Joanna Weiss

If there's a glaring flaw, it's in the character of Dr. Eleanor O'Hara (Eve Best). As comic relief, she's far too thin. Nurse Jackie has much richer, darker comedy to offer.

For the most part, the show is content to be another study in the effects of fashion on self-esteem.

It's supposed to be a story of New York and its many demons, but it works best as a tale of loud, proud, surprisingly brittle men.

Where "Scrubs'' managed to plumb some truth about medicine and camaraderie Cougar Town is less funny, and sometimes kind of creepy.

NBC sent the first hour of tonight's two-hour season premiere to critics, and it's sprinkled with some of the original fun: inventive special effects, a twist or two, some nifty gore. That doesn't stop it from being the same, familiar mess.

Stargate Universe isn’t quite so ambitious [as "Lost"], but it’s intriguing in its way, down to the ship, bathed in blue light, that emerges as a character in its own right. The ship is more interesting thus far, alas, than any of the female characters, but perhaps that will change over time.

If only the endeavor felt more worthy, and less prefabricated at some offshore factory where workers in mouse ears plug in the parts: the underconfident girl with a surprisingly pretty voice, the semi-bad boy with a sensitive side, the meticulously choreographed musical numbers, the heartfelt Disney lessons about self-love and self-expression.

The Middleman is so light as to feel almost weightless, and compared to much TV, that comes as a relief. If comic books are meant to be escape, there are far worse worlds to camp in for the summer.

Lock ’n Load treats Wayne and many fellow customers as curiosities, and occasionally smacks of condescension. (The “Amazing Grace’’ sequence, in particular, crosses a line.) But the series also takes pains to avoid making judgments, and offers a parade of gun owners so vast that we end up with a broad view.

Nothing about it feels original or even especially timely, and it certainly doesn't reveal any great secrets about society.

Over the course of the premiere episode, [Paul] Gross grew on me, as did the show itself.

There’s a fine line between wink-wink clever and desperately cheesy. Tonight’s story crosses into Kraft Singles territory more often than it should, with bleeding statues and bloodshot eyes, sacrificial fires and some poorly acted demonic possession.

The world is well-constructed, down to the details: By the third episode this season, Ulrich's hair has grown into a messy and convincing frontier mullet. And the characters are intriguing; Esai Morales is notable as an Allied States Army major who might soon be convinced that his superiors are up to no good.

Very little here feels original or even pregnancy-specific, from the farcically miserable boss (Chris Parnell, uncharacteristically unfunny, even when playing off a small dog) to the sassy best friend (Cheryl Hines, trying her best and smoking up a storm) to the see-it-from-a-mile-away office romance that threatens to unravel once the truth is revealed.

FlashForward is a good idea, and while that’s no guarantee of a good series, the first hour gives us reason to hope.

So far, at least, this season promises to be less about plot than personality. That doesn't mean the show is perfect - it never was--but it's better, and that's a big relief.

It works largely because his victims are the ones doing the work, offering body language clues, lapping up subliminal messages, and proving their capacity for distraction.

Samurai Girl takes up a lot of time and space, but manages to do only one surprising thing: prove that it's possible to be action-packed and dull at the same time.

In order to fully enjoy The Fashion Show--and there is plenty to enjoy in Bravo's new reality contest--you have to resist the urge to keep comparing it to "Project Runway."

By rights, given all of this material, "The Cougar" should be hilarious. But the show takes itself so seriously that, instead, it feels impossibly sad.

Ruby & the Rockits has no right to be as likable as it is ... But “Ruby & the Rockits’’ turns out to be a warm intergenerational comedy that never pushes life lessons in your face.

Credit Grier for trying, credit Comedy Central for adding another voice to the mix, and keep hoping that a show like this eventually hits its stride.

For a certain segment of the audience--men, boys, evil babies, talking bears--it’s likely to go over quite well.

Either executives did a lot of soul-searching and decided to change nothing, or they let the show go on without thinking at all. Either way, they made the right move.

Their lack of self-awareness is intoxicating; it makes the premiere the most engrossing hour of pure TV escapism I've seen in a very long time.

While the technology is inventive, fear, frustration, and anguish still drive the plot. We’re back in “Battlestar’’ territory, and that feels good.

This version of his story arrives in a world that has seen not only "Lost," but "The X-Files," "Armageddon," and every other sci-fi show or movie that melds disaster, conspiracy, and teamwork. By now, it takes a lot more than clever ideas to keep us hooked.

It's a single-camera comedy that comes close, at times, to feeling like a live-action cartoon. It's not as hilariously cutting as "Chappelle's Show" used to be. But the tone is entertaining, and the format fits.