The Sheen persona wears thin after a while, and Jones is just another kid actor with a goofy-sweet face. But what could make this sitcom fly is Cryer. He injects Alan with a manic energy that literally lifts the pilot into a higher comic gear each time he begins to catalog or rant about all his anxieties and fears. [22 Sept 2003, p.1C]

[It has] a tick-tick-tick pace almost as intense as that of 24.

Those viewers who can come to terms with Joey's voice will find themselves richly rewarded by the powerful performances of Tucker as Tommy Donnelly and Olivia Wilde as Jenny Reilly.

A comedy with lots of charm.

Think Ocean's Eleven (2001) meets HBO's The Sopranos.

The banter between Perry and Whitfield... is dazzling enough to make one forget the pilot's storytelling sins.

Think The Fugitive meets Beverly Hills 90210 done dark and brooding.

Ugly Betty has high spirits, camp, couture, charm and heart.

Viewers who can get past the uncertain dialects and a few cartoonish supporting characters are in for a real treat.

There is nothing as original in Side Order of Life as the metaphysical puppet, but there is enough promise to return for a second week - to see whether Jenny is wise enough to learn from the pain.

As entertainment, the pilot is a most impressive work of economic and focused storytelling.

I am not yet ready to say The Middle is a great sitcom, but it sure seems in synch with the mood of middle America today.

Mackey is right where I left him years ago: again facing a disciplinary hearing that might mean the end of his career. As The Shield starts its seventh and final season, maybe it is time to say goodbye.

Spin City is television as culture, and I am not sure whether a show like this merely plugs into the cynicism already in place in our country or creates more and more of it by making it seem like the hip, in-the-know way to be.[17 Sept 1996, p.]

His team is formulaic - and that's not a good thing. Omar Epps plays neurologist Dr. Eric Foreman. He's African-American, and even though he had great medical school grades, House says he was chosen for his "street smarts." Jennifer Morrison is immunologist Dr. Allison Cameron, and, while she is beautiful and brainy, in the second episode, she acknowledges some sexual issues. Jesse Spencer, as intensive-care specialist Dr. Robert Chase, is from the WASP world of old money, but nothing he says or does in the first two episodes offers any social-class insights. [16 Nov 2004, p.1C]

If one is looking for a TV drama that earnestly tries to reflect and speak to our lives and times, it would be hard to do better than Sleeper Cell.

My Name Is Earl is not a stupid sitcom - that is what makes its sexist and homophobic jokes so maddening.

Old Christine is more fun than Watching Ellie. The question that remains is whether it will be funny enough for viewers to finally leave Elaine behind.

The first covering the initial 30 minutes was the one to pay attention to. It had no guests and featured Leno and his staff --and it was lame, tame and tepid. The second was all guests--and it had energy if nothing else.

Instead of life-affirming laughter, we get an occasional ironic chuckle in NBC's version of The Office. It's a comedy that offers only escape instead of insight into our workaday lives. [24 Mar 2005, p.1E]

Not surprisingly, Crash, the TV series, does not measure up very well against the film in terms of atmosphere and acting.

Borderline over-the-top moments threaten the sense of verisimilitude usually expected in prime-time drama.

As the lead, Simon Baker is too one-note smirky for me.

That is profound stuff--if only the series did a better job of capturing it. The idea that all he has to sell is himself is an interesting one intellectually, but it doesn't play very well onscreen.

Conan O'Brien's first Tonight Show was a good one--if you like canned video clips rather than topical humor. Otherwise, there wasn't much to get excited about.

The problem with the pilot is in tone. Self-important and silly but optimistic and sweet is a hard mark to hit week after week.

Frontloaded to high heaven or not, it was still a solid premiere. Now, that bad news: None of the standard building blocks of the show seemed that impressive on their own--so that when you tried to imagine the show without an overload of starpower and star-drama, it didn't seem that exciting.

There are just too many problems with the lead character and writing for this to ever become a PBS staple like "Inspector Morse" or "Miss Marple" had been.