It has moments of being so-bad-it's-good, which is to say it's at its best when it's a near-satire of the genre. But it drowns in redundant action scenes and sentimentality.

There are a lot of studious, high-achiever kids. Lauren is an anomaly. She is the lucky one. The one with an MTV camera crew for a resume. The pretty one with petty friends who melt in bikinis by blue-green pools of entitlement and argue idly with quarrelsome, spoiled boyfriends.

One of the most puzzling things about TV this year is the mere existence of this catastrophe. It is a huge, huge pile.

"Rules" and "'Til Death" bear exactly the same ups and downs. The ups: essentially a good cast, plus sporadic funny lines. The downs: many un-funny lines, plus rehashed storylines from a thousand episodes of married-life sitcoms dating all the way back to "The Honeymooners."

At least "Lost" and "Heroes" give us a sci-fi excuse to forgive illogical stretches of the imagination.

"Men in Trees" starts pretty badly. The actors haven't found their characters' breath yet. The writing is chiefly cardboard. But the light drama isn't all bad.

All this obvious plot about baby showers, maternity peeing and big-belly clothing is unbearable.

A rote TV drama.

The women aren't real, realistic, real-ish, real-esque or real-y. They don't even seem genuine in being fake.

It's one of the worst new series--but for its cardboard acting and writing, not for the morals.

The execution of "Tin Man" is flat, flatter, flattest. The dialogue is utilitarian, except when it's "Dungeons and Dragons" cliche.

I've laughed more at my own ex-mechanic, who rode a bicycle to his shop because he racked up too many DUIs.

My name is Clint, and I'm a big stupid doofus from Texas starring in a new "docu-soap" called Nashville, where me and a bunch of other country singers try to become famous, like those girls did on "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County."

You can see the script and directional tone holding back the actors.

Bad sitcom, bad.

The most confusing ensemble drama of the new season.

"Teachers" is never not lame.

The new debut episode climaxes with a confusingly written yet completely unoriginal plot twist at the end. And the women characters are less confident than before, frazzled and more judgmental.

If this is America, I want out.

Oh, and there's a very pink teapot on their coffee table. It's easy to take note of such set pieces when you're in the process of not laughing.

This is annoying beyond my comprehension.

I think I could have written a better script during the two hours it took me to watch "Have No Fear." I think you could, too, and I don't even know you.

A low-rent "American Idol" ripoff.

"Path" is the dullest, worst-shot TV movie since ABC's disastrous "Ten Commandments" remake. It substitutes shaky handheld cameras and dumb dialogue for craftsmanship. It could not be more amateurish or poorly constructed unless someone had forgotten to light the sets.

Dirty Sexy Money, ABC's dull new drama starring Peter Krause ("Six Feet Under") and Donald Sutherland, contrives for your viewing displeasure one of the world's stupidest, richest and hate-worthy families called the Darlings.

Back to You stinks, shames the sitcom form, is written and directed with smelly gusto, and is not original, funny or redemptive by any universal standards known to science, creation or TV executives.