I have a sneaking suspicion that, over its next four installments, The Hour will ratchet-up the drama and intrigue and retain the excellence it's achieved thus far.

On the surface, Burns and Novick strive for impartiality, but there's an undercurrent of cynicism throughout. And that's a good thing.

It's mentally exhausting, at least in tonight's opener, to figure out exactly what the heck is going on here, and in which reality we're placed at any given moment.

Barr is suitably creepy as Chris and McCormack--while slightly miscast--turns in a solid performance. For true-crime buffs only.

Chiklis and Benz fit together like bioluminescent water and oil, but somehow the show is still surprisingly entertaining--in a "Heroes" meets "The Incredibles" sort of way.

Conan O'Brien's new show, Conan, finally debuted on TBS last night after months of hype--looking pretty much like his two former shows, "Late Night" and "The Tonight Show."

It's all a muddled mess of computer-generated battlefield scenes, gratuitous bare-breast-and-buttock shots (men and women--there's no favoritism here) and "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"-type photography.

It’s just that we’ve seen most of this before, and despite its creative pedigree and a solid cast--fronted by the always reliable Ving Rhames and Alfred Molina--there’s not enough to set Monday Mornings apart from “ER,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Private Practice,” et al.

Combat Hospital has the look, feel and pacing of an old "M*A*S*H" episode--minus the humor and preachiness--and the soapy elements of fellow ABC hospital drama "Grey's Anatomy" (a smarmy British doctor, nervous newbies and the no-nonsense unit chief--with the heart of gold, of course). But these aren't necessarily drawbacks. This is an episodic TV drama, after all.

The ["quirky-genius" cop] genre is getting a bit moldy around the edges--and Perception doesn't add much to the tired mix.

The writing here isn't very snappy, Steve and Emmy are one-dimensional cutouts and Russell, the former "Felicity" star, looks uncomfortable playing it for laughs.

To use some Southie Vernacular, I would just book it ("run as fast as you can") from this wicked ("very") mediocre show which appears destined for the TV barrel ("trashcan").