Chris Kaltenbach

Sure, it's irreverent. But is it funny? Sadly, when the question concerns "God, the Devil and Bob," the answer is not particularly.

"Daddio is far from the season's most original sitcom; there's even an oddball neighbor, Rod (Kevin Crowley), who seems destined to be its version of Cosmo Kramer. The pilot includes some gentle laughs, and Chiklis gives it his all -- sometimes perhaps too much, as though he's determined to make the show a hit through sheer force of will.

An intriguing blend of "Barney Miller" and "The Naked Gun," it's an ensemble comedy with an appealing cast and an off-center sensibility that makes it a keeper, or at least worth checking out the next few weeks.

Take the talking dead people from "The Sixth Sense," some otherworldly visuals from "The Matrix" and the team mutant concept from "The X-Men," and you get The Others, a pastiche of supernatural doublespeak that needs to worry less about aura and more about story and character.

Unfortunately, "From the Earth to the Moon" seems content with simply telling us that getting to the moon was an amazing feat. It would have worked better if we had been shown why. [4 Apr 1998, p.1D]

Hart's a real charmer, which bodes well. [27 Sept 1996, p.5D]

"Soul Food" has its share of soap-opera moments and predictable story threads. ... But the moments in "Soul Food" that bode best for the series' future are the ones that don't try so hard, that show the Josephs struggling to remain a family despite the forces pulling them apart. It's moments like those that give their story strength and should keep viewers anxious to find out what happens next. [28 Jun 2000]

Annie Potts (who's OK, but no Michelle Pfeiffer) is a teacher so good, so strong, so committed, you wonder if she's vulnerable to kryptonite. She also inhabits a fantasy world where she's able to stare down gang members and nonchalantly plant a kiss on the cheek of a sleeping student (wonder what the school-system lawyers in B'more would say). [30 Sept 1996, p.6D]

Cute, but frothy, and not nearly as charming as it thinks it is (or as the movie was). Rachel Blanchard tries as Cher, but she's no Alicia Silverstone...This one could grow on you, but I doubt it. [20 Sept 1996, p.8E]

According to the laugh track, this is one seriously funny half-hour. Obviously, it knows something I don't. This isn't a sitcom, or even a comedy with a plot; it's a series of mostly lame one-liners. It's a comedy that mistakes smirks for laughs. Bet you don't even crack a smile. [9 Sept 1996, p.6D]

So it's up to LaPaglia to assume the mantle of leadership. And talented as he is, he's no Benzali. [10 Oct 1996, p.3C]

If all this sounds like the cutest thing you've ever heard, it just may be. And yet, somehow, Dharma and Greg pulls it off, thanks largely to the considerable charm of Elfman, a cross between Lisa Kudrow and Drew Barrymore. [24 Sept 1997, p.1E]

Too many characters quip too wise, but San Giacomo has a nice way with a line, David Spade plays a good unctuous photographer and Segal is his normal exasperating self. [4 Mar 1997]

It's hard to figure where the makers of "Third Rock" believe they went right. The humor never rises above high-school-lunchroom level, and even then it's not over-the-top enough to make it very appealing. The actors are talented enough -- Lithgow and Curtin certainly have nothing left to prove, and Gordon-Levitt seems to be that rarest of finds, a young actor who knows about timing. What they're doing in this mess is one of those questions for the ages. [9 Jan 1996]