Critic Reviews

The moneymen ask informed questions and make shrewd decisions, a welcome relief from Donald Trump's capricious calls on Burnett's "Celebrity Apprentice."

Things are cookin' on the new season of Shark Tank, especially when someone comes in to pitch the merits of his big invention: Wake 'N Bacon.

ABC's Shark Tank is easily the best new reality TV show to air this summer (which, admittedly, isn't saying much).

It sounds gimmicky and visually tedious, with most of the so-called action taking place in a conference room. It's all those things, but the moments of misery make it memorable.

Mark Burnett's newest plunge into the reality waters--somewhat predictable, with all the requisite reality bells and whistles (lots of dark blue mood lighting, dramatic music, quick-cut editing)--is mildly entertaining in that summer TV kind of way.

Brisk, sharp and surprisingly emotional for what essentially is a series of venture-capital-investment interviews, the show--based on the Japanese format "Dragons' Den"--balances the human element of its wish-fulfilling conceit with at least the illusion of the business legitimacy that made Burnett's "The Apprentice" such campy fun.

The cleverest part of the show is that it makes the judges into contestants; they compete against one another for the right to invest in a business, and they haggle with the entrepreneurs over the terms of their investment.

Once you get past its somewhat misleading title, Mark Burnett's new Shark Tank is a well-paced hour that offers entertainment without humiliation.

Business buffs may love it, but Shark Tank lacks the lush visuals of "Survivor" and the star power of Trump. It just doesn't have the same bite.

So is Shark Tank cathartic, or merely depressing? Perhaps appropriately, it's a little of both.