All in all, O'Brien got his Tonight off to a decent start, though you still got the sense you were watching an introduction more than a settled production.

The cases he tackles are intriguing, if wildly complicated and too often sustained by that peculiar TV mystery mix of intuitive leaps and bad basic police work....Yet as with all such shows, it's the main character who provides the main reason for watching, as the long-suffering Wallander struggles to solve the crimes and put his life back in order.

Tonight's 90-minute premiere is a tad overextended, but it still provides an effective and entertaining launchpad for the premise.

The show's gimmick does extend beyond reading expressions--they analyze voices and psychoanalyze answers--and the show does have its amusing moments. What it doesn't have is any sense of surprise, and once the novelty factor wears off, you just wonder whether there's enough here to sustain a series.

For all the sex jokes (most of which are amusing), this is at heart a family comedy, with Cox completely winning as a mom trying to make herself happy without making her son miserable. Odds are that other moms can relate.

FlashForward may not keep you hooked for years or even months, but chances are good tonight's episode will bring you back next week. For now, that's as far forward as we need to flash.

The tweaks this new Fox hour brings to the template are a higher degree of special-effects-fueled action, a faster pace and a consistently amusing tongue-in-cheek tone.

Competent as Vampire may be, there's also something rehashed and filtered about it, to the point where it sometimes feels like the kiddie-ride version of "True Blood," and perhaps appropriately so.

It establishes the main character--and reintroduces us to a totally winning TV star--while creating a multilayered world that gives that character room to maneuver and grow.

For all its flights of fancy and its meta-jokes (most of them ably put across by Danny Pudi), the show still allows us to invest in Joel McHale's Jeff and his journey to self-improvement. Yet in its search for a plot, Community often seems to send Jeff back to square one so he can be redeemed all over again.

Ted, like most such single-camera sitcoms, is just too mannered and cold, though warming signs do appear in later episodes. Happily, despite its flaws, it's well-cast and reasonably entertaining.

The script paints the women too broadly while offering a few too many variations on the same youth-obsessed-culture themes. Still, darned if the women don't carry it off, at least well enough to bring you back for a second episode.

While Pillars can seem a bit comic, it isn't camp. The characters and their beliefs are treated seriously and with respect, and no one is without some virtue or some sin.

Still, in keeping with USA's sunnier outlook, this is a far lighter show than Alias: less complicated, less morally complex, less deep and, while fun, just simply "less."

There's little in the setup you haven't seen before or, given TV's proclivities, won't see again. But Passmore does a good job of making his character seem intelligent and a bit maddening without letting him become obnoxious.

There is pleasure to be found in Life. There'd be even more, though, if a few more of us were invited in.

Archer is not for everyone, and certainly not for anyone whose idea of risque is "Get Smart." But do yourself one favor: Don't decide it's not for you until you have watched an entire episode, because you just may find the good outweighs the excessive.

There are small, recognizable crisis and equally life-sized solutions, all laced with dialogue that is funny enough to be entertaining without feeling forced.

No matter how many times the cops mention hot clubs and Hollywood stars, or how many visits they make to the beach, LA is not likely to be counted among TV's more glamorous series. If you want flash, look elsewhere. What you get from LA is a show that's as solid and reliable as a well-built sedan.

It's a well-woven tale, with the different strings hanging together nicely and leading off in a few directions you might not expect. The direction is crisp, the cast is fine, the loopholes are mostly closed and the secret-agency/new-identity world is generally convincing, making this in some sense a version of Dollhouse that works better than the original.

While it will no doubt settle back into its normal pattern, the first two episodes have been a bit busy--and a little light on the courtroom drama side of things.

While many of the weight jokes are very funny, there are a few too many of them. Still, what matters most for the show's future health is that it does not define Mike and Molly as "fat." They're nice, normal, relatable people who eat too much and want to eat less.

The plot is unlikely to interfere with the real draw of Bloods, which is watching a terrific, mature, extremely well-chosen cast interact.

It can't match HBO's upcoming Boardwalk Empire's budget or any network premiere's publicity push. Yet when it comes to scrappy, scruffy charm and sheer entertainment value, Terriers can run with the best of them.

Taken as a fright fest, pure and simple, Dead succeeds admirably well, capturing the terror and confusion of waking up in a world where you've gone from person to endangered-species zombie food overnight.

But the moments it goes too far or feels too slight are countered by the sense you're watching two men who care about their clients and are good at what they do, and by the emotional hook that helps provide. And that may be enough to turn it into a hit.

The Event knows the game it's playing and its risks. You can tell from the wink-at-the-audience last line, delivered by the always-welcome Innes: "I haven't told you everything." Tell us more--and soon would probably be best.

Cougar tends to start out big and a bit nasty, then pull back for a gentler finish. The problem may be that many viewers pull out before it gets there.