It's not funny enough, the characters don't make much of an impression and the "Porky's"-style humor is too tame to have the requisite impact.

Great as it is to see Ms. Badler again, her appearance can't save a show that's so poorly acted and written that the characters spout exposition but rarely say anything that sounds like something a real person would say. V looks and sounds like a cheap cable series rather than the big-budget network show it should be.

Traffic Light seems to want to be a male "Sex and the City" or "Entourage" without the Hollywood backdrop. But the scrapes these guys get into are more recognizable and more cliched than what the "Entourage" guys encounter.

As anyone who has used an old photocopy machine knows, a copy of a copy of a copy is rarely as good as the original. Suspect Behavior comes across as a show in search of a purpose beyond the obvious brand extension.

This retelling of the Arthurian legend feels overly familiar and there's just not enough that's new or different to make it worthwhile.

It's a strange little show: A light-hearted half-hour caper that purports to be a comedy but isn't really that funny.

It suffers from predictable jokes that are more likely to conjure a hint of a smile, not a belly laugh.

Despite strong production values and an intriguing premise, Outcasts lumbers along, perhaps done in by trying to tackle too many themes.

Imagine any "M• A• S• H"-style cliche and odds are good it will turn up in Combat Hospital whose predictability makes it a dull summer entry that may encourage viewers of this week's premiere to become deserters before next week's episode.

Same Name is a show made for people who live and breathe E! and TMZ.com. Cynics need not tune in.

Whisker Wars gives a few glimpses into the care regimen of these mens' beards but fails to ask or answer an essential question: Why do they bother?

It feels like a retread--and a toothless one at that.

It moves fast and doesn't wait for viewers to catch all the jokes that are made. Some of the dialogue is clever but it's more savvy than it is hilarious and viewers come to broadcast network comedies for the funny stuff. Making matters worse, the two leads are humorless sad sacks.

Perhaps with more attention to concrete character details and less reliance on silly stereotypes, Hart of Dixie will manage to grow into a show that does not provoke multiple fits of eye rolling.

Maybe as an animated sketch on "Saturday Night Live," Allen Gregory would leave viewers eager for more. But in half-hour form, it's too much of the same.

Hell on Wheels is not a bad show, but it's also not engrossing.

Everything in Neverland is a quest as characters run from one large set piece to another without much character development except in minor strokes that are predictable and rudimentary.

The Firm tries to marry case-of-the-week stories with a conspiracy plot. It doesn't succeed.

There's no sophisticated humor in FX's Unsupervised, which plays like a less witty "Beavis and Butt-head."

Fashion Star remains a cool idea. But its execution and formatting need work.

Mostly the show, as these reality series are wont to do, follows the dysfunction within the family.

NYC 22 is very much a prototypical CBS show--it lacks ambition but it's not terrible.

As far as medical stories go, there's not much in Saving Hope viewers haven't seen before (and better) elsewhere, including on "Grey's Anatomy."

It's also similar to Fox's "Raising Hope," except that "Raising Hope" offers smart comedy and Baby Daddy is stuck in the realm of TGIF humor.

Sheen's obvious, minimally funny new sitcom.

The result is not all that funny but more interesting than what most stand-up TV programs deliver.

The show is not so much awful as it is a colorless copy of better shows that have come before.

While it's hard to imagine that the show won't continue if it's a hit, Sunday's premiere marks an inauspicious debut that ignores the sound advice given to all writers: show, don't tell.

This comedy is full of stock jokes, stock characters and even a stock premise.

Ben and Kate has its moments of inspired, gonzo idiocy but mostly it's like spending a half-hour with someone you can't stand.

It's not that the show is terrible--it's not--but it brings nothing new to the firefighter drama format.

All the cliches of unscripted cable drama (like "The Real Housewives..." shows) are present, including in-fighting by a few members of the clique and ridiculous displays of opulence.

Viewers who don't mind being dragged along for a ride, who are gluttons for punishment ("X-Files" faithful, perhaps), may want to join in John Doe's search. For the rest of us, Doe will remain the personification of an unsolved mystery. [20 Sept 2002, p.40]

Bland and toothless, this drama, about a woman who ends up working in organized crime, attempts to meld suburban mommy drama with a mob story but fails to come up with anything that’s remotely interesting to watch.

Preachers' Daughters is pretty much the show you expect/fear it will be but with just one girl who's really gone down a bad path.

Though there are surprises and crosses and double-crosses in the show's waning minutes, Alias fails to make me care much about its characters, their future or understanding who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. "La Femme Nikita" kept these mysteries beguiling in its early seasons; Alias can't manage to do that in its first episode. [30 Sept 2001, p.TV-5]

As soaps go, The O.C. has its positive attributes, but the show is at its most enjoyable when it's focused on the family at the core. Anytime it strays into the world of the wealthy kids of Newport Beach in Orange County, Calif., it's almost painful because the characters are so detestable and yet bland. [3 Aug 2003, p.TV-5]

It almost feels like a weird, little indie film if indie films were somewhat flat and predictable.

The problem with "Reunion" is that beyond the show's gimmick, there's not much to draw viewers in. The characters lack depth and personality and the situations are -- yawn -- overly familiar.

The show is neither funny enough to be a comedy nor dramatic enough to be an engaging drama.

At first glance... it comes off as silly sci-fi, a not-so-intriguing series that wades into all-too-similar waters as two other fall shows. The difference in this one is that the water is noticeably more shallow.

"Just Legal" is just tedious.

"Out of Practice" relies on trite misunderstandings and crude dialogue, both go-to gags for uninspired sitcom scribes.

It's all a bunch of mush, but I suspect it's mush that will find a receptive audience.

A disappointingly sex-obsessed sitcom.

It appears Freddie Prinze Jr. studied at the Matt LeBlanc School of Acting given his mumbling performance and nice-guy-cum-neanderthal portrayal of Freddie Moreno.

When it comes to both character and story, there's really not much in "Conviction" viewers haven't seen before.

Showing the evidence really adds nothing as the story twists, turns and contorts itself in an attempt to keep viewers from tuning out before the hour is up.

"Vanished" is a show that should leave viewers begging for more, but instead engenders more of a shrug because nothing in the pilot is convincing -- not the characters, not the setting, not the performances.

The miniseries asks a lot of patience on the part of viewers and gives too little in return.

"Desire" features better production values than a daytime soap, but just as wooden acting by its no-name cast and terrible dialogue.

A mere wisp of a show, so lighter than air that it threatens to float away at any moment.

Viewers who like their comedy broad, loud and silly might take a liking to this "Odd Couple"-like sitcom.

A lackluster "Sex and the City" companion.

A soapy, shallow look at how gossip is currency in Hollywood.

Dresden's investigations amount to a lot of ho-hum hokum... and his relationships are largely paint-by-number bland.

"Halfway House" is occasionally amusing but the characters are not well-formed.

Where the travails, conquests and bad behavior in "Entourage" come off as dramatic, clever and imaginative, "Sons of Hollywood" is just like any other celebreality show: More boorish behavior by rich people.

It's another one of those dismissable, disposable, oh-so-slight comedies.

A show that's more boring than funny, an investment of entertainment time that's not worth making.

The show squanders any high-mindedness with ridiculous shoot-'em-up scenes reminiscent of any cop show circa 1979.

It gets bogged down by so many procedural elements that all the character moments get squished and forced out around the edges, resulting in an uninteresting blob of an overly familiar TV show.

Writers Steven Long Mitchell and Craig W. Van Sickle are certainly inventive, if inventive can mean willing-to-crib-from-sci-fi-culture-past, but the Tin Man story doesn't hang together well.

In a way, Unhitched reminds me of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" in its attempts to shock, but this new series feels more manufactured and far less likely to become a cult hit.

By the end of the third episode of the second season there have been multiple hookups and breakups, enough to make your head spin or bore you to tears. Alas, I found myself experiencing more of the latter.

I only made it through the first hour and then I gave up.

This story of two computer I.T. guys and their computer illiterate boss is overly obvious and plays on stereotypes in an over-the-top way that may have been au courant in the '80s but feels woefully dated today.

The Easy Money production values are low all-around but they wouldn't be as noticeable if the characters and tedious story sparked to life. They don't, and it doesn't.

Kath & Kim is based on an Australian hit series of the same name but this Americanized version is an unpleasant way to pass a half-hour.

It's difficult to imagine many "Dancing" viewers will be suckered into watching this unimaginative, predictable comedy series for more than the first couple of minutes.

Merlin looks, well, typically British with shoddy production values. Worse, it tells dull stories.

Romijin... [is] too cold and aloof to play the lead.

The Eastwick characters are fairly generic types who are too bland and predictable to be involving.

Unlike "Jackie," nothing in Mercy feels real or believable, particularly the naivete of the recent grad student newbie nurse, who acts as if she's never been in a hospital.

By the 8:30 episode, the novelty of Pounder as a funny mother is gone, and it becomes abundantly clear the show has nothing to say and the writers are already spinning their wheels.

Hank is the kind of show Dr. Frasier Crane would sneer at, which makes it particularly sad to see Kelsey Grammer reduced to starring in this ABC sitcom as a Dumb Daddy.

The conclusion is that a great cast and a singular location can't carry a scattershot script that goes in and out of focus.

The show is a manipulative tearjerker that uses this poor guy's real-life death sentence to milk tears out of viewers. And that makes it a little icky to watch. It's great that Childs gets all sorts of adventures but the blatant effort to wring tears out of viewers made me uncomfortable.

For anyone who's seen the "Spider-Man" films (or even the last, worst season of NBC's "Heroes"), there's little to recommend about this new series that has its bloated, two-hour debut.

It's a shame that the writing makes Off the Map so unwatchable.

With Gigolos, Showtime takes a topic that should be provocative and turns it into nothing more than "The Real Man Whores of Las Vegas."

Love in the Wild is undeniably a waste of time and brain cells.

Twists begin to pile up like they're falling out of a How To Write Noir handbook. And that may be the show's biggest problem: It feels contrived, which makes the audience feel manipulated.

H8R feels contrived whether there's a happy ending or not, so there's not much point in watching except perhaps for the initial confrontation between the hater and the object of his/her scorn if that's the kind of uncomfortable drama you crave.

Hey, with a name like Charlie's Angels, at least viewers have a pretty good idea of what they're going to get: action, attractive women and gorgeous locations--but not much else.

Subtlety is not this show's strong suit. That lack of tonal balance dooms the show.

It feels both orchestrated and dated, like a show whose time came and went around the same TV era that "Home Improvement" aired in.

Aggressively dumb, sex-obsessed and occasionally misogynistic.

Bag of Bones rarely scares but frequently induces unintentional giggles.

The show is gleefully rude in keeping with Ms. Handler's personal style, but 8:30 p.m. seems way too early for explicit sex jokes.

Other than re-living some of Napoleon's favorite catchphrases from the 2004 movie, there's not much enjoyment to be gleaned from this obvious, unfunny episode.

Missing is like a bad Lifetime movie blown up into a weekly series.

Men at Work is mostly an unfunny, uninteresting look at four work buddies.

[A] silly, unnecessary reboot.

There's nothing wrong with TV Land trying to revive the old-school, multi-camera sitcom but the pilot for this show wouldn't have cut it in the 1980s.

It's a silly time-waster with terrible commentary by hosts Jamie Kennedy and Jessi Cruickshank.

Fox's preposterous organized crime/medical show combo platter The Mob Doctor manages to be silly and sappy.

Lousy writing and stale characters rule in Malibu Country.

Do No Harm is a ridiculous show with plenty of lines of groaner dialogue.

Zero Hour is a terrible show. But for viewers who long to mock or hate-watch and for "Da Vinci Code" fans who like to be dragged along on a crazy ride to Crazytown, Zero Hour is a hoot.

It’s got a worthy premise that’s larded up with unfunny, over-the-top characterizations.

Like so many of these relationship reality shows, The Bachelor is cheesy and the whiff of desperation wafting off the contestants is strong. A preview for future episodes promises jealousy, back stabbing and cat fights as the bachelorettes vie for the main man...What do you want to bet this one won't make the National Organization for Women's Top 10? [22 Mar 2002, p.36]

Overcooked and preposterous to the point of being laughable.

The laugh track is far too enthusiastic for the lame attempts at comedy on display here.

An often lighthearted medical show set in a Los Angeles fertility clinic, NBC's "Inconceivable" lacks the grit of "ER," the heart of "Scrubs" and the soapy shenanigans of "Grey's Anatomy," leaving an empty husk of a series.

Because the movie tries to cover too much ground, it will be incoherent for those who don't already know the story, and disappointing for those who do. Worse, it is off-key in its presentation of both minor and major passages of his life.

Filled with terrible dialogue.

Seriously lacking in laughs.

Problem is, the characters are neither likeable enough to cheer for nor despicable enough to loathe. They're just sort of unformed lumps of gray clay with a few stereotypical streaks of color.

The biggest problem with "so noTORIous" is that the laughs, when they come, are few and far between.

Dull and plodding, "Hunters" is no reality TV treasure.

It had a weak pilot to begin with, but the second episode is even more of a tedious bore.

"The Game" lacks the relationships that made "Girlfriends" a qualified UPN hit and the comedy to make it much of anything for The CW.

"October Road" is perhaps one of the most clumsily plotted, illogical drama pilots to be produced in years.

Flash Gordon is a victim of pedestrian scripting. Worse yet, the characters are forced to spout too much exposition that betrays what should be the characters' natural reactions.

Another single-camera comedy that fails to provide any laughs.

Miscast and only intermittently funny, Jezebel James misfires on all cylinders.

An awful show about awful people.

Utterly unpleasant and unfunny, Fox's dispiriting Sons of Tucson may be the worst comedy series of a generally winning 2009-10 TV season.

There's exactly one funny moment in the dreadful Fox sitcom I Hate My Teenage Daughter.

There's a lot that's terrible about Bristol Palin: Life's a Tripp.... But this show adds additional layers of hypocrisy and silliness.

The CW's Beauty is laughably bad in myriad ways. There's no sense of star-crossed lovers, just a plasticized romance between a Cover Girl and a glum, anger-prone male model.

The pilot episode jumps all over the place without establishing characters or their relationships.... [A] failure to connect the dots is a common problem for Hemlock Grove.

Watching this one gave me a headache in about 17 minutes. You've been warned.

Just as awful as "Locusts" was.

A crummy comedy.

I'll give "Unan1mous" this: At least it's more efficient than some reality shows, wasting only a half-hour of a viewer's time. But that's still 30 minutes you don't have to spend wallowing in this muck.

One of the more awful projects to hit CBS prime time in years.

Go to bed early tonight. Your eyes will thank you for avoiding Lifetime's preposterous "Eyes."

Never mind the unbelievable premise -- the way the audience is introduced to it is so strained it's painful to watch.

The pilot plot... follows a well-worn path of sitcoms traceable back to when cavemen acted them out with large dinosaur bones as props.

At least "'Til Death" has some known stars. The cast of "Happy Hour" will likely remain unknown, starring, as they do, in this dud.

This comedy is just not funny.

Never thought a TV comedy would leave me wistful for Silverman's NBC bomb "The Single Guy," but "In Case of Emergency" manages to do just that.

Besides being uninspired, "Rules" isn't all that funny.

American television networks have aired many ridiculous reality shows, but The CW's Farmer Wants a Wife is a master class in televised inanity.

Knight Rider is nothing more than car porn.

There's no need to go any further. Testees makes "Kath & Kim" look smart and savvy, a nearly impossible feat.

As for My Generation, the less said about it, the better. It's an insufferable show that could well be the season's first cancellation. And it can't come a moment too soon.

A&E's The Hasselhoffs is not as morally objectionable as other shows have been (think: "Hot or Not," "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?"), but it is hands down the cheesiest, least realistic celeb-reality show ever. And mostly that's due to star David Hasselhoff's narration, which sounds like someone with no acting training trying to read dialogue.

The first season of Hilton's 2003 Fox series "The Simple Life" was an amusing sideshow. The World According to Paris is not nearly as entertaining. The bloom is off the Paris Hilton rose. This new show just proves she's a person no one in their right mind would spend time with in real life.

The whole lot are a terrible example of, well, humanity, and the only reason to spend time with them is to feel superior, which most viewers probably are.

How to be a Gentleman is exactly the kind of TV comedy Johnny Drama would be thrilled to star in.

It's pretty awful.

Truly, all the actors on Guys with Kids--even the unknown children used as props--deserve better writing than what they get in this crummy, unimaginative sitcom.

Whatever her faults, Ms. Lohan is not the film's biggest problem. That would be the script, which fails to introduce characters or even explain plot developments.

A sadistic series that, underneath its ghastly veneer, is just a dull, unoriginal crime drama.

Poorly acted, terribly written and plotted with audacious ridiculousness, "10.5: Apocalypse" is TV junk food that's neither tasty nor filling. It's just junk.

There's nothing clever or original in American Body Shop, a disappointing waste of time and squandering of Comedy Central's resources.

Cavemen is itself an embarrassment because it's not funny. At all.

A disapointing and largely laughless comedy set in an upscale New York City hotel.... Do Not Disturb? Try, Do Not Watch.