Unfortunately, [Sutherland's] disciplined performance is done in by an undisciplined show that moves too slowly to put limits on Jake's powers.

The show may be able to relax into the kind of easy weekly entertainment you can find an hour earlier on Bones.

No one wants to return to the color-by-numbers plotting of Diagnosis: Murder, but there is such a thing as demanding too much effort from an audience without sufficient reward. Glum, grim and increasingly confused, Awake qualifies.

The show pushes so hard to be wacky and fun, you end up feeling more bruised than entertained.

The good news is that you will get answers. The bad news is that they don't so much advance the story as circle around it.

If the show lacks novelty, it's not without its appeal. The dialogue is unforced without being aimless, and there's fun to be had from a strong supporting cast.

At just seven hours, you can think of Scandal as the modern equivalent of those old Sidney Sheldon miniseries and enjoy it at that level. Assuming you can get through the first hour. And past the main character.

It is nowhere near as sharp or as on-point as it needs to be.

The show is so dour, the humor gets lost.

The less you think about Revolution the more apt you are to like it.

What threatens to remain a drag is the format itself, with its weekly focus on plea bargains--and, so far, weekly speeches defending the new focus.

Everything about the show feels just a bit off: underfunded, insufficiently cast and flatly written.

Jersey may just be competent, at best--but that's better than the incompetence that marks so many of the season's new offerings.

Granted, it's all standard superhero stuff. But the action scenes are well-handled, the emotions and the characters mostly ring true, and the plot offers enough twists to keep you intrigued.

Were Bates Motel a movie, Farmiga and Highmore (who has Tony Perkins' troubling, sort-of-smiling stare down cold) might be able to keep you tied to these damaged creatures through to the end of the film. But for a series, these do not feel like ties that bind.

If you are willing and able to take it on its own fictional terms, it does work as a well-acted legal drama, though even on that level, you're better off watching The Good Wife.

If the lines are never actually funny, some of them are amusing, and if the writing doesn't always work in Parents' favor, the cast does.

There's nothing wrong with that cast. Simmons and Remini, in particular, play off each other expertly, and provide a nice, tart balance to Bornheimer's sweeter character. But despite their best efforts, the show just floats along, weightless, innocuous and eminently forgettable.

The shame is, after a very slow start, the living members of the Fisher family actually start to grow on you -- though it takes them far longer than it should. [1 June 2001, p.15E]

Bynes shows promise, but neither she nor her co-star -- Beverly Hills, 90210's Jennie Garth -- has the skill to pull off physical comedy. They look as if they're being clumsy on purpose -- which defeats the comic purpose. [19 Sept 2002]

Some shows are so syrupy, you're afraid the tape will stick in the VCR. Which brings us to Everwood, a tiny Colorado town that time forgot — but that every sappy TV cliché found. Narrator? Check. Ghosts? Check. A town full of twee eccentrics? Check and checkmate.

Unfortunately for CBS, one tiny flaw slipped into its otherwise masterful plan: The network let JAG's Don Bellisario do the clone-off rather than the folks at CSI. That may not affect the ratings, but in terms of quality, it's a deal breaker.

The episode is clearly constructed as a showcase for Laurie--who is seemingly incapable of a boring performance--but the writers really haven't done him much of a favor. There are too many beats that refuse to be reconciled; too many times when House is forced to behave absurdly badly to get what he wants, just to backtrack when he gets it.

From what I can tell, the goal of Love is to prove that life can be just as mundane, colorless and boring with three spouses as it can with one or none. Mission accomplished.

Even if The Evidence were the first show of its kind, it would still be mediocre.

The big problem is Prinze himself, an actor whose work has shown much charm but not much range. Here, even the charm is missing as he dwells on every joke and gesture.

Relentlessly mediocre.

It's an intriguing concept, but people don't watch concepts. They watch shows. And as a show, Reunion doesn't amount to nearly enough.