Michael Starr

Hugh Laurie — steering the (space)ship here as bearded Captain Ryan Clark — can’t save this HBO series from its over-reliance on leaden jokes and cardboard-cutout characters.

“68 Whiskey” won’t make anyone forget “M*A*S*H” — or even “Catch-22,” for that matter — but it tries hard to provide at least a taste of what life is like in a modern-day war zone fraught with lurking danger and, at times, death.

The cast gels nicely, and “The Moodys” was obviously shot in a real neighborhood (and not a studio back lot), which lends an air of reality to the situation, however contrived it might be. Those situations, though, are kept to a minimum, and this is one TV family in which you won’t mind investing six hours of your time.

“Bless the Harts” doesn’t reinvent the animation genre, but it’s a nice addition to Fox’s ’toon-heavy Sunday-night lineup.

The episodes, around 23 minutes apiece, fly by rather quickly. So that’s a plus. Overall, though, there’s nothing too memorable about “This Way Up.” It’s a pleasant diversion if you’re looking for something to binge quickly but, like a summer rain shower, it will be here and gone before you know it.

There are a few extraneous plot points that could have been avoided — no spoilers — but overall this cast seems to be having a nice time reconnecting with each other, both in their real-life and their mockumentary personas.

Intermittently murky. ... All in all, though, “Pennyworth” does the job. As the titular character, Bannon (“Medici,” “Endeavour”) is roguish and charming; his British accent reminds me of the GEICO gekko from those classic TV ads, while Corrin et al. provide solid support.

“Pearson” lacks the humor, quirkiness and cast chemistry of “Suits” embodied by mudding, cat-loving attorney Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman). It’s a solid, by-the-numbers drama that checks off all the usual boxes but doesn’t offer much that’s new, other than some nice location photography.

[Bless This Mess] doesn’t embarrass itself here but also doesn’t do much to push the sitcom needle in a new direction.

Kudos to Gervais for trying something contextually different from his past TV work, but all the pieces don’t quite fit together in this puzzle.