Trial & Error

Chenoweth delivers one of her best performances as Lavinia. ... Between its bright color palette, sunny setting and jaunty tone, Trial is a perfect complement for a glass of lemonade and a midsummer heat wave.

Highly addictive, it quickly makes you want to find out what happens to Lavinia Peck-Foster, the first lady of East Peck and her legal team.

It’s frequently possible to see the jokes in Trial & Error coming from a mile away, but the commitment of the performers somehow makes even the silliest punchlines very funny.

It’s not nearly as funny as either ["The Office" and "Parks and Recreation"], and it sometimes sacrifices its most promising potential (making fun of true-crime serializations) to pick off easier targets (making fun of the South). ... Lithgow’s effort rubs off on his energetic co-stars, who elevate the material and give it a spark it otherwise wouldn’t have.

Although the premiere is funny, succeeding episodes (two will air each week) hit the same quirk-centric jokes pretty hard.

A featherweight entertainment with a good cast, some charm, and not nearly enough laughs.

The result is a familiar yet no-less-depressing annual occurrence on network TV: a comedy built for vague amusement rather than real laughs.