Rizzoli & Isles features a good dose of humor and a lean style of storytelling that's reflected in the fairly small core group with which we will apparently be working.

USA promises "characters," and Annie Walker is all of that. She just once in a while maybe needs to go with decaf.

Ramsay remains an engaging TV character who understands that a significant part of his appeal lies in the fact that we're never sure when he could explode.

So Weeds still has its highs. It just may not be all that long before we'll be getting the munchies.

All in all, it's commendable ABC is so committed to recycling. Green is good, even if in this case, it's mostly the color of money.

Linney, a terrific actress, anchors this cast nicely. We like them all, which is critical and helps us past the fact that Linney's wild-child moments break little new ground. Neither does the message The Big C ultimately delivers, which doesn't mean it's a bad one.

In the larger picture, Hellcats has the deceptively tricky mission of taking what has been a 90-minute idea in most other incarnations and stretching it into an ongoing series. But it serves up plenty of eye candy to enhance the ride, so hey, gimme an M for Marti!

The story and the chemistry work, but periodically the action feels rushed, as if we all know the drill and we might as well get it over with. Future episodes may correct that, because they'll need less setup work.

The new sitcom Mike & Molly won't change your life, but it will make 30 minutes of it happier and more fun.

Chase is as close as TV gets to a Western these days, and that's a good thing. It spins a good yarn. In the end, though, it also feels like TV's version of a "tweener." It's probably too big for USA, but it may not pack quite enough flair to stand out on NBC.

Despite a good veteran cast led by Michael Imperioli, Detroit 1-8-7 doesn't immediately set itself apart from a whole pack of competing cop shows.

This likable and predictable new sitcom about three couples in the same family probably wouldn't get a lot of attention all by itself. But slung in the hammock between "The Middle" and "Modern Family," two established sitcoms about endearingly off-center families, it should snuggle right in.

On the correct assumption that almost no one watching TV today remembers the original "Defenders" series, CBS has created a new one with more swash, more buckle and results that are modestly entertaining.

The Whole Truth gets a split verdict. Solid idea, inconsistent execution.

Sister Wives isn't likely to spark mass polygamy in America, but it's the rare reality show that reveals things viewers didn't expect. It even has jokes.

The rhythms feel off. The cuts don't feel as crisp, the transitions don't feel as sharp. Part of this may stem from the show's deliberate and successful attempt to look L.A. Where the New York edition always had a little grit.

The opening episode of his new A&E reality show almost physically painful to watch. The good news is that if the viewer sticks it out, as Danza did, things will get better as the weeks roll along. They never get perfect. But he will eventually find his footing and win some props.

Hollywood Treasure will intrigue film junkies and memorabilia collectors. For the rest of us, it's breezy amusement about a world that, like the movies themselves, we will always be watching from the audience.

Fans of the comic book and first-rate psycho-horror may form a large enough audience to make this a hit. Those not in those groups may want to start by taking a deep breath.

The storage hunters aren't warm and fuzzy. They're hard guys, always looking for the edge and the way to get that nickel first. On the other hand, they seem to like their work. In the end, what part of the American Dream is bigger than that?

She seems distant and a little wary, like someone who has carefully built a comfortable life and sees no reason to invite a lot of strangers in. Her relationship with us is what she sees and shares. In the end, that seems fair enough.

At many points, though, it feels like a one-man stage production, with Eccleston taking long navel-gazing trips into Lennon's psychic anguish.

Watching someone explain the obvious may not create electrifying television, but once in a while, it's okay for TV to be more valuable than fun. Like when it comes to how you find a job.

It's solid, urban-flavored comedy. Morgan isn't likely to make anybody gasp, as Kinison or Richard Pryor did, but there's nothing wrong with telling a joke well and, most of the time, he does precisely that.

Gossip Girl will get some slack on repeating itself, because teenagers have an incredibly high tolerance for remixing, reworking and rehashing the drama in their own lives. But the show still has to feel fresh, which is why Monday's episode adds at least two new characters who promise to have significant impact on people we already know.

The visitors return for their second season on ABC Tuesday night and alas, they still aren't quite as fascinating as you want them to be.

Like any good graphic novel, The Cape doesn't forget to sometimes be funny. It also at times asks us to suspend disbelief.

After you watch Wednesday night's premiere of ABC's doctor drama Off the Map, you might think the title means the show hasn't quite found its path yet. You'd be right. But it's got a shot to get there, with an engaging ensemble cast and a novel premise that could prove useful.

The show's only visual, literally, is cartoon animation of Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington talking. That's a bold gamble because if the words aren't grabbing the viewer, there's nothing else to hold the fort until the words get good again....So as with radio, you ignore the lulls and focus on the keepers.

Since we like scrappy underdogs, and Bates has the skill to slide from exasperation to amusement to determination, she just might coax this hybrid into the race.

Retired at 35 does have the good sense to create a story. If it ever relaxes enough to tell it, the show could become more than "lukewarm in Florida."

Poehler has great skill at delivering outrageous lines in a droll deadpan. That sets the tone for a cast, including Lowe and Scott, with similar abilities. Too many of the sketches, though, cross that fine but visible line between bemused absurdity and slapstick.

Working Class doesn't seem to have any lofty ambitions. It's a family drama with characters who are a little goofy, but credible, and it seems to recognize that their interaction needs to be the core of the show's humor.

The show has its tense moments. But it's closer to comfort television than "Hell's Kitchen."

The first thing most people wondered last year when they heard a polygamist family was starring in a reality show was why they would want to do that. This opening episode for season two suggests some members of the family will be asking the same question. While this still doesn't make Sister Wives great television, it does shift the central drama to the fundamental question of how Kody Brown, his four wives and their 16 children can coexist with outsiders who frown on or condemn their lifestyle.

Quantum Kitchen moves along at a good clip and Marcel creates dishes you won't ordinarily see on food shows. That could be the recipe for a novelty act, but it's hard to resist peeking under the lid.

None of this is really new. It's still presented here in a way that provides a visceral appreciation for what's involved in extracting fuel from mountains.

Definitive history The Kennedys is not. But most of the flaws explored here mostly make the characters seem human. The series credits wins as well as losses and sends most of its characters home on a positive note.

Bower starts out seeming just a bit too young and green to command the throne, though he may grow into it as the weeks go along. The rest of the cast play their positions well, from the conniving Morgan to the inscrutable Merlin. And if once in a while things look like "The Young and the Restless," well, some truths are eternal.

Fans will find much to enjoy here. At too many points, however, these first three episodes suggest that rekindling Upstairs Downstairs is not quite like riding a bicycle.

For the nongeeks among us, watching HBO's sprawling new fantasy drama Game of Thrones is the epic TV version of trying to sort out the Middle East. That doesn't make it a bad show, and certain elements like the production can be savored by all.

William & Kate is designed almost entirely as an opening act to the real wedding, a short guide to the players. It succeeds simply by not giving anyone a single reason to believe W&K won't live happily ever after.

As the Loud family fractures and then reunites to fight back against their critics, Cinema Verite settles into melodrama that Lane's solid performance can only partly hold together.

It's so heartwarming it would make a penguin take off his tuxedo in the middle of an Antarctic winter.

Justice for Natalee Holloway, a title that sadly suggests more optimism than the movie delivers.

It's a lawyer show with no aspirations to examine the legal universe. If it has any antecedent, it would be "My Cousin Vinny." So it's wise not to try to parse the nuances too closely here. Better to enjoy a steady stream of pop-culture banter and an attitude reminiscent of sophomore year in college.

There's a lot of soap, and the dialogue can make you wince. But the characters just might make you care.

Gettysburg aims for a mix of entertainment and information. It's not a bull's-eye, but it's a decent shot.

It's still lively, still fun and still has the right touch of snap in the dialogue. But at times it's working a little too hard, and maybe requiring the viewer to work too hard as well.

Heeding one of the elementary vampire show lessons, Chloe King sets all this against a backdrop of clever teenage banter and the awesomeness of teenage romance.

Happily Divorced, TV Land's third shot at a new old-style sitcom--the George Segal parents-and-son romp "Retired at 35" is the other one--tries harder than "Cleveland" and generates fewer laughs. "Happily Divorced" is not without its pleasures.[...] Okay, Drescher, who most famously starred in "The Nanny," may be an acquired taste. But if you like her combination of attitude and accent, she provides a full dose of both here.

If you can get past the setup of Suits, the ride could be fun.

The ensuing jokes aren't new. The men-turned-women only want to know if this planet has a shopping mall. The men still won't ask for directions. nBut Groening has never relied heavily on subtlety, and his strong suits, like timing and tone, keep things moving.

Once the race starts, the drill is familiar. Sand dunes, snowy peaks, raging rapids, weekly eliminations. It doesn't diminish the achievements of the contestants that we sometimes feel like we've been there and seen that.

True Blood also sometimes seems to have a cast of thousands, despite being set in a small town, so all sorts of subplots have been simmering. The show evolves, as it has before, by starting the new season with a few more. It's a little wearing sometimes, to be honest, though it has enough narrative strength to keep hard-core fans happy.

Like all mothers on TV dramas, Angela starts out annoying. That means we can probably count on her to say something wise at just the moment we least expect it. In the end, though, this is Thorne's show, and she carries the lead well. Now the writers and Dr. Donna have to find enough interesting places she can go.

The individual interviews suggest the contestants here evoke about the normal amount of sympathy in find-a-mate shows.

In the end, Citizen U.S.A. is heartening because it neither doubts nor ennobles those who have come here and decided to stay. Rather, it suggests that like every other citizen, each now has the freedom to succeed or fail.

The Miracle Day mystery itself feels, at least at first, hopelessly tangled. Viewers may be willing to give it some time, though, because the action provides an entertaining ride.

Alphas is hardly the alpha show in this supernatural-hero genre, but it's still engaging.

While the writers are still finding specific situations they haven't tapped before, like Vince's trip to rehab, the responses, the dynamic and the jokes all feel like they're slipping into reruns.

Mostly, though, all the evidence together doesn't add up to an answer. Whatever went wrong with Aunt Diane that day, we don't know and may never know.

The action will hold your attention, though Moby Dick is really more a drama of character and flaws and faith. At times, in fact, it lapses into melodrama.

The laughs are here, some a little on the cheap side, but no more often than cheap laughs pop up in real life. Otherwise, by early indications, Pants makes us care about its characters.

The story of Prince William and Kate Middleton offers way too much of a Hallmark moment for the channel not to weigh in with a sentimental, heartwarming version of the year's favorite romance.

For those in the middle, or historical scholars, this sit-down doesn't offer much that Bush hasn't said before. The value here is that it's all in one place.

[It] isn't quite as revolutionary as it suggests, but it's a lively account of some big guys who, if it weren't for a single stray asteroid, might still be here today.

Sarah Michelle Gellar returns to TV Tuesday night in a show that could be a lot of soapy fun, but may require more work than some TV viewers will want to put in.

Free Agents has a strong premise, solid characters, good chemistry and some great one-liners. Like Alex and Helen, it needs to trust its heart.

The Secret Circle isn't stunning out of the gate. It does seem to understand what it wants and needs to be.

The show is asking viewers, then, to invest some time and not expect a clean resolution of some black-and-white drama each week. That's a gamble and a risk. Revenge seems confident it can be taken and won.

If you're looking for subtle, Prime Suspect will not become your appointment television. On the other hand, if you're looking for an intense police drama that suggests women face brutal obstacles in the police world, Maria Bello's Jane Timoney keeps the pedal to that metal.

There's soap here, and the liberated-woman part sometimes feels like a reach. But the show is fun, it makes flying look like fun, and yes, that line of stewardesses does look good enough to stop an airport.

It's a show that wants to say something. Now it needs viewers who want to listen.

After you've suspended about a 10-year supply of disbelief, Fox's new epic drama Terra Nova turns out to be an okay adventure story.

The setup sometimes feels as airy as an Alabama breeze, but most of us will like the characters, and that provides some grits, er, grit, as well as a decent set of legs.

Oddly, though, it almost feels too light.

Viewers who like the horror genre and the offbeat Murphy/Falchuk approach, and who are willing to put in enough serious time to absorb all the nuances, will fall in love.

In contrast to Scorsese's other work, like his Bob Dylan documentary and "The Last Waltz," George Harrison feels like it doesn't get far below the surface.

Watching them through this process turns out to be surprisingly interesting.

The Walking Dead may be under new management, but it seems to have kept its rhythm, moving easily between bursts of intense violence and long stretches of psychological sparring.

American Hoggers turns out to be a remarkably straightforward show, almost closer to a documentary.

You either like Beavis and Butt-Head or, if you're like most of the world, you don't. And they don't care. If you do, it will be good news that they are back and better news that they've lost nothing off their fastball.

While it has contemporary music, appliances and vernacular, it has the soul of an old-school sitcom where the issues are basic: boys and girls, grownups and jobs, rogue waves and colorful surfboards.

This kid behaves so obnoxiously toward the whole world that we want to stand up and scream, "Doesn't anybody in this whole school know how to spit in this kid's sushi roll? Is there not one of you who could jam his head into a toilet?" Which is, of course, exactly the response that creator Jonah Hill wants.

Once the viewer adjusts to the notion that marijuana here is as legal as a Snickers bar, the rest becomes a fairly straightforward small-business drama.

At the very least, it maintains TV Land's brand as the comfort food of television.

Neverland, a new prequel to the beloved story of Peter Pan, weaves a complex, often disturbing tale demanding considerably more of its audience than the breezy musical versions.

The drama thickens fast, and if the creators keep stirring rapidly, Jane by Design could become the same good soapy fun as its best ABC Family sisters.

The action moves at an admirable clip and the cases feel interesting enough so we want to see how they come out.

Like many of Showtime's most cherished series, House of Lies can be annoying and entertaining at the same time.

There's potential here. If the characters can bond into an interesting dysfunctional family, The Finder could be worth finding.

Whether Napoleon will work as a weekly animated series may depend on how well a teenager fits in with the other oddballs who populate Fox's Sunday-night animation bloc.

Happily, there are reasons to watch Alcatraz, starting with an appealing cast and a premise that really does not require a college degree in the mythology of other worlds.

Lowe's Midwestern accent comes and goes, but in general it's a performance that will make viewers plow through the darkness and keep watching.

At this point, [it's] somewhere between a long shot and a lock.

Some of it is moderately profane. Some pushes traditional boundaries of taste, though in today's comedy world these guys aren't even close to the edge.

You want to like it, because the rough patches stem more from high ambition than from shortcomings.

If you had to lay out the blueprint for the quintessential Lifetime movie, Secrets of Eden would be it.

This is fascinating and clearly National Geographic thinks so, too.

The premise of It Gets Better, that life improves dramatically after high school for gay teenagers, is tempered by the tacit acknowledgement that before then, it can get pretty bad.

It's fun in a familiar sort of big-hair soap opera way.

It takes a story whose outline we know and uses backstage access to turn it into a well-paced drama.

Shahs of Sunset doesn't have any great message except maybe that the world of money knows no geographic boundaries.

A well-crafted documentary directed by Nelson George tracking Johnson's life, from when he landed in Los Angeles, led the Lakers to championship titles, and how upon learning of his diagnosis helped change the world.

As drama it has a few holes and clearly a lot of backstory that will unspool at its own pace....But the narrative is crisp, fast and easy to follow.

Nothing that happens with other characters or elsewhere in the plot, though, is likely to diminish Shahi's presence.

It's not great television in any standard sense, and the appeal of hearing about Christie, Joey Lynn and the ghost of Roberto could soon be as gone as the Dodgers. But, not for nothin', it's got a style of its own.

If Olivia can keep her edge, if Rhimes can keep the stories as strong as the soap, and if we start feeling we don't know exactly what to expect, "Scandal" could become a habit worth forming.

The jokes just works best in moderation.

The dialogue is crisp, no scene lasts too long, and despite the large cast, we can follow what's happening. What's not clear yet is whether this show has its own style and vision.

While Titanic gets melodramatic and even a little soapy, it achieves what seems to be its main goal: to remind us that when the ship went down, the most terrible loss may have been 1,500 dreams.

It's so intensely focused on these specific girls and their "Sex and the City" dream, though, that at times it may not resonate as much with a larger audience.

The answers aren't especially explicit, and the viewer may suspect de Cadenet is looking more for the tone of the reaction than information. That exchange never becomes the most interesting part of the conversation.

There's an extent to which watching ad development becomes like watching someone write a song or a book. Unless you're in the game yourself, the result is the only part you really care about.

While Hemingway & Gellhorn makes it clear she had world-class writing skills of her own, Gellhorn's story often does feel subsumed here, as if all of Hemingway's swagger and bravado really did make him a more prominent figure, or at least a more interesting one.

Between old fans who will enjoy a revisit and young folks who never even heard of Miss Ellie, TNT is placing a sound bet.

What we have here is a classic family sitcom, with jokes that come from the quirks of the characters rather than a mandate that there be a sex line every 30 seconds.

It still drives you crazy with flashbacks, flash-forwards, fantasies and all manner of other tricks that do help define the show's ambience, but which often interrupt the story as much as they enhance it.

Plenty of material here, spoken by people we like. It's what a good cable sitcom can be.

It's a little bit scary and a little bit amusing.

While the Bible might seem like tricky turf for a TV show, the execution makes it comfortable for all but the most rigid Puritan.

This Coma is different enough from the 1978 movie to have its own appeal, and the cast keeps things interesting even during plot lulls.

The premiseof TLC's new Breaking Amish is so simple it almost seems too simple. That makes the show a little disorienting, because we're really not sure whether we're gawking at a bizarre social experiment or watching five people make a decision harder than anything the rest of us may ever have to make.

Individually, they [characters] remain fun, even in a preachy scene where Glee members forget the Golden Rule. But all the vignettes and moments need a show around which to revolve. Glee needs the New Rachel.

A lead character stuck endlessly agonizing over her fate isn't a character we will watch forever, even though Spiro is one of the freshest and brightest stars on TV this season.

It relies less on mystery and more on physical action, like a video game-style scene where Miles, Charlie and their small band wipe out what looks like about a hundred bad guys.

The deadpan goofiness remains fresh enough to keep fans interested.

Even by the notoriously uneven standards of sitcoms, The Mindy Project takes precipitous swings from fresh and clever insights to the most predictable "Oh, girl, don't go there" setups.

Made In Jersey feels curiously half-dressed.

A stylish ambience and a familiar cast might not be enough to make 666 Park Avenue into another unlikely Sunday night hit for ABC.

While some tension looms throughout Steel Magnolias, it's really more a character drama.

Arrow turns out to be a lively show, probably better than hard-core "Green Arrow" fans expected. That's a good start.

All this setup, and more, happens at the speed of light. But it's all easily understandable and gets us right to the real attraction.

While it tries to stay in the hip genre of new-school dramedy, it often tilts toward traditional soap and sitcom.

It feels somehow as if there's a backstory here we don't fully know about. Still, their adventures are instructive and the dangers seem genuine.

The journey of mankind on the History channel, while ambitious and informative, at times comes off a little too much like a history lesson.

The Stones have been better showcased and explained than they are in Crossfire Hurricane. Still, as personalities and musicians, they never fail to provide a good measure of satisfaction.

This new documentary on Vogue magazine makes the road to trendy clothing images sound more like a midnight slog through a gator-infested swamp.

Even if Amish Mafia may evoke for some viewers the popular and somewhat discredited "Breaking Amish," the show has a running undercurrent that feels interesting and credible.

Long-arc storylines usually need some immediate or fresh hook. Deception doesn't have that, instead reshuffling familiar pieces into a new puzzle.

Washington Heights keeps viewers more off-balance than your average program, scripted or unscripted, about 10 young people at the point when they have to start figuring out the rest of their lives.

Short scenes [are] designed to suggest we just walked in on random real people. It's a raw look that is, nonetheless, a look. It also, inevitably, says scripted TV drama.

We've seen all the parts of this story before, and frankly, we've seen them told better.

Monday Mornings doesn’t break major new ground in TV medical dramas. It has a couple of nice twists and does a couple of familiar things well.

It takes a while for Hank and his assistants Rachel (Addison Timlin) and Arron (Scott Michael Foster) to grasp all this, even with the unwanted help of FBI agent Beck Riley (Carmen Ejogo). Once they have, and we have, the setup is solid.

It does fine when it sticks to the music and the basic story, then stutter-steps a little when it starts to suggest that, say, the Eagles defined a memorable era.

Killing Lincoln gives us some of the lost minutia of the event. Those factoids, like the disappearance of the one autopsy photo of Booth, are intriguing. It’s only the TV-drama flourishes that aren’t.

I'm not sure it's the best first impression a show could make, but it's different and daring enough to warrant a return for a second, and a third. [20 Sept 2002, p.35]

We quickly care what happens to these characters, which gets any show off to a strong start. Just as quickly, though, the time-jumping makes the story feel more complicated than it needs to.

It's the detection, as well as the detective, that draws you and holds you here. Neither the cases nor the characters are simple - and in both cases, that's a compliment. [16 Nov 2004, p.107]

The documentary doesn’t fawn over its subject. War skeptics get plenty of time to explain why they think Cheney was wrong.... Conversely, when the filmmakers make an effort to humanize Cheney, he doesn’t give them much to work with.

In a year of variations and ripoffs of established themes and genres, it's a true original. It's also a cartoon, and is truly, outrageously bizarre. [20 Jan 2003, p.85]

It could be problematic that we know almost no one here will live happily ever after. But while it could head down several wrong highways, it could also give us a nice creepy ride.

The first episode of Angel is exciting and enticing. [5 Oct 1999, p.74]

So while the scripts and characters rival those of any network series (and beat most), and directors such as Clark Johnson (who played Lewis on "Homicide: Life on the Street") do them justice, the players surrounding Chiklis and Pounder are a notch or two less intense and effective. [12 Mar 2002, p.83]

By the standards of Lifetime ripped-from-the-headlines movies, almost all of which aim to reduce viewers to a gasp of horror at some despicable villain, Romeo Killer plays like a documentary.

Mr. Selfridge unfurls a number of subplots, tied to business, politics, class gaps, romance and so on. Some are more engaging than others.

Spies of Warsaw starts off as a complex spy drama and feels like it finishes as a less complex romance drama.

Vice tries to go where other news, documentary and magazine shows do not. That’s okay, though it does at times overstate its pioneering prowess.

USA's new The Moment is a feel-good, serious-minded reality show with one drawback: It leaves its stories unfinished.

It feels at times like part “Da Vinci Code,” part “National Treasure,” part “Borgias” and part “Sherlock,” all with its own underlying tongue-in-cheek bemusement.

It’s the kind of deft touch that makes Rectify, a series with a very measured pace, stay lively enough so we’re willing to wait for something to happen.

This gentle 42-minute look at the life of Georgia Holt is pleasant, sentimental and sweet.

At least in the early stages, though, the show feels reasonably legitimate, and introduces us to characters who are neither appalling nor boring.

The problem is people; the characters are interesting, but that's pretty much as far as it goes. Whether they live, die, are brutalized, treated fairly or unfairly it all comes at you in such a rush that you don't know what to make of it, if anything...That's a serious flaw, although there are signs in the first two episodes that the problem could be remedied as the series proceeds. If it is and I'm intrigued enough to keep watching my like could conceivably turn to love. [10 July 1997, p.106]

The show has so much visual scope it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

Complexity is one thing; making the complexity compelling is another, and "Prison Break" fails there.

The quality of the mystery in the pilot, no better than mediocre, is what keeps this series from starting off with a wider lead at the opening gun.

"Felicity" is a tolerable, even watchable family drama.

No matter how obvious the wardrobe might be, the scripts are even more so.

"Courting Alex" is courting disaster by the way it plays against Elfman's, and Coleman's, strengths.

"The Unit" features a strong cast - but for much of this show, they're cast adrift.

It requires a lot of patience to get there, but the lessons may be worth it.

The story of these patients is worthwhile, and even touching, but that doesn't make it excellent television.

It's all sort of cartoonish and, for better or worse, the characters rarely rise above it.

"'Til Death" plays like a tired reworking of "Married ... With Children," but without the children.

The best thing to say about "The Class" is that it improves by quite a few notches as it goes along.... The worst thing to say about "The Class" is that requiring viewers to come back and try, try again is asking a lot.

For a serialized drama to catch on, though, it has to grab you from the start. Despite its impressive roster of actors, "Smith" doesn't.

"Brothers & Sisters" establishes itself as little more than a family gathering you should have no interest in attending. Their dialogue sounds real, but not much of it sounds interesting.

"Dresden" hasn't put a spell on me at the start - but it's not bad. It's just that on Sundays, opposite such shows as "Desperate Housewives" and "Rome," not bad is not nearly good enough.

I'll be patient, out of respect to Milch and Tinker, but I don't expect you to be.

As a series, it could be a lot better, but there's no denying the appeal of the two musicians.

Fox and K-Ville creator Jonathan Lisco get credit for setting their new police drama in post-Katrina New Orleans--but future episodes will have to settle down and get serious if the show is to do justice to its setting and potential.

So many parts of the pilot, though, seem dumbed down or sacrificing character for punch lines, you wonder why things weren't retooled in time for launch.

Time travel looked so cool and carefree in "Back to the Future" that you wonder why it seems to become so difficult and often downright unpleasant when TV characters try it. In the case of Dan Vassar, the time traveler in NBC's new Journeyman, it also gets unreasonably complicated for the viewer.

Standard setup? Sure. Standard execution? For the most part.

It presents a mouthwatering cast and a tasty premise, then fails to generate a succulent premiere.

While some of the pilot strains to be contemporary with its youthful fixations, the only actor and character who really stands out is Atandwa Kani's Tumelo, a native South African who connects with Katie. Otherwise, it's the animals that make Life is Wild worth watching.

Eli Stone is uneven and seems uncertain about what it wants to be when it grows up, it has rather endearing moments.

Lipstick Jungle apparently still isn't sure we get the point about bonding, because it goes out of its way to make it clear that even sympathetic male characters don't.

People victimized by terrible events and circumstances often feel pride and dignity are two of the few things they have left. There are times in Oprah's Big Give when it feels like those things may be slipping away, in the service of creating a splashier television show.

In the end, while its outrageous characters are often amusing, their palate of jokes runs thin.

If ABC's new cop drama, Castle, can slightly tweak its title character, it could turn into a very nice little show. In Monday night's premiere episode, it's just not quite there.

Jay was Jay last night--hands in pockets, blue suit, solid monologue. Pleasant, likeable, funny, a guy you'd invite to your barbeque.

Brothers starts with a noble idea: Bring two estranged adult brothers together by forcing them to live in their parents' house again. It just doesn't quite achieve either poignance or real comedy.

Most of it was funny stuff, and the audience lapped it up, having long since accepted Conan as contemporary media's cuddliest martyr. For those outside the hard core, though, the sands may be running through the hourglass on this drama, from which Conan is the last major character to move on.

Bell's acting, very real and often very raw, is this show's not- so-secret weapon. [22 Sept 2004, p.94]

There's nothing flashy or special about this series, but it's satisfying and impressive in an old-fashioned way - much more so, in this opener, than its parent, "JAG." A lot of it is due to the ease with which Harmon and McCallum embody their characters. [23 Sept 2003, p.83]

Sheen has no problem grounding the show, and encouraging viewers to laugh at his character. It's Cryer, though, who brings the more delightful offbeat energy to Two and a Half Men. When complaining about his wife's change of heart, he seems genuinely anxious and betrayed - but always manages to inject a flustered comic edge that makes the pain amusing, as well as real. [22 Sept 2003, p.77]

All glamour and glitz and surface. The show is intended as a prime-time soap to appeal to those who watched "Beverly Hills, 90210," "Dawson's Creek" and "Felicity" - and for them, The O.C. ought to connect quickly. [5 Aug 2003, p.66]

Farmer Wants a Wife feels about as "real" as "The Dukes of Hazzard," suggesting it should be viewed in much the same spirit.

The problem with this "Diary" is that Belle simply isn't as interesting as Bridget [of "Bridget Jones's Diary."]

While moments in The Principal's Office are relatable enough, they're just not that intriguing, maybe because they involve people we've never met before and will not meet again.

The phrase "all over the place" barely begins to cover it.

It should be funny, which the new Fox workplace comedy Do Not Disturb is not.

Bella, played by Elizabeth Reaser of "Grey's Anatomy," is pleasant, and viewers will appreciate how she works to keep urgency from devolving into desperation. But she's stuck in this guy-of-the-week plot that leaves little room to do anything but hope each guy has enough unique quirks so the jokes can change.

A wellmeaning, goodnatured show that doesn't have quite the sparkle you'd expect when the main characters include Aphrodite and Hercules.