the characters moderated a bit from the broad archetypes seen in Season 1, but I still find little to compel me in the story of a robber baron and an ex-soldier teaming up to get a transcontinental railroad built.

Animal Practice might devolve into a lot of jokes about mammalian reproduction and/or defecation, or it might evolve into a goofy workplace drama with reasonably sparky leads and occasionally frisky pythons. Given the quality of the core cast and the mildly pleasing (if broad) nature of the pilot, I've got my paws crossed and I'm hoping for the latter.