Tyrant

Tyrant is the most engrossing new show of the summer.... Gordon’s razor-sharp timing, a skill honed on “24,” serves Tyrant well.

Both "The Godfather" and Tyrant are, at heart, about family dynamics. As the Al-Fayeed story evolves beyond Tuesday's pilot, that fact becomes clearer.

It’s brutal, violent and graphic. And it’s a story we’ve seen before.

Tyrant tries so hard to make audiences comfortable with its foreign setting that the story becomes a little too familiar.

For viewers who want their Middle East intrigue overpowered by sugar and salt, then spoon-fed to them, Tyrant is doing that as well as ever.

By the end of the first episode, we're already sick of Jamal and weary of Barry's complaining about being back home.

It's surprising to me that this ever got past the development stage, because nothing about Tyrant truly works. It's a halting, strained hodgepodge that ends up being an awkward mixture of bland and offensive.