Allison Shoemaker

Lampert, Fisher, and company are at their best when writing for Ginny, and Gentry doesn’t miss a beat; it’s a performance that manages to be earnest without ever becoming saccharine, and wanders into fraught territory without crossing the line into self-indulgence. ... In the Georgia half of the proceedings, things are considerably rockier.

Promising but uneven, energetic but frustratingly familiar.

It’s as though “Kenan” spends so much of its energy trying to please that it forgets to tell a story. ... When he, Redd, and Johnson are allowed to simply act, it’s possible to glimpse the show “Kenan” could become, if only the folks behind the camera would all settle down.

“Firefly Lane” will likely have hooked viewers, thanks largely to Heigl and Chalke, who are great separately and even better together. ... It’s easy to care about these women, and easier to care about their friendship. There’s nothing wrong with some healthy, soapy melodrama and a little sentimental hokum in one’s viewing diet.

Magnetic ... “Painting” is a hand reaching straight through the solar plexus to squeeze. And squeeze, it does. It’s a rare thing to encounter a work of art you can describe as both daffy and mournful, yet “Painting” is certainly such a creature.

While there are glimmers of something more substantial and engaging beneath the surface—more on those below—the series does little to distinguish itself in these first two episodes.

The character development in this adaptation, the first episode of which arrives this week via CBS’ streaming service, is a hell of a mixed bag, and that’s true of the miniseries as a whole. It’s a sometimes dazzling, often frustrating, and undeniably assured effort that swings hard and occasionally connects. When it does, it’s riveting television; when it doesn’t, well, it’s not boring.

The ingredients that make up “The Flight Attendant,” HBO Max’s highly entertaining, stealthily thoughtful new thriller, should all feel familiar to anyone who loves television, movies, and/or a good page-turner.

It’s grim about how complicated and full of conflict the lives of these people must be, but “about” is as far as it gets. It’s about the fact that it is complex, not actually about its complexities. The result is a series that swings from dull to chaotic, back and forth.

Its strengths grow stronger; its weaknesses may not grow weaker, but they certainly become more apparent. The result is 10 episodes of television that may not be uniformly among the show’s finest, but which are somehow its most authentic.