Eric Mink

Dawson's Creek also shines with some terrific performances that illuminate honest attempts to get at the true nature of decent contemporary kids. It's worth a look. [20 Jan 1998, p.67]

Murder, She Wrote looks like the most intriguing, if lighthearted, adult show of the new CBS entries. [17 Sep 1984, p.3E]

The show has definite possibilities. Young people, who tend to feel like misfits most of the time anyway, could well identify with the characters' feelings, if not their specific difficulties. [08 Sep 1985, p.F]

A lot more imperfect than interesting. Smith and Mosier teamed with "Seinfeld" veteran David Mandel, but the sneaky charm and subtlety of the movie and the deft shadings of the main characters - not to mention the joyous profanity, sexual anxieties and many drug references - have all been pretty much washed out. And the snappy dialogue that gave the film much of its energy plays sluggishly here, as if it had been padded in the editing process. [31 May 2000]

Judging from the lone episode sent out for review, Son of the Beach does a reasonably good job of achieving that goal - at the same time that it meets all expectations of sniggering humor. The show clearly never met an innuendo, double-entendre or sex-oriented pun it didn't like. [14 March 2000]

I admit that by the end of the third episode, I had begun to warm to the series' central characters - in spite of the show's style, certainly not because if it. But The Beat has no right to expect weekly viewers to be so persistent or so forgiving. [21 March 2000]

It hasn't jelled yet as drama, judging from the two episodes made available for advance screening. Its basic elements feel out of synch. [4 Feb 2000]

This show has a long way to go. [14 Jan 2000]

"From the Earth to the Moon" looks like an exceptional creative achievement, with individual films ranging from very good to flat-out great.

By the time the show ended, I disliked it a lot, but I kept an open mind. ... I watched it a second time. And a third time. I now believe I can praise Bochco and ABC for trying to do something different and, at the same time, say that "Cop Rock" is a bomb of major proportions. [17 Sep 1990, p.1D]

Tucker, whatever its modest comedic achievements, feels like a retread.

The acting is pretty much non-existent, casting is weak, and the special effects are unimpressive. But there's some terrific makeup work on some of the non-human creatures around, and somebody went to the trouble of deciding that a space station for many different species would have to be equipped with many different environments to accommodate them...Nice touch. [22 Feb 1993, p.5D]

I love the idea of a superhero with a great big heart and a tiny little brain, and I love Patrick Warburton's fearless performance in the title role of this odd new live-action comedy.

If you're unfamiliar with the comic book and didn't see the movie, tonight's series premiere will go down easier if viewed with a mental attitude best described as "Just go with it."

But far too much of the show - a story about a wealthy hospital patron and her dog, for example - struggles far too obviously to convey a quality of eccentricity that in the end comes across simply as lame...Unless the show finds a way to maintain its quality when Braugher is not on screen, ABC's promos will remain half-true hype.

Writing is woefully inconsistent. [4 Apr 2000]

Brewster Place has chosen to forgo sophistication or subtlety in favor of little homilies that come off just a tad heavy-handed. [30 Apr 1990]

A thoroughly captivating production. ... You'll want to have a couple of blank videotapes ready for this one. [31 Mar 1991]

To its credit, "Soul Food" doesn't stop to explain everything to us. The decision to let viewers pick things up as the show proceeds keeps it from getting bogged down in obvious, clumsy, drama-killing exposition. The result is truer and more natural dialogue, better pacing, events that unfold slowly to engage viewers more completely, and characters whose personalities are revealed by what they do and say in the context of their immediate situations. [27 Jun 2000]

Disaster pretty much sums up Party Girl, judging from its first two shows...The performers seem game enough, but they are utterly undone by material that gets stuck at the intersections of body parts. [9 Sept 1996, p.78]

IF George Lucas and company can keep up this pace, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles should be positively captivating. Lucas has managed to create the seemingly impossible: a new weekly series for television with very nearly the same improbable sense of spectacle and adventure as the breath-defying ''Indiana Jones'' movies on which he and director Steven Spielberg collaborated. [4 Mar 1992, p.9F]

As drama with the ring of emotional truth, Queer as Folk falls far short. When it comes to explicit, simulated sex, it barely puts a toe in the water. As a shallow depiction of one corner of gay life, it's worth a look. [1 Dec 2000, p.137]

There's not a shred of a doubt in my mind, however, that Murder One is twice the drama "ER" is and that viewers who climb aboard the latest effort from Steven Bochco and company are in for a hell of a ride. [18 Sept 1995, p.68]

Relentlessly intense and depressing, ferociously written and spectacularly acted. [14 Apr 2000, p.135]

The quality of the material, all of which is written by the performers themselves, is spotty, to be sure. But when it hits, it has that "on the edge" feeling that makes you squirm as much as it makes you laugh. [21 July 1989, p.9E]

Family Matters has assembled one of the most broadly appealing casts seen in recent years. Reginald VelJohnson, who played the sympathetic cop in the movie "Die Hard," is almost irresistible as a character. And yet the show's concept is so familiar that Family Matters will have to struggle to be fresh, to avoid going over old ground, to give its characters texture and definition. The potential for some excellent comedy is certainly here. [18 Sept 1989, p.1D]

Ingenious. ... It's an inspired, imaginative technique, making the slices of standup routines fit seamlessly into the therapy sessions, which is sort of what standup comedy is, anyway. [26 May 1995]

The question, of course, is whether the show can sustain its heat and, more importantly, its unique character and remarkable quality in its sophomore season. Tonight's season premiere suggests the answer is yes. [14 Sep 1998]