The most tautly written of all the new serialized dramas.

Neither Meloni nor Hargitay is a great actor, and both are guilty of overacting here...The limited range of each is suggested by their over-reliance on one or two basics moves. Meloni purses his lips and bugs his eyes out to tell us he's intense and/or getting mad. Hargitay runs her hand through her hair to tell us she's stressed. She does the hair thing so many times tonight you fear she'll have pulled all her hair out by midseason. [20 Sept 1999, p.1E]

Conan O'Brien's first Tonight Show was a good one--if you like canned video clips rather than topical humor. Otherwise, there wasn't much to get excited about.

One of the zaniest - and most savvy - workplace comedies in years.

One of the primary attractions of the drama looks to be the fantasy it offers of office mates becoming a community of friends who are continually dropping in on each other to offer companionship and support.

The Sheen persona wears thin after a while, and Jones is just another kid actor with a goofy-sweet face. But what could make this sitcom fly is Cryer. He injects Alan with a manic energy that literally lifts the pilot into a higher comic gear each time he begins to catalog or rant about all his anxieties and fears. [22 Sept 2003, p.1C]

This film was one of the most pleasant surprises I've had in a year of screening hundreds of TV productions. In fact, it made my weekend.

HBO's Recount fails. Invented dialogue and actions attributed to real-world figures play side by side with, and are indistinguishable from, verifiable actions and events that took place in Florida in 2000.

That is profound stuff--if only the series did a better job of capturing it. The idea that all he has to sell is himself is an interesting one intellectually, but it doesn't play very well onscreen.

This is social satire, and Grier's job is to make a mainstream audience see race and power in new ways. That often involves shock.

As the lead, Simon Baker is too one-note smirky for me.

What worked so well in short Daily Show-sized bites wears thin over a half-hour program.

If one is looking for a TV drama that earnestly tries to reflect and speak to our lives and times, it would be hard to do better than Sleeper Cell.

The Eric character and his sort-of girlfriend, Donna (Laura Prepon), do provide a few sparks of interest in this ensemble of dumbed-down teens, but it's not enough for me...Fox calls the series "retro hip." I think it's retro dull. It probably seems a lot funnier if you are 16 and smoking pot. [22 Aug 1998, p.1E]

While the action genre and, indeed, Friday nights on Fox, are most targeted at young men, particularly adolescent males, I have to admit I kind of like Firefly. I'm not sure, though, whether that says more about my level of maturity than it does the series' potential appeal to older viewers. [20 Sept 2002, p.1E]

Old Christine is more fun than Watching Ellie. The question that remains is whether it will be funny enough for viewers to finally leave Elaine behind.

True Blood, Academy Award-winner Alan Ball's steamy, sassy, sometimes nasty, but always thoroughly engaging, new HBO drama.

Whatever the case, he and his show are easier to like. The hour flew by, and it seemed much looser, organic and easy-going than anything I saw last year by him on NBC.

Those unschooled in the ways of Washington may have trouble following some of the political machinations and plot nuance, but there's no mistaking passion when you see it.

There is nothing as original in Side Order of Life as the metaphysical puppet, but there is enough promise to return for a second week - to see whether Jenny is wise enough to learn from the pain.

Instead of life-affirming laughter, we get an occasional ironic chuckle in NBC's version of The Office. It's a comedy that offers only escape instead of insight into our workaday lives. [24 Mar 2005, p.1E]

I like Williams as an actor, always have. But he can sink to the level of those around him, and I'm not too sure about the kids in this drama -- Vivien Cardone as his 9-year-old daughter Delia, and Gregory Smith as his 15-year-old son, Ephram. On the other hand, who knows with kids anyway? They could get better in a hurry. The writing also has a tendency to go a bit gooey in the middle. [16 Sept 2002, p.1C]

Think Ocean's Eleven (2001) meets HBO's The Sopranos.

The clever conceit is mostly successful in the series' opening episodes. But having it both ways has its costs, making Samantha smart and serendipitous, but never truly great.

A comedy with lots of charm.

The best new sitcom of the fall...It's a very strong cast. [22 Sept 1994, p.1D]

The problem with the pilot is in tone. Self-important and silly but optimistic and sweet is a hard mark to hit week after week.

If only Green had not made such a cold, bland stew of such rich and tasty ingredients.