Smartly written and utterly fantastic. [20 Jan 1998, p.E10]

This movie-of-the-week script would be a sorry foundation for a TV series even if it weren't so tone-deaf, failing to convey either the terror of a wolf attack or the quirkiness of small-town life. [10 Sep 2001]

Ignore several adolescent sexual references and you have a sitcom willing to poke fun at the trauma of growing old in a culture that reveres youth. And while Shepherd is not God's gift to TV sitcoms, she holds her own as an island of near-sanity in a sea of hedonism. [30 Dec 1994]

Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher may not captivate like Peter Falk's Columbo, but she'll do quite nicely until something better comes along. [28 Sep 1984, p.2B]

The show is sometimes strained and tends to be a bit sappy, but Family Ties has some good writing. [22 Sep 1982, p.2B]

Depressing, dreary and dull as dishwater-blond hair, "Blonde" - a weird meditation on the life of Marilyn Monroe - confirms that the networks have run out of ideas for programming their big ratings months. [13 May 2001]

Mr. Rhodes is the funniest of the new season's comic-playing-a-maverick-teacher-fighting-a-school-bureaucracy sitcoms. [30 Sep 1996]

In less capable hands, the show might have turned into a far-fetched teen fantasy about life without parental restrictions...Here, it is a touching and finely crafted exploration of what it means to grow up without either the rules or the loving guidance of parents. [10 Sept 1994]

The opening scenes of City of Angels" are so poorly written and in such stunningly poor taste that I was tempted to declare this one D.O.A. after just 10 minutes. And I'm afraid many viewers will do the same, which is unfortunate for City of Angels because eventually the show does find its way. [15 Jan 2000]

For its first two hours, every aspect of FX’s new medieval drama is obscene, from the needlessly degrading sex scenes to the gleeful throat-slitting. Its most heinous offense is burying its promising premise in a pile of corpses before a talented cast can find the story’s pulse.

Tucker is my candidate for the first cancellation of the fall: bad show, bad time period, bad lead-in ("Daddio"). [2 Oct 2000, p.E1]

A serviceable but less-than-stellar spinoff of AMC’s hit series “The Walking Dead.”

In its favor, Danny has no laugh track, and Stern is endearingly innocent of the perils of single fatherhood. But viewers have moved beyond conventional comedies like this one. [28 Sept 2001, p.E1]

The plot twist at the end (of the first episode) may wind up redeeming future episodes of That Was Then, but for now you may find yourself wishing afterward that you could travel back in time and get that hour back. [27 Sept 2002, p.E1]

Turns out the "new" version of Luis is virtually unchanged from the abominable pilot that was made last spring. [19 Sept 2003, p.E8]

The show’s salty-sweet themes of loyalty and redemption contrast nicely with the vile comedic speeches Leary has made a career out of delivering.

The first hour of Scream is an efficient fright-delivery system wrapped inside a teen drama, but it’s meta-commentary that makes it worthwhile. That, and the pilot’s promise to spread out its jump scares more slowly and deliberately.

Although it was wise not to try to repeat the double interrogation format of the first season, there are clever nods to those closed-room confessionals, and the show eventually eases into rewarding drive-and-talks between Farrell and McAdams.... What keeps this Detective from being quite as compelling as the first is the lack of early focus.

Warburton is spot-on perfect as Tick. [8 Nov 2001, p.E1]

"X-Files" fans have been talking up this show, sight unseen, for months, based mainly on rumors and snippets from the set. But Harsh Realm may well validate all that hype. [8 Oct 1999, p.F1]

[A] sad-sack parody. [18 June 1999, p.F4]

Wayward Pines has moments where it’s a happy hot mess, but it’s mostly a muddy puddle of confusion, and it has executive producer M. Night Shyamalan’s fantastical fingerprints all over it.

Montage of Heck achieves its goal of intimacy almost too well. It’s such a tightly cropped portrait that criticizing it feels like criticizing Cobain. But it’s too long and a bit repetitive, and it keeps trying to explain its subject through his own scribblings long after his soul has been laid bare by more direct means.

A three-hour miniseries that bounces between tragedy and comedy with ease.

It's a more compelling, faster-paced and less frustrating journey than fans were treated to in “A Feast for Crows” and “A Dance With Dragons,” the novels that line up with the current action in Westeros’ winter-is-coming world.

Daredevil stands alone as an artful, gritty ensemble drama that could elevate the superhero origin story like HBO’s “True Detective” did for the crime procedural.

I could watch Roger (ever-dapper John Slattery) fire people all day long (Sunday’s surprise firing is an epic one), but Don’s cryptic conversations with strangers can feel staid and scholarly.... And then--herein lies the addictive nature of the show--the action pauses for just a moment, the acting thrums with tension, and you feel satisfied that you have been a good student.

Haggis’ journey into and out of Scientology could have made a fascinating film by itself, and he’s just one of a dozen articulate talking heads.