There is bitterness aplenty, but Party Down didn’t create these characters simply to mock them. There is also bittersweet sadness lurking behind these droll, incisive portraits of failure and self-deception.

The show offers a satisfying dose of alien-flavored escapism, especially for younger fans of genre fare (Sarah Jane has a few hip and appealing teen companions).

Dirty Sexy Money has everything you could hope for in a nighttime soap: a stellar cast, lush interiors, catfights, affairs, parties and jewels.

The glimpses of old-fashioned heart in Sid’s story, and the characters’ deadpan humor, make this show a mildly intriguing chronicle of youth.

Alas, it may end up being addictive for hard-core fashionistas, but The Fashion Show needs work before it is truly ready for the runway.

In its solidly crafted premiere, the CBS drama demonstrates admirable restraint while still telling a reasonably interesting story.

“Army Wives” is by no means a perfect show, but there’s a lot of potential material in the lives of these women.

As with "24," the whole enterprise, however action-packed, would fall flat if viewers didn't care about the characters, and "Prison Break" doesn't disappoint.

The biggest question hanging over "The Colbert Report" is whether the show’s sendup of the pomposity and fear-mongering of cable news blowhards will be as appealing in the long term as "The Daily Show’s" satire of public figures and the news media as a whole.

Danson is so typically deft that he makes Christopher's raging egotism and arrested development engaging. Zach Galifianakis gives a similarly nuanced performance as the put-upon best friend of magazine writer and would-be detective Jonathan Ames (Jason Schwatzman). Danson and Galifianakis, however, can't quite make up for the fact that Ames and his various pursuits are juvenile and predictable.

"The Sarah Silverman Program" is full of scenes that sound funny on paper... but in execution pass by without eliciting even a small chuckle.

It's a broad, unsubtle sitcom, one that may be worth watching for White, but otherwise is only moderately amusing at best.

Mildly satisfying, but pretty formulaic.

This [is a] crisply shot, well-paced drama: It could venture into the darker and knottier realms of morality, as “House” did in its first few seasons.

The show’s ensemble cast is rock-solid, and makes you instantly root for this goofball gang.

The most exciting new show of the fall TV season.

I found the lead's lack of irony or even much anxiety a bore. Just because you don't know who you are doesn't mean you can't be self-aware. [20 Sept 2002, p.C3]

This idea waiting to happen finds an imperfect but winning execution -- appropriately trippy, yet gentle enough to give it a nostalgic glow. [21 Aug 1998, p.T1]

The cop's cockiness soon becomes tedious, then grating, then actively annoying (and guess what? He's a former Chicago detective, a la the cop on "The Gates." Stop maligning our police force, TV!). The rest of the show is bland and the banter-y dialogue is not as amusing as the show thinks it is.

This new show is at least better paced than the horribly wooden prequels, but little about Clone Wars is involving.

Whedon's dialogue here, without contemporary pop culture to play against, feels a touch heavy. And there's only one great laugh, rare for so clever a writer. The result is that Firefly is intriguing but not compelling, but it least has the promise of a bright fellow at the helm. [20 Sept 2002, p.C3]

"Love Monkey" may well be the smartest and most innovative network comedy-drama in many a year.

The biggest problem with Fox's "Kitchen Confidential" is that star Bradley Cooper... is far too appealing to play a bad-boy chef.

The good news is that the smartly written "Saving Grace" is not a mess. In fact, it's one of the most distinctive new shows of the year.

Women will like the show because it's empowering and because television, for once, presents guys to ogle. Men will like it because Trista's pretty attractive herself. [9 Jan 2003, p.8]

As it is, Trust Me, which perks along energetically but lacks emotional heft, may be one of those shows that stacks up on my TiVo, along with other shows I don’t get around to viewing.

Though the writing here is inconsistent, [Louis-Dreyfus] just might stay around with this one, which gives her some chances to show off.

It’s not surprising that Ball gets the mixture wrong a fair amount of the time; what’s surprising is that it’s possible for such a strange gumbo to work at least some of the time.