There's a lot to enjoy... But "30 Rock" is more sitcommy than most of the single-camera sitcoms on the air now, and it has none of the sharp bite of "The Larry Sanders Show."

A fine way to pass a half hour.

By the way, I don't mean the word "trash" as an insult. I enjoy well-made, quick-witted trash, and if you do, too, then you will find "Rome" as irresistible as ever.

It's a welcome addition to nonfiction television and a loyal friend to the radio show.

"Flight of the Conchords" is one of the few TV comedies that truly can be called unique.

On The Singing Bee, it's impossible to rally for or against the many folks who hurry on and off stage, and rallying is a critical part of the fun of these mindless game shows.

It's a likable one, marred only by some awkward abridgement.

It's supposed to be a story of New York and its many demons, but it works best as a tale of loud, proud, surprisingly brittle men.

Coughlan smartly underplays Jenny's reaction to the thought of losing her friend. But Nagle and her writers plug a farcical charge into the show that is quickly annoying.

This New York legal drama doesn't have the living, breathing dimensionality and character depth of FX's finest, including "Rescue Me" and "The Shield," on which Close guest starred in 2005. But it's a tense fun ride like the better John Grisham movies.

Compared to the original, it's slicker, brighter, more obviously produced, and a smidgen less fun.

Your feelings about Gossip Girl will depend on just how guilty you are willing to feel about your guilty pleasures. It can be entertaining to watch adults throw around money, attitude, and alcohol on soap operas; it can be grotesque to see teenagers doing the same things.

It's good, not great, and tonight's strong pilot gives way next week to a noticeably less stellar hour.

A sleekly engaging pilot that, with the right character development, could turn into a sleekly engaging series.

Aliens in America is decent, and quiet, and genuinely sweet.

Written by Gwyneth Hughes, the script perhaps reaches too far and falls short. The whole is somehow less than the sum of its parts. And yet Five Days rewards with enough gripping moments to make it worth investigating.

Coster-Waldau makes John so alien and distant as to be annoyingly inscrutable. But in Thursday's episode, we begin to learn more particulars about John's history, and how he maintains his secret. And that's when Coster-Waldau becomes more vivid and the show begins to rise above its silly murder-of-the-week plots

Canterbury has promise but her law needs a lot of work.

It's a light half-hour of adults acting like teens, and teens acting like teens, that won't trick you into thinking or rethinking much of anything important.

The Middleman is so light as to feel almost weightless, and compared to much TV, that comes as a relief. If comic books are meant to be escape, there are far worse worlds to camp in for the summer.

The show has the makings of a more sincere, "Gilmore Girls"-like take on female bonding.

It's a single-camera comedy that comes close, at times, to feeling like a live-action cartoon. It's not as hilariously cutting as "Chappelle's Show" used to be. But the tone is entertaining, and the format fits.

Any time things threaten to get maudlin, the movie takes pains to poke fun at itself, in a way that even a gentle eighth-grader could appreciate.

The CBS show has very little dramatic heft or distinction, but it's wily and brisk enough to engage you for an hour.

So far, at least, this season promises to be less about plot than personality. That doesn't mean the show is perfect - it never was--but it's better, and that's a big relief.

I admire this show--it's so original, and sequences such as the "Sound of Music" goof are right on. But I admire it more than I enjoy it.

Credit Grier for trying, credit Comedy Central for adding another voice to the mix, and keep hoping that a show like this eventually hits its stride.

I'm on board with Tara, but so far mostly for the supporting characters, whose number expands in the coming weeks to include a self-empowered "Vita-self" saleswoman who is overly curious about Tara's disorder.

Appealing to a super-sophisticated generation of kids is likely to be the biggest challenge for Sesame Workshop, which is producing The Electric Company for PBS.

No, it's not "quality cable TV" or Top 10 list material, and it's marred by lapses into character cutesiness. But still, I liked it. It's likable.

Kings does dip in and out of predictability, when familiar Spelling soap operatics and political machinations break through the show's unique surface. But it still is a fascinating effort.

I can't say you'll want to follow The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency religiously, like so many other HBO efforts, but it is an easy-to-like distraction.

It's a generally pleasing but flawed production.

This promising series is really about a failed optimist, driven by the recession and his own midlife depression to sell his body to rich ladies.

As Deb-inside-Jane, Elliott does a great job portraying pathos, absurd disappointment, and wide-eyed discovery. She’s far more interesting to watch than the other characters.

Rest assured, the show itself hasn’t changed. Producers know better than to violate certain television principles, and what makes this contest work is what always has: that hostess Tyra Banks is one fabulous brand of crazy.

Stargate Universe isn’t quite so ambitious [as "Lost"], but it’s intriguing in its way, down to the ship, bathed in blue light, that emerges as a character in its own right. The ship is more interesting thus far, alas, than any of the female characters, but perhaps that will change over time.

It is a treat, if not a revelation, for fans. This is very well plowed ground, after all. As for the as yet uninitiated, what they don’t find baffling they’ll likely find excessive.

The creative team did not find the right chemistry until the second episode. But Men of a Certain Age does settle into a groove, and it’s a good one.

It’s a coming of age comedy that’s raunchy and sophomoric, but, as is typical with Apatow products, it’s also character-based and at times kind of touching.

You feel as if you're right there in the room with the characters for a time, during which their true selves emerge slowly but surely.

It never quite dazzles, even as it impresses, and it misses some of Austen's ironic turns. But this is certainly a worthy adaptation, summoning all that is enduring about Austen.

Lie to Me, based on the real-life lie-detection work of Dr. Paul Ekman, doesn't extend much beyond its genre's borders. But if you're fascinated by the poker-game elements of crime-solving and a man obsessed with "tells," you may connect with this show.

The new ABC show is significantly better than its corny title promises.

Little Dorrit has so many virtues--indelible performances, stirring pathos, and an emotional and psychological heft unusual for Dickens--that you can forgive its one significant flaw.

The show is what it is--no surprises, no disappointments.

Parks and Recreation has many distinctions, not least of all the hugely talented Poehler from "Saturday Night Live," who promises to develop Leslie slowly, without the haste required in sketch comedy. And the show has the potential to become a flip, witty political allegory.

The pieces don't tend to add up to much; the suspects and victims often slip out of custody too easily; and each episode's crimes dovetail with some predictability. These aren't brain teasers. Still, the series has great hypnotic allure, as the murders and deaths drive Wallander further into himself.

The one-liners are broad, the plots preposterous. And yet it all works in a lighthearted-summer-fare kind of way, helped along with almost pornographic images of Hamptons wealth.

If there's a glaring flaw, it's in the character of Dr. Eleanor O'Hara (Eve Best). As comic relief, she's far too thin. Nurse Jackie has much richer, darker comedy to offer.

Ruby & the Rockits has no right to be as likable as it is ... But “Ruby & the Rockits’’ turns out to be a warm intergenerational comedy that never pushes life lessons in your face.

It’s the grade of funny this show seems to have accepted - cute, giggle-worthy, and only a smidgen dangerous.

Househusbands of Hollywood is a lot more real than I expected it to be.

So I "like" the new Melrose Place, in that I think it has the potential to be as addictive, and phony, as a can of Pringles potato crisps.

The show is overstuffed with political and pop culture jokes about everything from 9/11 to “The Breakfast Club,’’ but they’re always secondary to the warm ensemble character comedy. The free-floating irony isn’t terminal.

It’s all about the crimes, the technology, the guns, and, mostly about not having--or wanting--to think too much.

Over the course of the premiere episode, [Paul] Gross grew on me, as did the show itself.

FlashForward is a good idea, and while that’s no guarantee of a good series, the first hour gives us reason to hope.

Lock ’n Load treats Wayne and many fellow customers as curiosities, and occasionally smacks of condescension. (The “Amazing Grace’’ sequence, in particular, crosses a line.) But the series also takes pains to avoid making judgments, and offers a parade of gun owners so vast that we end up with a broad view.

A week between each episode is highly recommended. But in small doses, his shamelessness, persistence, and humor are remarkable.

I think How to Make It in America has a lot going for it, if show creator Ian Edelman can keep from indulging in New York hipster cliches.

This farcical new sitcom won’t blow you away so much as keep you lightly amused.

Even as you may be tempted on occasion to roll (or close) your eyes, it’s hard not to be drawn in at least partway.

Louie isn't a learning-and-hugging show by any means; but amid all of C.K.'s cocky bluster and politically incorrect language, there are plenty of rich moments of respite, when people with polarized world views actually hear and like one another.

Ultimately, though, your feelings about Passmore will determine whether or not you cotton to The Glades. The show rides on his personality, which I found likable enough.

The mood is bright and whimsical--easy to take and just as easy to forget.

Ultimately, Detroit 1-8-7, ABC's new cop series just may have enough forward thrust and raw emotion to take off.

For the most part, the procedural material is boilerplate stuff we've seen zillions of times already on "Law & Order," with right turns and smoking guns and unexpected witnesses. The pleasure to be found on the show is in watching Tierney and Morrow riff off each other like very competitive tennis players.

If not for the narrative clunkiness, Blue Bloods has the potential to be a juicy multigenerational family drama set in a moodily evoked New York, with Selleck's furrier-than-ever mustache as a bonus.

The pilot is entertainingly lighthearted, but in a twist that I won't spoil here, a serialized back story begins to surface that could push the show down a more convoluted path.

The cinematography is beautiful, and there seems to be nowhere around the Big Apple's tents and trailers that the camera won't go. There's just not much in the way of drama here.

And even though the potential for irritation feels high--everyone but Gene is a smidge too sad-sacky and whiny--there's something about Bob's that feels fresh, sweet even.

Tyler, Lopez, and Randy Jackson showed some promise last night, for a few reasons. First of all, Idol works better with three judges than four. You could already feel a warm triangular bond developing between Jackson, Tyler, and Lopez.

If you're a committed Riversian, and I am, Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? is an enjoyably lighthearted hour of prime Joan shtick.

It has a set of distinctive actors, a minimum of punch-line mania, and a script that is occasionally charming. The characters actually have the potential to become three-dimensional.

Haynes takes a few melodramatic moments too many feet over the top--the injuring of Veda's throat, for example, which rises into an almost laughable delirium. But those excesses are forgivable in this otherwise masterful, faithful, and deluxe adaptation.

It's a happy mix, a breezy, playful half-hour that has the potential to open up into something special. Only time will tell if Breaking In can break out.

With only three one-hour episodes, screenwriter Heidi Thomas needed more time to do full justice to the large cast of characters and the many historical and melodramatic story lines she set up.

Turns out Happy Endings is one of those rare TV cases of rising above, as the writing and the ensemble energy trump the stale premise.

If you're an avid fan of any of them, there's probably something here for you, especially if you like to monitor subtext.

This is a place holder that looks a little like an infomercial. But The Glee Project, has heart, too, as it takes you behind the slick, overproduced veneer that is "Glee."

These guys come up with twisted shorts and one longer and even more twisted feature per episode, some of them actual man-on-the-street interviews, some of them scripted, and most of them funny.

The show has a nice sense of innocence, thanks to Wood's gentle performance and the theme of personal transformation; but it is also filled with uneven sexual and scatological jokes, delivered with a dog-like lack of modesty, so viewer be warned. For some, that level of humor is a deal breaker.

The show is just an undemanding, entertaining, and sometimes whimsical ride. Yup, it's likable.

[Rudolph's] new character brings a wackier element to the show, which undermines the fine authenticity that Spivey initially set up. Now Rudolph has a more expandable role, I suppose, but she is also less connected to the other characters. The whole Ava talk show business feels like it belongs in a more satirical sitcom of its own.

Winfrey had said that she wanted O'Donnell to be herself, and her new hire lived up to that expectation with perfectly familiar results.

The ratio of hit-to-miss is much better in season two, however, as musician-comedians Armisen and Brownstein have more clearly found their groove.

Fans of quirky procedurals will likely find The Finder a dependable way to lose an hour.

Pretty good, yes; but great, no--or at least not great in that Sunday-night way HBO has led people to take for granted.

Like all comedy, whether the duo always sticks the landing will depend on the viewer.

The show works much better when it gives us a glimpse into its distinctive milieu.

The mix of the familiar and the frantic creates an intriguingly creepy effect.

It is a smartly conceived look at the populist side of fashion.

While there are bouts of facile speechifying, some of the twists are predictable, and the plot gears are greased a little too easily in the pilot--the various OPA employees know, and have dirt on, everyone from cops and mobsters to politicians and reporters--it's a satisfying, fast-paced, well-acted hour with flashes of humor.

The performances and the writing in the pilot don't quite reach the bar set by those predecessors [Mad Men and The Sopranos], but Glazer stakes his claim to his own little corner of the beach, and we're hopeful the series will eventually produce similar magic.

It's not as if Kidman or Owen looks old, exactly. Still, the basic dynamic is a bit out-of-kilter. A lot of the early scenes don't make much sense if the Gellhorn we see is so clearly a mature, experienced woman.

What distinguishes the good ones are colorful performances, scandalous twists, and the age-old reminder that money and power can't buy love--all of which Political Animals has.

It helps Perry that Silveri has surrounded him with a large ensemble filled with potential.

Will the writing of the crimes continue to be as strong as it was on "The Closer"? I'm cautiously optimistic.

Bullet in the Face is hit or miss, but in a comedy series like this one, the hits are meant to be misses. The jokes are so bad they are funny, if you have a twisted sense of humor.

The Inbetweeners has a refreshing sincerity.

The New Normal is sweet-natured, in the way the characters mingle their lives together; but the jokes, they are mighty spotty.

Based on the first five new episodes, I'd say Boardwalk Empire does recover, mostly if not completely, but only after a period of creeping aimlessness.

Despite a few flaws, The Mindy Project could evolve into an interesting hybrid, an anti-romantic-comedy romantic comedy.

Together, they [Dakota Johnson & Nat Faxon] bring a whole mess of cute.

Jonny Lee Miller does a fine job in his iteration. One series being brilliant does not preclude the next from being enjoyable.

Arrow isn't quite a bullseye on its first shot, but it hits the target.

If you approach The Girl as a sliver, and don't expect a full serving, you are more apt to appreciate it.

Then the second episode, and then the third, come along, and 1600 Penn evolves into a surprisingly likable single-camera comedy.

The show doesn't pretend to be anything more than what it is--a violent, sexy, somewhat cheesy, but generally entertaining genre drama--and that makes it easier to like.

Boston’s Finest is refreshingly free of reality TV’s more insipid and manipulative dramatic tricks.... [But] It can be a little dull over the long haul, perhaps because the action we see isn’t particularly interesting and the family lives of the cops are relatively incident-free.

It’s flawed, with the kinds of cheesy trappings and historical freedoms that turn off some viewers.... But the series is nonetheless transporting in its way, largely because it doesn’t try too hard to soften or civilize the characters.

It's a competent clone, one that features a promising ensemble cast led by Mark Harmon and David McCallum - that's right folks, Illya Kuryakin from "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." If you have a taste for procedurals and a liking for Harmon's quiet charm, you'll find the show engaging enough. [23 Sept 2003, p.D14]

They’ve done a smart job of building a cryptic, threatening world around the disturbing relationship at its center.... Highmore is just right as Norman.... I’m less convinced by Farmiga, who doesn’t seem to have a strong fix on Norma’s motivations.

Almost none of the characters is particularly likable - unless he or she is angling for something. What's refreshing about Sex and the City is that it pushes to a darkly comic extreme the situations that already fuel the many urban-singles sitcoms on network TV, particularly those with female leads like "Suddenly Susan" and "Caroline in the City." More social satire than sitcom, it looks openly at relationships steeped in ambivalence, fear, and the games people play. [6 Jun 1998, p.C6]

The plot strands don’t always come together smoothly, some of da Vinci’s mystical, drug-addled visions are pretentious, and the CGI re-creating 15th-century Florence is spotty. And the general tone of the show will not satisfy anyone looking for a serious take on a historical figure or era. But Da Vinci’s Demons is an entertaining series with one huge factor working in its favor: Unlike so much of what we see on TV lineups, it aims to be different.

On occasion, McKinnon--perhaps in his appreciation of the actor--lingers too long on Young, as if we’re not already completely aware that he is dazed and confused. It unintentionally undermines Young’s performance. But for the most part, in Young’s Daniel we can clearly see what it means to mystified by freedom, to be on the outside and yet shackled on the inside.

It’s a likable, natural extension of Maron’s brand.

The Office is less breezy and more warped than almost any sitcom on the American networks. For viewers accustomed to shiny, happy escapism, NBC's The Office speaks a new comic language of glum realism. Like the original, which was co-created by Stephen Merchant and the show's star, Ricky Gervais, it is a queasy portrait of corporate depression, characters who rarely smile, and bleak irony. It is funny, but slowly and painfully so.

The actors are likable, including the Ty Burrell-y Zickel, but this is familiar bromantic terrain.

'Kitchen Confidential" is the kind of new TV show that fits perfectly beside the adjective ''promising." Pilots sometimes strain to set up the entire series, and tonight's episode of ''Confidential" has its share of forced material.

It's a contrived product, but the storytelling reveals the cases and their solutions nicely, if straightforwardly.

Ultimately, ''Random 1" is a portrait of the giving spirit in action, not a fantasy show about happy endings.

These actors help save the show from pure whimsy and excess.

Clearly, the action in ''Black. White." has been manipulated and edited to justify its existence as a spark-filled TV look at black-white relations. Indeed, the show... can be downright hokey. But it nonetheless pushes you into questions about your own behavior and feelings.

It's worth keeping an eye on the show, in case it finds somewhere to go that's both intricate and unusual.

This is a pleasant, farcical romp through the familiar terrain of obnoxious roommates, dating mishaps, and Hollywood sets.

"Lovespring International" is a lively little cable exercise in over-the-top characters, bad taste, satire, and political incorrectness.

[Scott's] vital, star-making turn in "Saved" comes as a surprise, as it makes his earlier work seem muted by comparison.

We've seen all these characters countless times before in movie and TV westerns, but the actors give them distinction here.

"Million Dollar Listing" is a pretty collection of vignettes about people with money making more money, and it's a little obscene.

But while it shows Heche at an advantage, the series itself is, to tap into the script's car-driving metaphors, just a rusty old vehicle.

It's good, but not quite inventive or mysterious enough to demand we swallow yet another serving of serial.

"Shark" is a very conventional courtroom TV drama about a do-good lawyer, and its only distinction is the ferocious acting of Woods.

A slight but appealing mix of old-school Saturday morning cartoons from the early 1970s along with happy hip-hop tunes.

You won't be bored, as you strain to keep track of everything, and Isaacs, with his piercing eyes and reserve, is a great lead.

The show... is juvenile, vulgar, and crude, and yet, I still think it contains more sparks of originality than TV's top-rated comedy, "Two and a Half Men."

This is less a documentary project than a comprehensive self-help workshop.... As drama, however, it's a little bit relentless.

Invitingly bizarre... [but] despite all the promise of its premise about the changeability of self, "Meadowlands" never quite rises to excellence.

Entertaining, stylish, and, most of all, slight.

Television dramas rarely get therapy right, and State of Mind only adds to that reputation.

For the most part, the show is content to be another study in the effects of fashion on self-esteem.

The couples are ordinary, and so are their issues. That’s part of the goal of the show--to dissect the mundanity of love and anger. But making a developing story out of these tangles and skirmishes is extremely difficult, and Tell Me You Love Me doesn’t quite pull it off.

With its pleasing San Francisco locales and McKidd's sympathetic performance, "Journeyman" is entertaining enough.

It's a plot-driven, multi-generational melodrama, which feels particularly shallow at a time when shows such as "Friday Night Lights," "Mad Men," "Dexter," and "Nip/Tuck" are pushing their narrative reach.

The new show from "Sex and the City" producer Darren Star, is a strained attempt to build another hit about four peacocky New York women who sip martinis and use the word "penis" as often as possible.

You can feel creator Vince Gilligan (of "The X-Files") straining to build an emblematic American fable and forgetting to fill in his story with particularities and believable motivations.

Is it strange to make good will and charity into a win-lose proposition? Is it peculiar to judge the givers on their manner of giving, to quantify their largesse? To me, yes, it is, and the show makes for awkward viewing as a result.

If only the endeavor felt more worthy, and less prefabricated at some offshore factory where workers in mouse ears plug in the parts: the underconfident girl with a surprisingly pretty voice, the semi-bad boy with a sensitive side, the meticulously choreographed musical numbers, the heartfelt Disney lessons about self-love and self-expression.

The dog-and-owner interplay ranges from the awesome and comic to the cringe-worthy.

You won't be drawn to True Blood if you don't like a heightened, almost cartoonish atmosphere. Paquin, giggly but calmly assertive, is something of an acquired taste as Sookie.

It won't insult your intelligence, and it has a completely likable lead actor in Kyle Bornheimer; but Worst Week is nevertheless completely predictable and unambitious.

Barker is written as the stereotypical rogue cop who crosses the line into illegality, but Swayze's presence is complex enough to add mystery and weight that aren't in the script....[but] take Swayze and his gravitas out of the picture, and The Beast is a mediocre series that would probably lurk on the cable TV lineup without much notice.

The two-part miniseries makes missteps aplenty, with tone and plot changes from the novel that will likely offend purists. But it nonetheless has a warm spirit and an original vision, which is more than I can say for Roman Polanski's rote 2005 version.

The different elements hang together as a nicely faceted whole--until the final minutes, that is. Ultimately neither movie nor series, neither beginning nor end, Virtuality is a flight with no destiny.

At this point, Scrubs has turned its original style into a formula; the fantasy sequences are more predictable, the earnest denouements are automatic. It’s a good formula, but one that’s no longer vibrant.

Without its classic, punk, and alternative allusions, the New York romantic comedy would be just another ''Sex and the City" with dudes, another ''Jake in Progress" or ''Four Kings." But with its musical knowing, ''Love Monkey" comes off more like a small-screen ''High Fidelity."

It succeeds as a charming, silly, and idealistic piece of whimsy along the lines of "In and Out."

Ever respectful of its source, the miniseries doesn't add on sexuality so much as it seeks and finds character depth and dimensionality.

Walters makes the movie seem like more than it is. She gives us a fully dimensional woman--an art teacher--who is idealistic, self-righteous, humorless, God-fearing, affectionate toward her students, driven, and not any one of those qualities to a great extreme.

Defying Gravity is a perfectly decent bit of sci-fi soap - some cool “Star Trek’’ futurism, plenty of pretty “Grey’s Anatomy’’ ensemble melodrama, and a twist of eerie “Twilight Zone’’ mysteriousness when characters refer to the high-tech spaceship as if it has a will of its own.

The pop allusions (to Carson Daly, Alfred Hitchcock) and the fog-machine-based production design are flat and unambitious. But “The Vampire Diaries’’ nonetheless satisfactorily opens up yet another TV world of heightened youth, where blood-sucking is a metaphor for a whole range of fears and desires.

Margulies and Noth--both of whom have a similarly dark appeal--are well-matched onscreen. Alas, if you feel a “but’’ or two coming, you would be correct. The problem I have with The Good Wife is something that mars too much TV: telegraphing.

For a certain segment of the audience--men, boys, evil babies, talking bears--it’s likely to go over quite well.

It's hard to know where The Middle will go after tonight's decent pilot. And that's part of the sitcom's promise, that it has the potential to blossom into a sweet if small celebration of a family of oddballs living distinctly unhip lives.

Human Target is perfectly adequate action fluff. It’s fast-paced, chock full of fight choreography, and filled with gimmicks including an out-of-control train and an upside-down airplane.

Parenthood is a fairly promising ensemble dramedy that shows TV expanding beyond an emphasis on nuclear families to look at broader family systems reaching from ages 5 to 75.

The familiar show, which is set in Boston but too clearly filmed elsewhere, adds in some romantic intrigue, as both Harmon and Alexander appear to be interested in the same FBI agent (Billy Burke). But the dominant theme on Rizzoli & Isles, as on "The Closer,'' is fighting crime and not fighting tears.

The potential for cringeworthiness is high, and the pilot sometimes falls on the wrong side of the line between self-deprecatingly comic and just plain mean. But there's a real sweetness to the tentative romance brewing between Mike, the beat cop played by comic Billy Gardell, and Molly, an elementary school teacher (Melissa McCarthy).

The lack of a human entry point renders the whole thing passionless. It's more of a slick contraption than a truly thrilling hour.

Just as criminals can't help but head back to old haunts, mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer (the "CSI" franchise "Cold Case") uses familiar tactics in this slickly shot, breathlessly paced, formulaically plotted action drama.

It's just a little novelty, much like the plastic body fluids its characters are selling.

Without any framing background information, this affectionate documentary and its continual monologues can feel a little too insidery and indulgent.

Ultimately, Fisher comes across like that overly intelligent, entertaining, articulate analysand who has her own story all figured out, but still doesn't know how to let it go.

While little about The Cape could be deemed fresh - from its noir-ish "Dark Knight"-esque color palette to the sometimes boilerplate dialogue - the show has several elements going for it.

Known for asking tough questions and being the cranky "America's Got Talent" judge, Morgan was indeed surprising--surprisingly soft. He failed to press Oprah hard on any of her more touchy-feely answers. And yet his Barbara Walters-esque method worked, to some extent, since Oprah is not one to bend to pressure.

USA's Fairly Legal is fairly good. OK, I hate myself for that. But the phrase "fairly good" just seems so right in this case.

Ultimately, though, Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy isn't as sensational as it might have been. It unfolds without too much of the lurid caricature of so many other Lifetime movies.

None of the contestants are quite as memorable as their ideas, except for the man fighting for Saucy Balls. The judges are a little more vivid, remaining firm in their opinions and unafraid to reject proposals without much apology.

It's all extremely familiar material, despite plot tweaks here and there, and yet the show is still somewhat charming in its emphasis on idealism and bravery. Flimsy, but charming enough.

Jewel is a bit of a host-and-judge-bot, delivering her lines with a steely stiffness, but DioGuardi is usually worth listening to....Platinum Hit has a few flaws. The casting is far too predictable. All the songwriters are pretty and, with one or two notable exceptions, pushy.

Olbermann is still Olbermann: left-leaning, punctuated by ironic humor, veering into bombast, and underpinned by sincerity. You'll just need to look a little harder in the far reaches of cable to find him.

It's completely stupid, although somehow, on top of it all, it manages to pull out a laugh or two if you're willing to channel your inner juvenile.

The mixing of those elements--crassness, poignancy, social commentary--is a hard one to master, and Lilley doesn't always succeed in tying them together in a way that is funny beyond the amusing cringe of recognition.

Somewhere in this big pile of plot is a potentially enjoyable series, if the producers can figure out how to balance the week-to-week procedural elements of McDeere's court cases with the overarching mystery of his new associates' sinister secrets.

It may not be groundbreaking, but for Judd fans, Missing isn't the worst way to lose an hour.

The J.R. one-liners tend to satisfy, but everything else is boilerplate, which hampers the younger cast.

41 is less an example of close and personal than up-close and fawning.

Revolution is just all right, no better, no worse.

The debut isn't disastrous by any means, it just doesn't crackle.

I had hoped The Following' would be a more self-aware about its own violence... Instead, The Following simply goes for more generic thrills, using a lot of horror-story clichés including making the most virulent followers into boys and girls next door. It's a well put together show, so that the four episodes sent for preview flew by. But it doesn't invite bigger thoughts, which is what violent cable series such as "Dexter" and "Boardwalk Empire" have done at their best.

The Fox series' formula is pretty stock teen material, with immature guys and unsuspecting parents and ditsy girls, but it's got a few inventively surrealistic scenes and a breezy tone that make it worth watching. [22 Aug 1998, p.C4]

It’s just fine, although it never strays outside the conventions of poignant coming-of-age stories. Everything about the show is too familiar. The sincerity is refreshing in an animated context, but the characters and the stories are old hat.

The show, from Greg Berlanti and Nicolas Wootton, does a good job of making Clark both appealing and overly ambitious.... What doesn’t work at all in the first two episodes of Golden Boy is the more familiar procedural material.

[Piven] brings a contemporary delivery that is jarring in the context of all the period elements around him. Alas, in this particular entourage, which is filled with promise, Piven is the weak link.

It's just a thoroughly conventional multi-camera sitcom rooted in familiar Felix-Oscar shtick and that tried-and-true comic standby, a cute kid. It's old school...And happy to be that way. [22 Sept 2003, p.B7]

The CW built this predictable teen supernatural romance as a companion to the similar and better "Vampire Diaries.".

With J.J. Abrams as an executive producer, this tech-driven "Early Edition" is shockingly lifeless. Caviezel's Clint Eastwood impression is flat, and Emerson is too darkly eccentric to keep the drama afloat.

The cast is an embarrassment of potential, but Dillon is wearing as a Drama-like dude; the cultural-obsession-with-youth trope is old; and the learning-to-be-a-man stuff is pat. It's very meh.

I love this show, because I love the wide-eyed star, who is fully engaged in her role here. If you dislike her hipster adorability, though, beware.

The ambition is impressive...But Morrison is a wooden lead, and the back stories--a random collection of fairy tales--don't promise to surprise.

If someone turns down the volume, ''Out of Practice" has the potential to become a likable, if conventional, sitcom.

[The first episode] is less an in-depth interview than a mutual admiration fest, plus a chance to watch two famous people playing golf.

The miniseries is an ordinary but not awful piece of science fiction, one you won't hate watching and yet one you shouldn't hate missing.

The regular characters are generic, and the plots are filled with holes. But as a mindless TV distraction bent on reminding us that the justice system is not perfect, ''In Justice" will do.

It's not half bad, but then it's not even a quarter original.

It's made of familiar slacker material that's slightly freshened with an improvisatory feel as the actors um-and-ah their way to their punch lines. And it's blissfully missing the canned laughs that make the likes of ''That '70s Show" so obnoxious. Still, ''Free Ride" is far from essential TV viewing.

The show moves along briskly, and it benefits from the lack of a laugh track. But you have to accept the relentless repetition of some flagrantly juvenile jokes to enjoy yourself.