Pitch

Neither didactic nor smirky, it's a compelling study not only in character but the frenetic nature of celebrity media culture.

This being a broadcast premiere, Ginny is forced through many predictable expositional and emotional hoops, and Bunbury makes that exercise seem effortless. Though she is the center of the story, Ginny remains something of a cipher.

Pitch is doggedly inspirational. And despite its hackneyed moments, the pilot introduces enough meaty stuff to warrant a wait-and-see response. It’s a fresh concept amid TV’s sea of cookie-cutter franchises.

The dialogue is occasionally overripe (“I’ve been ready my whole life”; “You do this for you!”) but for the most part modestly crisp.

Pitch has a simple enough premise: It follows the first female player in major league baseball. Interesting. But what do you do with it? That’s the question that lingers over this new Fox show, which is undoubtedly timely but also seems somewhat dramatically limited. ... The series wisely looks at the isolation that’s resulted from Ginny’s single-minded pursuit of baseball.

The dialogue often comes across Aaron Sorkin-lite and the plot mechanics are too familiar to anyone with a decent familiarity to these kind of sports stories. ... The longer the pilot goes on, the stronger it becomes--at least, until its eye-rolling last minute twist--and that’s usually thanks to its outstanding performances, particularly two great turns from Bunbury and Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Mike Lawson.

Pitch feels phony from the get-go. The characters are caricatures. The premise is ludicrous. And the Big Plot Twist is manipulative, derivative and gob-smackingly stupid.