Although its super-bleak future is nothing new, Incorporated does an above-average job of bringing it all home.

The Kennex-Dorian combo is the best part of Almost Human, which otherwise keeps twisting and turning itself into a series of unwieldy plot knots.

Its overall implausibility and everything-but-the-kitchen-sink plotting work against what little promise Banshee has.

Kinnear carries himself ably, and his character’s amiable rogue presence wears fairly well for starters. The long haul may be problematic, though.

Matador is fairly jaunty and breezy in the only episode sent for review. But it also throws in some serious-minded violence as part of the mix.

Da Vinci’s Demons halfway succeeds on the strength of its vigorous, devil-may-care approach, even if it’s also almost thoroughly preposterous in terms of the central character’s deductive powers and abilities.

It’s well-acted while at times also being mis-directed in terms of storytelling and too many hit-over-the-head characterizations.

Cooper and Pulver are fine in the lead roles, although there’s little to like about either character’s comportment. The music swells on cue but the story just doesn’t jell.

Thorne's performance occasionally threatens to rise above this mess. But it's tough to overcome a narrative opening line that goes like this: "My dad used to say life is like a football game. There's winners and there's losers."

A Gifted Man won't kill any brain cells if you want to give it a try. But it's not all there yet with an unwieldy mix that also includes two life-threatening cases, a few scenes with Michael's frazzled sister, Christina (Julie Benz) and her problematic teen son and an attempted exorcism of sorts by a mystic named Anton (Pablo Schreiber).

This is a genuinely scary and unsettling series.

Friday’s curtain-raiser makes a better than expected first impression while at the same time putting Herrera’s hunky, soulful and appealing lead priest in play.

Snowfall is competently made and acted. But its images are just too destructive all around.

Entourage looks as though it still has enough juice--comedy, drama and Drama-wise--to make its last season a keeper.

These guys know what they’re doing. And this time they’re doing it with a welcome edge in rousing, ribald times.

The overriding problem with True Detective 2 is its neck-deep wallow in debasement and self-pity.

It all ends predictably--and flatly. A grin or two may intrude amid all the bountiful bad taste. It’s certainly not enough, though, to redeem a series that false starts and then keeps stumbling. Full of grace it’s not.

It’s fairly sturdy and convincingly gruesome in terms of showing a variety of battle wounds. It’s also predictable and oftentimes stilted, with the dialogue regularly preachy.

Literally nothing jells in this ham-handed first half-hour, and it may already be too late for full-blown emergency surgery. Still, Carol’s Second Act could well get a decent tune-in due to Heaton’s mere presence.

The two lead performances make me want to see more. ... Prodigal Son is more than several cuts below that Oscar-lauded classic. Still, it’s better than chopped liver, of which Dr. Martin Whitly has shown he knows a thing or two.

Spielberg has always had a facility for casting children and a fondness for the supernatural. In The Whispers he also gets the adult mix right in a bracingly good and shivery serial drama with much to show and tell in the first three hours.

Graves assuredly will turn off some viewers with its title character’s U-turns from previous conservative positions on military spending and illegal immigration. The series clearly has an “agenda,” but isn’t all that artful in putting it forth. Nolte’s performance is energetic without being particularly memorable.

For now, it's a disappointing polemic that mainly offends by being lazily or awkwardly executed more often than not.

Those who book full passage for Season One’s 10 episodes may or may not get full closure. The Alienist, which closes out Episode 2 with Moore at the mercy of gangland forces and their young boy prostitutes, so far is trying terribly hard to be darkly spellbinding. Toward that end, it has yet to make its case.

Episode 2 is considerably weaker than the watchable premiere.

At its best is dumb fun. Johnny, Hank and rookie EMT Brian of course keep making a fine mess of things. They also mesh together pretty well in a series that bracingly is without a detracting laugh track.

One of the better things about this series is its ongoing updates via clever Gilligan’s Island-esque sing-along lyrics preceding each new chapter. Better yet is Winstead’s assured, appealing performance as a D.C. tenderfoot thrust into a new world of mystery and political polarization that escalates once those bugs begin infesting and in some cases, exploding the heads of their prey.

The music has its moments and the comedy occasionally rattles home. Not nearly often enough to make it "Very Funny." But worth a few grins and maybe even a shimmy shake.