Steve Johnson

Crossing Jordan is marked by crisp, clever dialogue, reasonably plausible plotting and a brassy lead performance that would, if there were justice, make viewers forget about the soft-focus females in Judging Amy and Providence. [24 Sep 2001]

Give WB credit, at least, for trying to pretend this show is not a regular-season reject they're airing in summer for accounting purposes.

Phillips struts through this show with not so much passion and longing for a lost love but preening, the sense that he is gracing the town, television and the planet itself by his very presence.

Watching Tom Rhodes primp his way through Monday's debut of "Mr. Rhodes," a new sitcom on NBC, you may be excused for wondering, "How come I, (your name here), mild-mannered (your occupation here), don't have a starring role in a television series?" [23 Sep 1996, p.3C]

This version, 25 years after a first and relatively well-regarded mini-series, more than justifies the considerable effort that went into making it. It's a tale of soullessness with a remarkable depth of soul, of bloodsucking that's pulsing with red blood cells. [19 June 2004]

The predictability of it -- extending even to the fact that, yes, Underwood's and Fox's characters were once engaged -- is a shame. If a series is going to try to be groundbreaking in one respect, it ought to have the guts to do so in others as well, especially midway through the TV season, when the more interesting fare tends to be allowed to surface.

This one should be found in the greeting-card aisle, not on a major network's prime-time schedule.

It's leeringly sexual, ham-handed in its attempt to "confront" stereotypes, and just plain small-brained.

It is shot in the seemingly off-handed manner of an independent film, and its concerns are with fending off boredom as the days drift by. It is invigoratingly easygoing. [10 Sept 1997, p.3]

This is adapted, loosely, from the Archie comic books, and it's played in a light, bright comic-book style that is at once winningly broad and smartly sly. [27 Sept 1996, p.1]