Ray Richmond

It is so wildly original it defies conventional categorization.

If The Shining has a weakness in comparison to its predecessor, it’s that it lacks some of the trademark visions of horror — the elevator-driven blood, the ax-wielding Nicholson. But it makes up for that with a consistent, carefully textured story that rarely gives you the chance to properly breathe.

Peter Berg drama boasts the kind of quality, originality that makes it breakout potential. [28 March 2000]

This show looks less like a TV series and more like an attraction at Disney World. ("Hey boys and girls, it's Testosterone Land!") [24 March 2000]

An extraordinary piece of filmmaking.

The early prognosis: bizarre, unsettling, perplexing, captivating. [6 Oct 1999, p.10]

Beggars has the earmarks of a savage gem in its own right, slashing as it does sacred cows and spoofing TV's executive culture with wickedly sophisticated abandon. It's the best kind of farce in that, like "Sanders," it keeps reality percolating just underneath the surface while nearly always defying expectations.

What lends this passionate new USA Network drama series much of its idiosyncratic energy is an exceptionally committed performance from the exquisite Annette O'Toole. [24 Jul 2000]

Maximum Bob is like a consciousness-expanding narcotic transferred to film stock. If it's sometimes too taken with its own sense of wacky, it surely deserves kudos for putting out the effort at all. [3 Aug 1998, p.04]

A show that has smarts, guts, style and attitude to spare. [14 Apr 2003]

A standard cowboys ‘n’ Indians, good vs. evil horse opera where good looks and good shots come together for the good of mankind.

It ain't bad by basic cable standards. That is to say, Langton is a poised female lead, sufficiently alluring to make you forget the fact that what's going on is all pretty implausible. [13 July 1998, p.34]

Suffers from being a raunchfest in search of a punchline. Any punchline at all will do. [9 Sept 1996]

It's all pretty lame stuff, tainted further by Mario Azzopardi's frenetic direction. The effects are seamless enough, but pretty much beside the point in a story that feels not just reheated but terminally lukewarm. The primary problem with Total Recall 2070 is that we can't work up much in the way of enthusiasm or concern for its leaden protagonists, especially when the evildoer (Mancuso) is so much more interesting. [8 March 1990, p.58]

For all its implausibility, by the end of the "Dharma and Greg" pilot, you're smiling anyhow. [22 Sept 1997]

Offbeat, engaging and smartly written ... "Ally McBeal" is the rare example of a broadcast network premiering a series that feels fresh and different, if occasionally contrived. [8 Sep 1997]

"Larry Sanders" remains a piece of small-screen art, a series whose wildly colorful characters and flawless execution make it the wittiest half-hour on TV. [12 Mar 1998]

While this sci-fi spoof saunters onto the Fox midseason sked feeling a tad uninspired at first blush, the promise is clearly there. [29 Mar 1999]

Both undeniably clever and utterly bizarre --- not always for the better. [28 Jan 1999]

The show does spring out of the box boasting snappy dialogue ... What the show doesn't have is an original premise... or a compelling dynamic between [Debra] Messing and co-star Eric McCormack. [16 Sep 1998]

As animation, it's substandard, primitive dreck; as comedy, however, it's gloriously subversive art. [12 Aug 1997]

It has heart but no teeth, charm without chutzpah. [21 Sept 1998, p.46]

Charmed has an entertaining little way about it, with Spelling and company mostly striking a solid balance between escapist slap-schtick and mild horror. If the opening hour isn't terribly concerned with issues of believability, relatability and self-parody (pilot is notably short on humor), it's likely a saucy enough brew for the WB's target 12-24 demo to swallow. [7 Oct 1998, p.5]

Mostly succeeds with cynically outlandish gusto, blurring the reality lines while rendering a fresh new antihero for the '90s in superagent Arliss Michaels. [5 Aug 1996, p.34]

Bette is full of good-natured mischief and proves a surprisingly easy fit for Midler. The weaknesses are obvious enough: a need to ease up on the fat jokes and the broad physical farce that's a little too obvious. But the screen loves Midler, which is never more apparent than during a scene that finds her turning a Kid Rock rap-rock tune into a jazzy swing number. You can't write that into a script; it's pure magic. [11 Oct 2000]

The only scary aspect is the fact that the Fox programming staff would find such an ungainly, hallucinogenic premise as meriting a Friday-night series order. [5 Oct 2000]

Gilmore Girls is a genuine gem in the making, a family-friendly hour burdened by neither trite cliche nor precocious pablum. It is as fresh and real as "Dawson's Creek" is stale and contrived. In the process, it re-energizes the 8 o'clock hour with a bracing burst of heart. [5 Oct 2000]

A bleak, agonizingly downbeat and occasionally over-stylized vision of prison existence. It's about as pretty as a decaying corpse, and there is no one to root for. [11 July 1997]