Hal Boedeker

Mostly, Crossing Jordan comes off like a lighter, jokier version of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, last season's surprise hit. The triteness engulfs appealing Hennessy and her co-stars. [16 Sep 2001, p.4]

NBC's American Dreams, opening in 1963, too often plays like a sentimental journey or a clumsy history lesson. [29 Sep 2002, p.4]

In Now and Again, Caron shrewdly baits more hooks than a fishing tournament. The lures are irresistible. [24 Sep 1999, p.E1]

The series seems to be aiming for Twin Peaks-style strangeness, but the show's odd strands dangle rather than come together in gripping fashion.

Shepherd reveals more spunk and style than she did in Moonlighting; like Candice Bergen and Burt Reynolds before her, she will soar to sitcom stardom. [02 Jan 1995, p.1F]

The miniseries, airing Sunday and Wednesday, tries to shatter Hollywood glamour by examining how Norma Jean Baker suffered in becoming the icon Monroe. But the heavy-handed approach will send viewers fleeing in droves from this relentlessly dark psychological portrait. [13 May 2001, p.4]

Mr. Rhodes has many problems, starting with language and taste. [22 Sep 1996, p.F1]

The remake isn't first-rate King because it saves most of the terror and special effects for the second half. More than 500 effects decorate the program, and the eerie cinematography helps transform Melbourne, Australia, into New England...In the lavish visuals, acrobatic vampires prowl ceilings and expire with ferocious flourishes. These bloodsuckers have different but very splashy ways of exiting the planet...Those images should satisfy moviegoers who can't get enough visual magic at the multiplex. But great acting serves the show better in the long run. [20 June 2004]

Legend has it that 23 people disappeared at Rose Red. On the strength of King's name, millions more are bound to get lost there. So a warning: It's a long, punishing program that will leave you stupefied in Seattle. [27 Jan 2002, p.4]

The Stephen King miniseries on ABC have underwhelmed me. I found The Shining tarnished, The Langoliers laughable, The Stand rickety, It exhausting and The Tommyknockers oh so knockable. Storm of the Century, however, wowed me. It is the most effective King miniseries the network has presented. In this genuinely unsettling epic, good and evil face off on a small Maine island pounded by a nor'easter in 1989. [14 Feb 1999]

But the running time unwisely inflates this intimate story of a three-member family coming apart at the isolated hotel in the Colorado Rockies. The Stand was an epic. The Shining is not... The extreme length, however, leads to tiresome repetition. Horror and suspense are better served in small helpings. Even Alfred Hitchcock would have been daunted by these conditions. [27 Apr 1997]

The first hour, "Battleground" with William Hurt, is brilliant, but the next three are repetitive, talky or derivative. [9 July 2006, p.10]

No one will confuse episodic The Tommyknockers with The Twilight Zone. It relies more on cheap effects than imagination or characterizations. Even the setting is counterfeit; this New England is actually New Zealand. [8 May 1993, p.G1]

The Stand is far superior to other miniseries based on King books -- IT and The Tommyknockers -- but at twice their lengths, it's a demanding, sometimes confounding epic. The first six hours unfold, oh so slowly, as an elaborate prelude to the rousing final two hours. ABC is betting you'll still be around by Thursday night, to see divine intervention, spectacularly hellish makeup and an explosive finale. [8 May 1994, p.1]

Among new series this season, Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital is the biggest disappointment, a botch of monumental proportions. Next to it, NBC's misbegotten Coupling looks quaint. [29 Feb 2004, p.4]

Hugely entertaining...Among the new spring series I've seen, Sliders stands out as the most enjoyable. "What-might-have-been" is usually a pointless exercise, but here it makes for some rousing entertainment.

The print ads for The Commish go: "Loves pasta. Sings opera. Nails scum. . . . A police commissioner you gotta love." Viewer, you don't gotta at all. The Commish and ABC should go nail themselves. [28 Sept 1991]

The cornball Walker, Texas Ranger looks like a parody early on; it has the strangest camera angles since Batman. Soon enough, it's clear this is just another violent show filled with cartoonish villains, helpless victims and a taciturn martial arts hero who lets his hands do the talking. The low point comes when a rapist ogles his victim a second time and confides to pals, "Just chalk it up to hormones." [21 Apr 1993, p.E7]

Party of Five is easily Fox's best new series this season...The young actors, especially Wolf, give heartfelt performances, and when they talk about their departed parents, the pain comes through. There are some Fox touches -- the knockout new nanny, for one -- but Party of Five is far from being a life-without-parents fantasy. [12 Sept 1994, p.C1]

Wonderland, which debuts at 10 on WFTV-Channel 9, should carry a warning: It's a tough, tough show...When Wonderland slows down, it can be quite effective. The National Mental Health Association complains that the series distorts the mentally ill, but the portrayals are wide-ranging.

You have to hope the show is therapeutic for Titus, because it has little entertainment value. [19 March 2000, p.F1]

Making the Band proves highly watchable. This story of a bubblegum band gives you something to chew on. [24 March 2000]

Considering what's at stake, the show could use more edge. It settles instead for sweetness. [9 March 2000, p.E1]

The Beat needs more reinforcements because the main characters aren't strong enough to carry a show. Andre Braugher had more help on Homicide.

Daddio and Battery Park are wisps of shows, so slight and feeble that they're not ready for prime time. They're not ready for anything, really. Lumping them with Friends and Frasier only makes them look punier.

Daddio and Battery Park are wisps of shows, so slight and feeble that they're not ready for prime time. They're not ready for anything, really. Lumping them with Friends and Frasier only makes them look punier.

You would do better to go out Saturday night than settle for this sappy supernatural thriller. [5 Feb 2000, p.E1]

City of Angels, a good but uneven show, crackles when depicting romance or behind-the-scenes intrigue. But in addressing race, the show can turn preachy, earnest and trite. [16 Jan 2000, p.F1]