If you've given Cougar Town a real shot and found that it's not for you, fair enough; but if you already love the goofy-sweet-smart flavor of this show, you'll find a lot to like about the new season.

The River isn't terrible, and it actually has some effective elements, but it's fairly indicative of ABC's post-"Lost" flailing.

Smash elegantly and energetically draws you into the orbit of a dozen dreamers and schemers at various stages in their Great White Way careers, and, like a true pro, the show makes it all look easy.

It's certainly worth keeping up with Key & Peele, given how strong and confident those outings are.

The parts that do work possess the doom-laden yet strangely optimistic romanticism of Milch's best work.

Nothing about these connections feels particularly earned and many of the twists and turns of the pilot feel contrived and obvious, especially toward the end.

Justified doesn't come close to losing control of its narrative.

Alcatraz isn't bad, but it's not exactly brimming with the kind of engaging magic and memorable people that you want from a J.J. Abrams project.

Given how much potential this premise contains, I dearly wish The Fades could decide what it wants to do.

The good aspects of this show are engaging and Misfits is a damn sight more consistent than the most spectacular fail in this genre, "Heroes."

What a light, yet satisfying treat this show turned out to be.

It's hard to get behind the dilemmas of a group characters who whine as much as this gloomy bunch.

With its mildly irascible lead and its extremely sturdy central premise, it evokes USA's better shows, right down to its blue skies and palm trees.

At least Lewis appeared to be having fun, which can't be said of anyone else in this rather grim production.

Chelsea doesn't do anything to make the TV version of Chelsea interesting, likable or winning.

[The actors] are cramped by obvious, unsubtle writing and a show that doesn't seem to have much of an idea of where to take these sardonic characters.

Now in its second season, Portlandia has matured into a comedic concoction that is consistently pleasing.

Your investment in the many stories spun out by creator Julian Fellowes may take longer to develop this year, because the costume drama's pace is off in the early going and it's far more contrived and inconsistent than it was in its first season.

Women are as capable of writing a misogynist, soul-killing TV comedy as anyone else. Exhibit A: I Hate My Teenage Daughter, a shrieky nightmare.

It's good at being tedious.

This small gem of a film manages to be a finely drawn character piece and a searching exploration of what powerful people will (and won't) do to keep their countries safe, and it provides some great actors with meaty roles along the way.

Perhaps Allen Gregory's arrogance is meant to be entertaining, but I just found it mostly insufferable, despite his occasional flashes of self-awareness.

There's still something winning and relevant about their particular blend of cluelessness and surprisingly sharp commentary.

There are times when the enterprise lacks a certain heft and when the fantasy realm seems a little generic. Also, some characters, especially Lana Parrilla's Evil Queen (who is also the mayor of Storybrooke), are one-dimensional in kind of maddening ways, though Robert Carlyle makes up for that with his charismatic turn as both Rumplestiltskin and a Storybrooke resident named Mr. Gold.

The problem is, the show that's been built around the actor (who's also a producer on the project) isn't nearly as interesting as what Grammer brings to the screen, and the sluggish pacing and melodramatic excesses of Boss could put off those drawn in by the actor's confident star turn.

The bottom line is, if you liked the what the show was dishing out in its first season--genre storytelling made with admirable restraint and economy, except for those jump-out-of-your-seat scary/gross moments--you're likely to enjoy what you see in season 2.

It doesn't work as a character drama and it's tiresome more often than it's freakily scary.

It's nice to see that in the first three episodes of the eight-episode second season, the plots, such as they are, have a little more discipline and focus than they did in season 1.