Heavy-handed in both its law enforcement and dialogue.

Harden is a fine actress, but the show’s writers too often give her heavy-handed lines that are the equivalent of cauterizing a head wound with a blow torch.

Hello Ladies already seems well-worn by the end of Episode 2. Some of Merchant’s asides are amusing enough, but not to the point of caring one way or the other about what befalls his character.

Tudyk camps it up as Van Wayne, sometimes amusingly so. A villain known as Jack O’Lantern also gets off a bit of a zinger while flying overhead. ... The opening comic book credits are pretty cool, too. Powerless otherwise is notably short on pop or long-term promise, with things staying pretty flat throughout Thursday’s scene-setter.

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.

Adapted from the Dutch series Overspel (adultery), Betrayal is consistently overwrought.

Rosenbaum has an amusing moment or two, but nothing to make anyone grin with the stereotypical wideness of the church’s gay staffer. The marginally funnier stuff occurs away from the parish.

Black Box at least has moments of unintentional high comedy in Catherine Black’s loopy magic carpet rides. But the series nonetheless takes itself way too seriously to be taken seriously.

So hard-hitting it's not.

None of the performances so far are enough to override or ameliorate all the concoctions and detours of the TV version.

This season instantly ratchets up the sadism with the aforementioned treatment of a comely corpse as a living doll. Unlike the first time around, that’s pretty much doused my interest in playing along any further.

The Bold Type in fact seems to have one type in mind--and it isn’t anyone with even a remotely plain face or a few extra pounds. Whatever points it labors to make are blunted by all its beautiful people.

Campbell-Martin very ably acquits herself while Walker runs a little low on overall oomph. Together they're less than dynamite, but capable of a few sparks.

Hotel Hell is every bit as watchable--in a morbidly fascinating way--as his other Fox crock pots.

Some fun possibly can be had here amid all the back-stabbing, sneering, secrecy and infidelity.

CBS has taken major steps to make its new fall series considerably more diverse than last time. The Neighborhood hits that mark, but also marches to the same-old/same-old sitcom beats.

There’s some enjoyment to be had from the lead performances of real-life best friends Emily Mortimer (The Newsroom) and Dolly Wells (Bridget Jones’s Diary). A brisk walk would be better for you, though.

This is basic paint-by-the-numbers storytelling despite the otherworldly premise. Both Ghost Whisperer and Medium had stronger grips and more interesting women as their center stage psychics.

The principal cast members are appealing enough, providing perhaps some hope that the material will mature and measure up to them in future episodes. For now, though, it’s mostly hammer-over-the-head time.

It's much more a bare-bones recitation, with some interesting sidelights in the telling.

There's nothing particularly striking or compelling here. But at least the escapee of the week will meet his fate at the end of each episode.

Atwell’s performance is solid enough, particularly when Armstrong is around for badgering purposes. But the weekly skirmishes with “The System” end in ways that at best strain credulity.

Maybe the content also will rise to the level of the art deco-ish visuals. But the opening episode has an overall creepy feel to it, paced of course by a seven-year-old's carnal longings for his gruff sexagenerian principal.

Despite being a quickly canceled hand-me-down, Fool Us remains fairly watchable throughout Wednesday’s premiere episode.

The premiere hour includes heavy lay-of-the-land narration by Magnum, perhaps in part because the character dialogue can be pretty clunky at times. ... The Hawaiian scenery remains gorgeous and crossover episodes with the Hawaii Five-0 guys are inevitable. This time around, the new Magnum also will have romantic possibilities with Higgins, who’s already sending some signals.

The older you are, the more you might respond to the oft-clunky, middle-aged craziness of The Paul Reiser Show.

The food looks pretty good. But that’s not enough to keep this drama from rising above basic cafeteria fare.

Another two hours (minus commercials) of thoroughly mindless entertainment in which lots of celebrities are harmed at the end of their cameo appearances.