Tim Surette

Lawmen: Bass Reeves isn't concerned with the morally gray, preferring a binary history of black and white in a world before complexity was invented. Given his legend, we're owed a good Bass Reeves show; this just isn't it.

The first episode serves as a mostly successful setup, but much of what the show will become remains top secret. There's also a question of how this budget will be spread around; is the opening scene with all its helicopters and explosions a sign of what's to come, or just a big show to get viewers instantly hooked? I don't know, but the intel we do have on the rest of the series says it has some promise.

Though most of The Big Door Prize is all about the characters, the series does tease big things to come from the machine, with its origins and future looking like they will be a big focus of a potential Season 2. The thing is, the rest of the show is so good that it doesn't need anything from the Morpho, but the added intrigue, accompanied by a delightfully magical original score, makes things even better.

This version of True Lies, created by Burn Notice's Matt Nix, barrels through what the film brilliantly set up in order to get to what the show will presumably be over however long it lasts, bringing up the question of why someone thought turning True Lies into a TV show was a good idea in the first place.

It's broadcast television for those looking for something deeper than broadcast television, and cable television for those who don't have the attention span.

You feel like you're at a karaoke bar with an elaborate costume closet, or watching Glee: Y'all. What might keep viewers coming back is Monarch's commitment to stuffing each episode with ridiculously fast-paced drama.

While the eight episodes are packed with CW-grade supernatural nonsense. ... It's the kind of nonsense that goes down easy depending on your tolerance for campiness and dialogue such as, "You ate my mother?"

It's the anti-Ted Lasso. ... It's a perfect addendum for Letterkenny fans but also the ideal one-off that will serve as an entryway for future Letterkenny fans.

It's still Stranger Things, so die-hard fans will adore it, it's just a lot more not-as-good Stranger Things.

It's all a result of trying to do too much with too little time. Following the boys (on the island, in flashbacks, and in interviews at the research center) and the girls (on the island, mostly) with less time (8 episodes, as opposed to Season 1's 10) means we can never get the same depth to the characters that we got in Season 1.