Girls above all is about uncomfortable creatures. That can be a helluva thing to watch at times. But still very see-worthy.

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

Cougar Town remains amusing in fits and spurts.

It keeps going about its business, getting better than ever each season with a restrained but gripping approach that's also sure to wear well decades from now.

Through it all, though, Downton Abbey is still superior entertainment on a grand scale.

Some of this is diverting or at least laughable enough to play along.

There's nothing to get outraged about, unless you want to rail against substandard comedy.

Those looking for depth will find none. Liz & Dick triumphs, however, as an amusement park for fans of the deeply dreadful.

The drought-stricken, spirit-sapping Great Plains of the 1930s get the lyrical and learned Burns treatment.

No cameras were allowed for this [interviews with the band], making it sometimes difficult to decipher just who's talking during the otherwise brilliantly edited archival footage assembled by filmmaker Brett Morgen

Stuck on hyper-drive and stuffed with hyperbole, Mankind: The Story of All of Us is history a-go-go from a programmer that used to obey a few speed limits.

It's a decently made but hardly exceptional movie without any high wattage star power but with a few familiar faces.

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.

Outlandish and thoroughly TV Land-ish, Malibu Country belongs on the network of Hot In Cleveland, Happily Divorced and other broad, blast-from-the-past sitcoms.

Real truths invariably come out, and this is a film that convincingly rings with them.

The fight scenes are easily digested but those down times can really make your head hurt.

Even with its air-brushing and reticent title subject, Ethel is a watchable, oft-affecting film.

Some of its imagery is arresting. But this is mostly a sorry, unfortunate and even contemptuous enterprise.

Gummer's a gamer, investing her lead character with smarts, compassion and no small amount of discombobulation. She injects the ordinary with her own unique prescription brand pick-me-ups, making Emily Owens bearable when it's not fully embraceable.

This is way too well-made a series to be dubbed a "guilty pleasure," even if a sizable percentage of the audience may watch purely for the visceral thrills of all that weekly bloodletting.

Beauty and the Beast won't hurt all that much to watch, but the dialogue and plot stretches can add up to a lot of little ows.

This seems like a serviceable drama that merits a bit better ladder grade (heh-heh) for an improved second hour.

It has Emmy caliber performances from its two leads and an authenticity that won't quit.

Arrow may not be a-point-ment television. But for starters at least, it's a sharper little tale than expected.

References to Beyonce and Michelle Obama are worked in without reaching too hard. And the "black experience," although hardly monolithic, resonates in ways that make this version quite special and different.

666 Park Avenue doesn't entirely lack a pulse, but doesn't get the blood rushing either.

It's a thoroughly ordinary series on what's increasingly an inconsequential night in the not-so-grand broadcast network scheme of things.

The first two hours of Last Resort are bracingly strong on pulling power.