Frederic M. Biddle

The Langoliers is a rather bumpy flight for Stephen King, so keep the sick bags ready along with the popcorn. But this new miniseries puts an intriguing spin on that most timeworn of sci-fi plots, time travel - as long as you can stomach character cliches that approach parody, not to mention a grand finale of flying creepies who look like hybrids between Pac-Man and the scrubbing bubbles of Dow Bathroom Cleaner. [13 May 1995, p.21]

With luck, producer Barney Rosenzweig will soon decide what he really wants out of his show's characters, especially Daly, who quips tartly and fills out stiffly starched shirts. And the heavy-handedness of the scripts will prove less amusing as episodes pass. [31 Mar 1994]

Yet tonight's pilot retains the supporting cast and all else that made Amy Heckerling's film a delight, especially its unexpectedly tangy one-liners and eye-candy production values. This sitcom looks as if it were shot through Kool-Aid, and is, in sips, just as refreshing. [20 Sept 1996, p.D10]

Murder One no longer has that sick kinship to reality. Last year's plot was eerie, uncomfortable, and brilliant, because the plausibility of a movie star standing trial for murder was constantly validated by O.J. Simpson's...By contrast, the election-year plot of a governor assassinated with his mistress, allegedly by an ex-mistress, is treated with anticlimactic, almost ho-hum gravitas in tonight's Murder One. Not even a show as fine as this one has been has the credibility to get away with that. [10 Oct 1996, p.D6]

Idealism and pragmatism clash predictably but powerfully. [4 Mar 1997]

Television's blackest comedy. [13 Nov 1996]

The pilot's first hour is a sensational military drama, buffed to a spit shine and unafraid to condemn military sexism and homophobia. The second hour falls apart into eye-glazing flag-waving - like "Top Gun" with lesser production values. [16 Sep 1995]

Carey always keeps you watching, although he's always threatening to be funnier than he is. But more than any other "Friends" ripoff, this show's supporting actors slow down the central character - they're set decoration. [13 Sep 1995]

Unlike many cartoons, this one actually looks funny, and it constantly plays on its grade-school aesthetic for shock value, with great success. At its best, "South Park" is more a profane "Peanuts" than a downsized "Beavis and Butt-head." [13 Aug 1997]

It efficiently, if unevenly, introduces nine new characters and recaptures some of the sense of wonder that made NBC's 1966-69 original the Holy Writ of screen sci-fi. [16 Jan 1995]