The writing is crisp, honed and, best of all, funny. You actually laugh at this comedy. Right there, that's an upset for TV. [30 Sep 1982, p.28]

There is a concerted effort at character development, something rare for TV comedy. Much of the humor springs from human pain. [11 Sep 1978, p.18]

Underneath, Dawson's Creek seems not so much about sex as about growing up in a culture obsessed with sex. It's a subtle difference, but one that could make this newest prime-time soap a cut above the rest. [20 Jan 1998, p.4E]

I'll take the heavy-handed product placement and all the gratuitous skin shots in the world for a drama that celebrates academic accomplishment and tries to communicate to its teen viewers the danger, exhilaration and joy of daring to exceed social-class expectations. [12 Jul 2000]

Left to her own devices in the new CBS sitcom Cybill, La Shepherd seems a little lost.

For awhile the whodunit is mildly diverting, but it quickly goes off in unsatisfying directions. [28 Sep 1984, p.10B]

It has a lot of positive factors, one being a good comedy actor in Michael J. Fox, who plays teenage son, Alex. The show may also develop a better sense of its characters as it goes along. [29 Sep 1982, p.C12]

How did this sitcom (using the word in its most expansive sense) ever make it on the CBS fall schedule?

Wishbone is a near-perfect PBS kids' show. [08 Oct 1995]

The film, which begins tomorrow night on ABC, is classic storytelling. It's Stephen King as spellbinder, gathering us around the prime-time campfire -- enthralling, dazzling and scaring our pants off before sending us to bed afraid to turn off the lights. [13 Feb 1999]

This is a good, at times brilliant, always solid and well-done example of the horror/suspense genre. But be forewarned, the superb setup is better than the slightly disappointing payoff.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out this central plot device. But by the time King's script confirms that this character will indeed get younger, the audience has aged by almost two hours, although it might seem like four.

When it comes to film and TV adaptations of Stephen King's works, the best thing to expect is not too much. However, this weekend's ABC miniseries, Stephen King's The Tommyknockers, defies those low expectations by being passably entertaining from start to finish.

Outside of that brief reprieve, though, it's mainly tedium in the plane's cabin and at a deserted airport in Bangor, Maine. Tedium, and a lot of creaky disaster-movie dialogue.

Ringwald jokes aside, The Stand is an impressive piece of work. It has a convincing, realistic look, relentless pacing, strong performances and a sense of grandeur as well as humor and irony. [8 May 1994]

Beyond Rickman, however, the series offers little more than a stale buffet of recycled King ghouls and refried hospital types from every dark medical drama that ever aired from M*A*S*H to ER. Chief among these characters is Dr. Hook (Andrew McCarthy), the cynical, anti-authority neurosurgeon who operates on Rickman. Call him Hawkeye. Tonight's two-hour pilot works to a limited extent only because of the Rickman story line. The big question is where can the miniseries go during the next 10 weeks? [3 March 2004]

I don’t know if I will get though all 30 episodes, but I badly need a dose of realpolitik leavened with a some sense of idealism and hope, and this feels like just the ticket.

Maybe if you're 15, living in mom's basement and obsessed with wormholes, you'll find a laugh or two in the scenario. As for me, I was checking the press release to see if tonight's pilot was really two hours long. It is.

Take a good character and put him in a lame show peopled by cliches and what you get is a waste of a good character.

Walker, Texas Ranger would have been retrograde in 1972. The acting is wooden. The bad guys are drawn in the dimensions of cartoon characters. I'm not even going to start to talk about how it handles racial stereotypes. It celebrates vigilantism. There's violence and more violence.

"Death to the parents" in prime time is an interesting notion for a cultural essay. But it makes for a fairly uninspired drama tonight on Fox when all that seems to matter is money, money, money. [12 Sept 1994]

Sure, it's irreverent. But is it funny? Sadly, when the question concerns "God, the Devil and Bob," the answer is not particularly.

Brace yourself for a visual look from Levinson that was designed for viewers who grew up with MTV. But, before you dismiss it as too radical, try to remember the jumpy, herky-jerky, hand-held look of the first "Homicide." [21 March 2000]

"Daddio is far from the season's most original sitcom; there's even an oddball neighbor, Rod (Kevin Crowley), who seems destined to be its version of Cosmo Kramer. The pilot includes some gentle laughs, and Chiklis gives it his all -- sometimes perhaps too much, as though he's determined to make the show a hit through sheer force of will.

An intriguing blend of "Barney Miller" and "The Naked Gun," it's an ensemble comedy with an appealing cast and an off-center sensibility that makes it a keeper, or at least worth checking out the next few weeks.

Take the talking dead people from "The Sixth Sense," some otherworldly visuals from "The Matrix" and the team mutant concept from "The X-Men," and you get The Others, a pastiche of supernatural doublespeak that needs to worry less about aura and more about story and character.

No Direction Home is not just another two nights in front of the tube. Even by the standards of PBS' American Masters -- the medium's finest biography series ever -- Scorsese's film is 3 1/2 hours of breathing air so rarefied compared to most television that it feels as if one is inhaling helium. [26 Sep 2005, p.1C]

Unfortunately, "From the Earth to the Moon" seems content with simply telling us that getting to the moon was an amazing feat. It would have worked better if we had been shown why. [4 Apr 1998, p.1D]