Tim Goodman

There's no question that Sacha Baron Cohen is talented. And it may prove unwise to discount the tremendous popularity he and his Ali G character achieved in the United Kingdom. But the concept is hardly original to an American audience and, unfortunately, plays well under the acceptable level of greatness we've all come to expect from HBO. [21 Feb 2003]

Back is one of the funniest and most intriguingly different comedies in a long time. ... it's Blackwell's intelligent and searing writing--which also has quite a bit of emotional nuance--that makes Back much more than mere joke creation for its own sake. And it's Mitchell and Webb who make it all come to life, with Mitchell's virtuoso performance as the increasingly paranoid Stephen shining through all six episodes.

Terrible...The first five minutes of Salem's Lot are great. Well, four minutes. And then Lowe's voice-over kicks in, which essentially starts the poison drip. It's a lot of King-speak, which is annoying and so formulaic it ought to be patented (and might be). There's a line about "dull, mindless, moronic evil," which is pretty much a perfect synopsis of the movie.

It's edge-of-the-couch good in some spots. The trouble is that it has too many spots. So many that the title should have been changed to "Story That Lasts a Century." When you're done with all six hours of "Storm" you'll be exhausted. And if you're not one of King's rabid fans who will forgive him anything, you'll have a similar thought: "Gee, that was pretty good. Could have done it in two hours, but I'll live."

Based on the two-hour premiere, a hodgepodge of false dramatic starts, bad acting, rambling scenes, a stupendously annoying narrator and a metaphorical anteater that looks like, of all things, ALF, there's only one conclusion to draw: Those things aren't scary. They're stupid.

The show is good but not great. It feels redundant because it is - two times over, if you count the movie. There's no denying that's a huge drawback, no matter how brooding Gedrick and Welliver get. And, from a pure entertainment stand point, it's less satisfying to see Falcone's wife and family implode than it is to see what's happening with Tony Soprano's home life. Sorry, but it's true.

Dublin Murders [is] a mess and, in parts, preposterous. Having watched all eight episodes knowing that an intricate (OK, fine, farfetched) set of plot points wouldn’t come together until, at the earliest, the seventh episode, I'll just tell you (since we're still in the Peak TV era with no signs of let-up): Don't bother.

A wonderfully nuanced story that's both extremely funny and tragically sad, but never leans too hard in either direction to get a reaction. It just exists and, after six episodes, it ends — and when it does you get the full appreciation of how exceptional it is. ... Back to Life is a real, unexpected gem of a series and one of the better surprises of 2019.

The good news is that season two of The End of the F***ing World stays true to the vibe of the first season, has a decently good but not great story and manages, by the end of the final episode (of eight in total), to have righted most of the wrongs that came before it.

Jack Ryan is still fun, despite being a little bit ridiculous and predictable.