The result is not only that the show is funny, but that we also actually like both June and Chloe.

Key and Peele are sufficiently talented and versatile to carry off a half-hour show on their own.

Loss is the birthright of every life, and no one can refuse it. Yet we go on, buoyed by hope and love. Not exactly an original message, but it is one that Midwife delivers convincingly.

A single film about three young people won't, by itself, make a universal happy ending for every troubled LGBT kid in the United States. But it's doing its job if it reaches just one of them.

Mullally is certainly another reason to watch the show, but her presence also works to solve another problem: cast dynamics.

Notwithstanding the cat-and-mouse plotting, we watch The Killing because of the superb writing and attention to character detail in the scripts by series executive producer Veena Sud and others.

BFF takes a less than inventive situation and turns it into something close to sitcom gold, thanks to the fact that creators Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham have taken the time to write believable characters saying legitimately funny things.

The strength of his film is that he leaves it to us to make our own decisions about Barnes and the other death row inmates.

Missing may be 2 percent inspiration and 98 percent perspiration with all of its action scenes, but it's fun to watch. Judd classes up the joint nicely.

Adams and Macht are terrific, with the former loosening up quite considerably this year as Mike....Torres is cool, sexy and commanding as Jessica, and Markle, Hoffman and Rafferty contribute greatly to the energy of the show's core ensemble.

Although the characters have only scant or fleeting redeeming personal values, we continue to buy into their machinations because of how they are created and because of superbly convincing performances at every level of the cast.

The inevitable and believable intersection of "old" and "new" musical theater adds real life and renewed potential to Smash.

Hatfields & McCoys does a good job of explaining the roots of the feud and helping us see that, regardless of whatever legitimacy there may have been in one family's hatred of the other, none of it was worth the lives lost over those six blood-soaked years.

Kaufman's film, despite some flaws, captures the intensity of their story and pulls us in with the irresistible force of a great, doomed love story.

Hit & Miss doesn't take long to convince us that its characters and plot are not only possible, but credible and, dare I say, touching.

Elementary will probably infuriate Sherlock Holmes purists, but other viewers are likely to find it gripping and well cast.

Whether you see the seams or not, though, what matters is that it all works, and we'll keep watching, if only to see Quaid and Chiklis square off against each other week after week.

The second season is to explore Ryan's character and the vulnerabilities that enable him to see Wilfred as a biped.

This is a family show in the best meaning of the term.

The performances are all first-rate, so much so that they help the audience overcome very minor skepticism when events in Tony Basgallop's script feel a bit too convenient to be entirely credible.

Schwartz's workmanlike film nonetheless gives us a detailed portrait of the man as well as the activist.

The characters on Go On are engaging and varied.

A fairly promising new show with a lot of humor, solid performances, a snappily written script.

Yes, Revolution is a good adventure yarn, but the other reason we're likely to watch future episodes is that it grounds the action in thought-provoking themes.

The production values are first-rate, the performances convincing, and with 60 units in the building, there's a wealth of potential stories to keep 666 in ABC's address book for several seasons.

There's no laugh track, the humor is gently sophisticated and the main characters wounded but appealing.

Two things are clear from the Mindy pilot: First, that the writers need to do some work to make the secondary characters less of a cliche, and, second, that Kaling has the stuff to go the distance.

The action is hot, fast and believable, achieved through quick-cut editing and spot-on direction.

Occasional PSA breaks aside, Asylum is all in great and occasionally gory fun, and the cast members deliver the over-the-top dialogue with a heaping topping of relish.

Fans were rightly worried when Harmon was canned, but at least the first two shows of the new season follow his crazy-quilt template.

On the one hand, our love of the characters makes it more than possible to overlook the sloppiness of the scripts. On the other, though, it's because we do know these characters so well that we notice the inconsistencies in the first place. Again, none of this detracts significantly from our enjoyment of the series.

You will come away from the film understanding a great deal about an extraordinary woman who played much more than just a supporting role in a significant period in our history. Perhaps more important, you will get a better sense of that historic period as well.

The series' historic recreations are convincing, for the most part, although at times, the History Channel can't help itself and falls back into some of it cheesier bad habits.

Hurricane is a whirling impressionistic painting of the band, beautifully conveying the energy, drive and genius of the Stones, more or less chronologically within the basic flashback structure.

The first two episodes of Dallas 2.0, the TNT reboot of the classic nighttime soap, have all the fixin's for a juicy second season.

In the end, it's easy to overlook some of the credibility gaps because the writing is otherwise so fine, as are the direction and the performances.

1600 Penn may not be as sophisticated as the hysterical HBO series "Veep," but it's still pretty funny when all the cylinders are firing.

He holds forth telling wonderful stories about his childhood, about working as a "tummler" at Grossinger's, what it was like working with Sid Caesar and his enduring love for Gene Wilder, whose role in "Blazing Saddles" initially went to Gig Young, in between clips from too few of his many great films and TV work.

The Americans benefits from convincing performances by the cast, but Weisberg's concept and writing in the first two episodes make the show much more than "just" a spy thriller.

It has a solid pedigree. It's also part of Cinemax's effort to expand its original programming. That effort pays off with Banshee.

There isn't a bad performance in the bunch.... Veterans Molina and Irwin stand out for especially complex and nuanced performances.

It's funny and oddly touching.

Funny, fearless, down to earth and informative, Monaghan makes a great host and guide and gives us a new respect and appreciation for nature's wild things--from a very safe distance.

Hannibal moves at a snail's pace to build tension. At the same time, there's an obvious attempt to counter its inertia with a lot of very intrusive soundtrack music.... Fortunately, Dancy's performance is terrific and more than enough to maintain our interest, with or without elks.

For now, though, the credibility issues don't matter that much because we're more interested in the characters, who may not be all that credibly created themselves, but who are informed by Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece.

Most of the performances are superb, beginning with Tennant, of course. He is so well cast and skilled that he's able to sustain credibility despite some of the gaps in the script.

In a world that has exploded with instantaneously accessible information, television news is hard-pressed to figure out how to keep up. It takes a show like Vice to make other news magazine shows seem like they belong in a TV antiques shop.

Maron is his own acerbic, sad-sack self, and his new show is worth a look.

Manhunt may not have the thrills and chills of a Hollywood feature film about the raid on bin Laden's compound, but you'll come away from a viewing of the film knowing that there is much more to covert operations than midnight raids and state-of-the-art electronic surveillance.

Just as "A Mighty Wind" and "Waiting for Guffman" aren't like traditional movies, "Family Tree" isn't like traditional sitcoms, in that there isn't a traditional setup-punch-line structure to it. It does evoke comedies such as "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Arrested Development," though, where the humor is more incremental, character-based and cumulative.

It's all pretty average and watchable largely because of the cast.

Despite the fact that the film focuses on just a few critical years of Lennon's life, the pacing is plodding and scattershot at the same time.

Morgan is appealing and brilliant in many ways, but as a stand-up comic, he needs better material. Or at least a few different positions.

The Chicago Code may stick to police-procedural formula, but it does have most of the elements needed to make the show at least a moderate success. With better writing and a bit more imagination, it could do even better.

The real challenge for the writers is to use the show's formula without becoming so enslaved to it that they fail to allow the characters to move beyond being cliches.

The performances are actually good in the series, if only the actors had credible or remotely likable or, dare we ask, funny characters to play.

When the balance is off, as it is too frequently in Harry's Law, it undermines credibility. Bates is almost capable of making us overlook some of the show's problems.

Fairly Legal is adequately entertaining, thanks in large part to Shahi, an engaging actress who looks like Anne Hathaway.

Despite the fact that Portlandia features different sketches in each episode, the show already begins to feel like a stretch by the second show.

The slowdown of the show's pace is one thing, but the real issue here is that the family element often feels inauthentic and just isn't up to the quality of the CGI-fueled action sequences.

Regardless of the memories and anecdotes, what these films lack are commentators who can provide cultural context.

It's hard to judge a show by a single episode (although, in some cases--NBC's "Perfect Couples," for example--the stench is instantly convincing), but Mad Love has at least the seeds of eventual success.

It probably works better onstage, but Stevens should know that what you do to achieve suspension of disbelief in a theater is not what you do to convince an audience that what it is seeing in a film is real.

What makes the show at least mildly interesting is that it's not always easy to predict who will make it to the next round and who will be cut.

While it seems apparent that seeing the show live would be a hoot, it doesn't translate to television all that well--it just feels shrunken and confined by the medium.

Pieces of the familiar Arthurian epic are preserved in the script, but that doesn't mean the characters fit our images of them.

And, in most cases, he has a concept for how the food will look, then has to figure out how to make it work. Taste is important, but seems to be somewhat of an afterthought.

Created by David Caspe, Happy Endings needs better writing and characters who don't look like characters in other forgettable sitcoms. Otherwise, this show's ending may be anything but happy.

F&B will rise or fall almost entirely on the basis of how likable you find Gosselaar and Meyer, not to mention the wisecrack-stuffed dialogue.

It is billed as scarier and sexier than the lighthearted film series. It is that, but still plays it safer than, say, "Vampire Diaries" or the "Twilight" films.

Of course, it's a coup for SyFy to snag Strathairn for the new series, but this is very much an ensemble piece. The other performers are all great at being unlikely and, at times, downright cranky heroes. Still, while their crankiness is initially appealing, it could wear thin pretty quickly unless they are given really smart crimes to solve.

Isaacs makes an attractively moody hero, and both the supporting and guest casts are superb. That said, the episodes tend to meander slowly from plot point to plot point.

Drescher is almost as appealing as ever, but the vehicle barely passes inspection.

Where everything comes together beautifully in "Broke," New Girl tries too hard and falls short for doing so.

This is what USA does best, and Suits has a good shot of staying on the team. The only real danger is whether viewers will reach the saturation point for this kind of show. That's possible, even if the premise for Suits isn't.

The show is cozy, predictable, comfortable and, like a good ole' huntin' dog, not in need of serious housebreaking.

The writers have calmed down a bit this season, but they still can't seem to resist the urge for over-the-top plot strings.

She's foulmouthed, abrasive and suffers absolutely nothing gladly. Yet, as always, her own foibles crack her up as much as they do her boyfriend or visiting eldest son. The fact that she's completely unafraid to hold herself up to ridicule endears her to her audience.

In the long run, our interest in the show will directly correspond to our interest in whatever celebrity is featured from week to week.

The only differences between Last Man Standing and the old "Home Improvement" are that Allen's name is Mike this time, his job is working for a sporting goods company as opposed to a hardware manufacturer, and his three kids are teenage daughters.

Beneath all the visual dazzle of the premiere episode, a bit of the groundwork is there, but Schlamme and Orman need to build on it very soon.

The show has to get beyond plot predictability and one-dimensional characterization if it's going to survive.

Although hyperthymesia is a gimmick, it works.

The show's just not as funny as Chelsea Handler is when she's playing Chelsea Handler.

The show is moderately entertaining, albeit somewhat predictable.

The sitcom, premiering Thursday night, is perfectly adequate, but only that, and it doesn't compare well to the show Cummings co-created, "2 Broke Girls," which premiered Monday on CBS.

The Gaytons have created declamatory cartoons. What they needed was a lot more John Ford and a lot less Cotton Mather.

The show is passable when its writers remember it is an ensemble piece.

Chasing and catching boars may be all well and good, but is it enough to keep us coming back for more every week? Well, if people can watch people fight over storage bins and seeing their cars towed away in South Beach, anything is possible.

It's hard to think of anyone likable among the main characters, except for Jeremy. And that's the sly point of the show.

Nothing terribly inventive here, but it's fairly easy to like the three guys, especially Faison.

The focus of Weed Wars is sometimes frustratingly narrow.

It makes for a mildly enjoyable story and it's probably best not to overthink things.

As the silly questions, the sillier answers and Norton's ever-burbling laughter continue, we raise the white flag and start laughing.

It's not clear from one episode whether the show's warm and fuzzy message can successfully counterbalance implausibility.

The show has promise, but the one thing it doesn't yet have that has made "Bones" such a survivor is chemistry.

No matter the casting changes, Spartacus remains good, dirty fun.

The humor in Rob is broad, occasionally rollicking, not very clever or sophisticated, but some of it works well enough to keep the show going.