It took me a while to overcome the "been there, analyzed that" feelings I had in the opening episodes, as Paul and his patients began the familiar dance, wherein they talk about only what they're comfortable talking about while Paul, like a good detective, tries to solve the mystery of what's really bothering them.

Overall, a solid but not riveting premiere. No goosebumps ala Eric in the halftime locker room last year, but as always, it's good to be back in Dillon.

So the atmosphere and central performances feel worthy of telling one story over 13 hours. My concern is whether the story can say the same.

Peter and Neal now have very good reason to be wary of each other, and that not only suggests good things in the future but spices up all of their interactions while they work their latest case. It's a vast improvement, and a welcome example of a show eventually finding itself by eliminating outside distractions and focusing as much as possible on the core concept.

When Doe is just exploring the depth and breadth of his great brain - playing a virtuoso rendition of "My Funny Valentine," showing off for a crowd of library patrons - John Doe feels like a show that a lot of people may want to get to know. [19 Sept 2002]

Ultimately, I was more drawn in by the team's interactions than I was by either aspect of the plot, but that's probably better for the show's long-term viability.

It's a good cast, and Porter in particular works very well with Bilson. The show just needs to find a way to transcend both formula and Southern stereotypes.

It aims high, and wide, and near and far, and if it doesn't hit all of its many targets, it hits several. And that's probably enough to justify the time and expense everyone put into bringing Torchwood more firmly onto American soil.

What you have is a comedy with three very talented, funny leads, with a premise that lends itself well to stories and jokes, and execution that isn't quite there yet.

"WWII in HD" at times felt like a rough outline of what an actual history of the war would look like, but it had all that amazing, horrifying imagery to compensate. The Vietnam in HD footage is no less incredible and/or dismaying, but it's also much more familiar.

It's an interesting, emotionally manipulative but still effective hour of television.

It's successful enough at achieving its own more modest goals.

There's enough involving the main characters that I'm willing to stick around for a bit to let the rest of House of Lies find itself.

The toughest part of most new series is coming up with characters that the viewer will want to watch for weeks, if not years, on end, and they've already licked that part of it. We'll see if the rest follows.

Some of it works, while other pieces either need to be dropped or improved going forward. Fortunately, there's a solid foundation in Walker and Ritter as the uneasy roommates.

If you view it as, say, a USA show with less humor but much higher production values, with attractive people having adventures you can enjoy while doing the laundry or sorting through junk mail, it'll do the job for now.

It's a primetime soap, but one that's genuinely more interested in what the characters want to do for a living than in who they're sleeping with.

I'd like to see the mysteries grow more engaging as the series moves along, but Longmire at least starts with a good foundation in Walt, his sidekicks, and the wide, open spaces they travel.

There's enough in this first episode to bring me back for more, but a lot of potential trouble signs along the way.

It's a promising framework for a series, and the first two episodes of Copper work in fits and starts.

It feels like Port, Guarascio and the other writers decided to reverse-engineer the Harmon version of Community, but couldn’t quite manage without the missing ingredient of Harmon himself.

Throughout the one-hour Mockingbird Lane pilot, it's easy to see why NBC wanted Fuller (with help from director Bryan Singer) to tackle this material, just as it's easy to see why his take scared them.

There's a likability to it that occasionally reminded me of another one-hour comedy that loved music, NBC's "Ed," and the varied nature of the parties the guys play evokes Starz's late, lamented "Party Down."

Like many a new comedy--and new presidential administration--it needs a little time to get settled in before we can expect it to really make its mark.

The lead performances, and the way that relationship is written, are all excellent enough to stick around a little while longer in the hopes that Bates Motel as a whole becomes something more interesting. But a lot of that may also depend on what exactly Cuse and Ehrin want Norman Bates to turn into, and how quickly.

In an episode like next week's, in which Allison spots the ghost of a recently deceased man watching a murder, the twistiness works; in one like tonight's, featuring a complicated web of affairs, betrayals and possible reincarnations, things become so tangled that the story and Arquette can't keep up.

The performances by the three lead actresses (and by Amanda Seyfried as Paxton and Tripplehorn's eldest daughter) are so strong, and the nuances of life in such a complicated relationship so endlessly fascinating, that I'll suffer through the rest for a few episodes at a time before Bill's unsettling stare or Roman's calm, criminal sense of entitlement chases me off again.

The larger problem may be whether there's enough material to cover an entire season.