Certain scenes are powerful, even exhilarating. Others don't work at all. [23 Sep 1990]

Lame. [2 Oct 2000, p.E-7]

A likable, even enjoyable, but hazily defined series with no clear sense of where it wants to go. [28 Sept 2001, p.E-12]

Not that That Was Then is poorly done. The production is polished, and performances are excellent throughout, particularly those of Jeffrey Tambor as the self-absorbed father and Tyler Labine as Pinkus, Travis' manic pal...But the atmosphere is awfully heavy, self-consciously sober. [27 Sept 2002, p.E-7]

Miserable excuse for comedy. [19 Sept 2003, p.E-11]

Goofy, silly, trying to be hip, lighthearted and loose, but ending up merely stupid, a dopey mix of inane dialogue, hints of sex, gunfire and blood. [29 Aug 2004, p.TV-6]

Suffers from excessive ambition, but only through the best of intentions. [10 Sept 1993, p.E-1]

Too gimmicky for my taste. [22 Sept 1986, p.D-1]

Pointless gimmicks, dire stupidity, rotten acting and gratuitous violence abound, and, in the opening episode, so does implicit racism. The treatment of blacks in 21 Jump Street marks a new and unwelcome chapter in TV's history of on-screen racism; they are unquestionably portrayed as savage, violent figures threatening vulnerable whites. [11 Apr 1987, p.D-13]

A fluffy, lighthearted little romp that brings to mind "Moonlighting" in its early days. [12 Sept 1993, p.TV Week-17]

"Sleepwalkers," a short-lived NBC series from two seasons back, also asked viewers to care about characters who only dreamed that they were in peril. The sleepwalkers only drew a yawn from viewers, and it turned out that NBC programmers who thought the audience might actually care about such a situation were the ones who believed in fantasy. Fox may be repeating the delusion. [8 Oct 1999, p.E-10]

If you watched "The Larry Sanders Show," you'll find that Beggars and Choosers is weak tea. [18 June 1999, p.E-10]

Think "Bewitched" for the '90s and Sabrina can be pleasant enough...But only if you buy the concept. [27 Sept 1996, p.E9]

Ominously dark, loaded with splashy visual special effects and soundtrack whooshes and vrooms, with costumes by the Frederick's of Hollywood Martial Arts Division, Birds of Prey bogs down early in lengthy and tedious exposition, the sort of back-story explanation that scriptwriters call "laying pipe." [8 Oct 2002, p.E-6]

The drama itself will look and sound familiar to anyone who remembers "Twin Peaks," ABC's short-lived freakazoid hit of the early 1990s. Weird music, weirder lighting, menacing characters, dark forebodings. Perhaps the biggest mystery is the producers' choice of a hero, an IRS agent, not a figure most dramatists would pick for his sympathetic qualities. [17 Sept 2002, p.E-6]

"TekWar" is a blur of techno images, whirring noises and idiotic sci-fi speak. [18 Jan 1994]

Or maybe that line just seems funny, because it's one of the few that's about anything but you-know-what. [24 Sept 2002, p.E-6]

A very conventional, old-fashioned cop-private eye caper, the only difference being the gender of the officer in question. [1 Oct 2003, p.F-7]

One of the most compelling and elegantly produced new series of the season. [10 Oct 2000, p.E-7]

As for story, Tarzan will remain trapped in monotony unless the writers can get him out of the city sometime (at least to the Catskills or Poconos), or bring in wild and bizarre comic book characters like the Batman series did. [5 Oct 2003, p.TV6]

A strong candidate for worst new series of the season. [2 Nov 1988]

Previously icy, menacing, aloof and fascinating, [Hawk] is now mostly noise and bluster, a swaggering, gun-toting pontificator, as ready with an aphorism as with a bullet, a "Shaft" rehash. ... Within the context of "Spenser," there was already a cartoonish aspect to the figure of Hawk. Now all restraint has been dropped, and Hawk has become a parody of himself. Brooks has done better work. [27 Jan 1989]

Cheeky but likable. [7 Oct 2004]

The opener is a dandy little puzzler, opening with what appears to be a certain suicide in view of a crowd. [30 Nov 1987, p.D-9]

If "Spenser" has a problem, it is that the detective's sensitivity is not treated very sensitively. As in most TV series, "subtlety" seems to be a foreign word. ... But the car chases and gunfights are staged pretty well, and some good stories and continued strong characterizations could help the show's appeal. [20 Sep 1985]

A mature, beautifully realized piece of drama, it shows little evidence of the neutering, sanitizing process that usually compromises television storytelling. ... "China Beach" is "M*A*S*H" seen through a darker, bloodier lens. [26 Apr 1988]

"Brewster Place" is dominated by a feeling of softness. A sweet gentleness pervades the air and issues are avoided, rather than confronted head-on. The characters that gave the original drama its sharpest bite, including the desperate welfare mother and the lesbian couple, have been dropped entirely. [1 May 1990]

Very early on, "Christy" runs into problems of simple logic. [3 Apr 1994]