The second half of the pilot improves over the first. So there's progress.

The show is pretty much a by-the-numbers cop show.

The show feels like it should be better.

The cast is good enough and the premise strong enough to carry it. Right now, though, Deception is a show that doesn't know what it is.

Anyone looking for soapy twists and turns, shocking violence and a fast-paced ride will get what they want from creator Kevin Williamson and crew, just don't expect the show to dig deep into its characters or give you much to think about in the process.

Not all the cases turn out badly, but enough do that the show takes on a rather grim formula.... That's a lot of talent to work with and the good news is that Monday Mornings shows signs of finding its voice by episode three.

Despite being populated with likable actors giving mostly solid performances, it's hard to escape the feeling that you've seen this before.

Well, let's hope the show gets better after the pilot episode.

From shows like "Alias" to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to "Nikita," it has become commonplace to see hot chicks action stars. So a "Charlie's Angels" reboot has to offer something else in order to work. And it doesn't.

Instead of an entertaining half-hour to ease our wait for the return of "30 Rock," the network has given us another "Outsourced."

House of Lies lacks the heart of "Shameless" and Kaan lacks the likability of Duchovny's Hank Moody, which means we care very little about the characters after two episodes.

Now that finished episodes are out there, we can tell you that it's not great.

Just know going in that you'll be far better served by acknowledging the towering silliness of the plot, because it's just about impossible to take it seriously.

While it's never as silly or artless as HBO's overpraised "Game Change," Spector is low-stakes, procedure-oriented and deliberately claustrophobic, lacking in the sort of sharply pointed dialogue one may expect from Mamet

The show is so overstuffed and dancing so fast in its effort to achieve cultdom that it forgets some basic things, like making us care about the characters in the middle of this whole mess or drawing some clear stakes for what happens.

There was one laugh-out-loud moment in the premiere and that was when son Henry imitated his father and William Shatner's character remarked that no one can do a good impression of him. Otherwise it was a lot of furrowed-brow staring at the TV when the laugh track roared, wondering what the #*!! they were laughing at.

As you might expect, the results are pretty offensive, but not even for their obvious racial and cultural ignorance. It's the laziness with which every element of this show was assembled that makes Outsourced such an annoying blister of a television series.

For all its stylistic appeal, one sizable problem remains with Allen Gregory--it's not funny.

It quickly devolves into borderline slapstick comedy that was old when the Three Stooges were doing it.

There's no on-screen chemistry between Schneider and Bassols, the jokes are weak and the acting is forgettable.

Taken together, the monotone voices and 2D characters end up falling flat.

The Cole/Price problem just continues to come across as ridiculous, rather than serious. It doesn't keep the viewer invested in the character at all.

If you value your time, you'll change the channel after "Modern Family."

Liz & Dick, Lindsay Lohan's corny "comeback vehicle," is so awful it makes the entire slate of Lifetime guilty-pleasure TV movies look like Masterpiece Theatre.