David Zurawik

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.

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]

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.