In better moments, "Weeds" proves small kerflops can be made interesting and fun to watch. In lesser moments, not so.

Heavy-handed.

Presumably, the actors will settle into their roles and get a better grip on timing and volume. They're over-the-top for material that's already zany.

There's promise here, as long as it gets grittier and funnier, and doesn't descend into bombast.

Dramatically speaking, what douses a bit of the fire of this ensemble show are a few non-compelling characters and/or bad actors.

It's skank-errific, if flawed.

The show's weaknesses, in its first two episodes, rest in some slack dialogue and unevenly edited payoffs of suspense.

It's slicker, more ambitious and has more chuckles than expected.

The writers and directors do a sometimes routine, sometimes solid job of making something as atypical as an imprisoned innocent seem believable in the world of fictional network television.

It's kind of good.

"Kitchen Confidential" holds more potential than tonight's decent if imperfect start, given Star's track record and casting.

"South Beach" isn't the terrible waste of viewing time a cynic might expect. But it is a conventionally drawn, sudsy soap.

Where "Party" goes awry is by trying to be an hour. That's twice as long as it should be. There's more fat in it than a Popeye's biscuit.

It's a fairly entertaining show right out of the gate, though it's distractingly busy with a gimmick: Poorly edited flashbacks pop up suddenly to show what victims were doing in the moments before they suffered health problems. This could be done well, but it's not now.

Some results are interesting anthropologically. But "Black.White" bogs down in conversation and never fascinates.

As far as junk like this goes, it's not heinous and has moments of OK-ness.

"Shark" now looks like above-average, workaday TV with promise.

NBC should consider scrapping Thursday's first episode.... But then come the second and third installments -- inspired, taut and funny.

There's nothing wrong with "The Nine." It's just essentially a step above pedestrian.

Irons and the rest of the cast are spot-on. The writing and directing are fairly crisp. Perhaps, though, tracing Elizabeth's life for 20-plus years subtracted from my becoming intently involved in each period of this biopic.

There's nothing particularly fresh or appealing about the story lines or symbolisms, no matter how well-directed and -acted "Brotherhood" is.

"Dirt" gets the ingredients right (the tone, acting and pacing are swell), but the dialogue doesn't make it addicting enough to watch, and the editing could be slicker more often.

Scenes that work are funny... Scenes that fall flat are merely blah, rather than stupid.

"Army Wives" is better than it has any right to be.

K-Ville's" heavy tone and sober acting capture enough of that essence to make it interesting.

The storylines are not so much entertainingly paced as they are merely interesting, representational or too often plodding.

NBC's new "Thank God You're Here" doesn't start out as strong as I'd hoped. It has potential, though.

In fact, "The Tudors" suffers from being merely capable on most fronts, a decent diversion. The direction is effective but artistically flat, and so are several scripts.