Steve Johnson

Give WB credit, at least, for trying to pretend this show is not a regular-season reject they're airing in summer for accounting purposes.

Phillips struts through this show with not so much passion and longing for a lost love but preening, the sense that he is gracing the town, television and the planet itself by his very presence.

Watching Tom Rhodes primp his way through Monday's debut of "Mr. Rhodes," a new sitcom on NBC, you may be excused for wondering, "How come I, (your name here), mild-mannered (your occupation here), don't have a starring role in a television series?" [23 Sep 1996, p.3C]

This version, 25 years after a first and relatively well-regarded mini-series, more than justifies the considerable effort that went into making it. It's a tale of soullessness with a remarkable depth of soul, of bloodsucking that's pulsing with red blood cells. [19 June 2004]

The predictability of it -- extending even to the fact that, yes, Underwood's and Fox's characters were once engaged -- is a shame. If a series is going to try to be groundbreaking in one respect, it ought to have the guts to do so in others as well, especially midway through the TV season, when the more interesting fare tends to be allowed to surface.

This one should be found in the greeting-card aisle, not on a major network's prime-time schedule.

It's leeringly sexual, ham-handed in its attempt to "confront" stereotypes, and just plain small-brained.

It is shot in the seemingly off-handed manner of an independent film, and its concerns are with fending off boredom as the days drift by. It is invigoratingly easygoing. [10 Sept 1997, p.3]

This is adapted, loosely, from the Archie comic books, and it's played in a light, bright comic-book style that is at once winningly broad and smartly sly. [27 Sept 1996, p.1]

At least at the outset, there's more than just a lot of potential. There's a lot of everything.... Parental beatdowns! Sibling rivalry! Drug money! Terminal illness! Blackmail! Betrayal! Gold chains! It's all so much, so soon.

In the first two episodes, at least, it plays too over the top to ring true. [24 Sept 2002, p.39]

If Karen Sisco can keep its tart tone, heady pacing and scripts that continue to respect viewers' intelligence, there ought to be an audience for this. [1 Oct 2003, p.C5]

Me critic. You stink. [3 Oct 2003, p.3]

One of the finest of the new season series, this shimmeringly intelligent hospital drama returns Andre Braugher ("Homicide: Life on the Street") to series TV. Braugher plays, with typical depth and passion, Ben Gideon, a top cancer doc emotionally shaken after the loss of his wife. [10 Oct 2000, p.C8]

Some nicely realized mother-daughter moments fail to make up for the abundance of bad dialogue in the abundant confrontation scenes. [26 Jul 2000]

If you've never seen "The Sopranos" -- and haven't seen "Goodfellas," "Donnie Brasco" or some of the other morally ambiguous mob tales -- you may well consider it exciting television. Well acted and occasionally trusting the audience not to need everything spelled out for it, it could fairly be called a pretty good watch. [3 Apr 2000]

Turns out to be an engaging new hour, boasting crisp writing, near-cinematic production values and an almost fail-safe plot. [14 June 2002, p.3]

Nothing in this show has not been seen before. And nothing particularly deserves to be seen again. [17 Sep 2002]

Watching "Ellie"? Not if I can help it. ... Hacking through the contrivances, you find some strong supporting players ... But Louis-Dreyfus herself seems off. [26 Feb 2002]

What is not so wonderful is the program itself, which takes the ill-received 1995 movie starring Sandra Bullock as its starting point but doesn't seem to venture much further than that entertainment's idea: Put a gal with a fetching smile, a Gap wardrobe and a hacker's aptitude on the run for her life. [17 July 1998, p.3]

The series shows signs of rising above its airport-bookstore pedigree, and it just happens to boast the best and deepest cast of any autumn newcomer. [17 Sept 1995, p.7C]

Rachel Blanchard plays Cher (Emma), and while she still isn't up to Alicia Silverstone's standard for merging self-involvement and philanthropism she does a much better job with the new, stronger material, tonight dispensing bad advice in a guest stint as her school paper's Ann Landers. [20 Sept 1996, p.1]

The main problem is anemic writing that's more concerned with offering up jokes than making sure they make sense in context. The end result is one pooped Party Girl. [9 Sept 1996, p.3]

There is only so much time in a day, and Timecop, unless your only demand is for a lightweight diversion, fails to make a sufficient case for one-twenty-fourth of it. [22 Sept 1997, p.3C]

L also stands for "lackluster."

Marred by clumsy dialogue, improbable events and characters so cliched as to be inhuman. [22 Sept 2003, p.3]

Roswell is, really, not bad. But in a prime-time universe crowded with quality dramas in general and quality supernatural dramas in particular, pretty good is not quite good enough. [4 Oct 1999, p.T1]

Instead of trying to run on the fumes of style and attitude, a la "Twin Peaks," Murder One, at least in its premiere, has high octane in its tank. Boasting a tough, savvy script and the cast to handle it, the episode moves at a relentless pace from the discovery of the murder to Cross being charged with it. Along the way it establishes--or at least whets the viewer's appetite for more of--an intriguing assemblage of themes and characters. [19 Sept 1995, p.1C]