Joanna Weiss

It's one thing to look like you have no sense of reality. It's quite another to look like you have no sense of humor. [17 July 2004, p.C1]

It works largely because his victims are the ones doing the work, offering body language clues, lapping up subliminal messages, and proving their capacity for distraction.

The world is well-constructed, down to the details: By the third episode this season, Ulrich's hair has grown into a messy and convincing frontier mullet. And the characters are intriguing; Esai Morales is notable as an Allied States Army major who might soon be convinced that his superiors are up to no good.

As much as this is a story of the pressures facing teenage girls, it's also a striking, honest look at the parent-child relationship, with its ebbs and flows of communication and trust.

Halter is also the most heartless of the principals, in a tough-love sort of way.... [But] Most of the time, though, this show makes you wish that the principals had sharper teeth.

Their lack of self-awareness is intoxicating; it makes the premiere the most engrossing hour of pure TV escapism I've seen in a very long time.

It was vintage Conan stuff, proof that his absurdist sense of humor won't change much on the West Coast. And yet last night also contained some grand nods to O'Brien's fancy new home.

Either executives did a lot of soul-searching and decided to change nothing, or they let the show go on without thinking at all. Either way, they made the right move.

While the technology is inventive, fear, frustration, and anguish still drive the plot. We’re back in “Battlestar’’ territory, and that feels good.

In order to fully enjoy The Fashion Show--and there is plenty to enjoy in Bravo's new reality contest--you have to resist the urge to keep comparing it to "Project Runway."