Critics

Love It! Hate It! 12.29.06

Office Tigers (SUNDANCE)
"Intriguing."
Anita Gates, New York Times

Office Tigers (SUNDANCE)
"Every high school student in America should be forced to watch this series."
Rick Ellis, AllYourTv.com

My Boys (TBS)
"…the show is actually good, quietly so, in that way sitcoms rarely are quiet anymore."
Paul Brownfield, LA Times

My Boys (TBS)
"…there are no big jokes here, nothing that sticks with you after final credits roll."
Barry Garron, Hollywood Reporter

The Dog Whisperer (NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC)
"It's truly amazing."
Sandy Deane, America Online

Love It! Hate It! 12.27.06

Friday Night Lights (NBC) “'Friday Night Lights' isn't a football show, or a soap opera, but the NBC drama about sports and love has a winning formula.”
Mimi Avins, LA Times

Friday Night Lights (NBC)
“A finely detailed exploration of high school life and small city dynamics.”
Charlie McCollum, San Jose Mercury News

When Parents Are Deployed (PBS)“...breaks no new ground and occasionally belabors the obvious, to the point where it sounds like an instructional film from the 1950s.”
Susan Stewart, New York Times

Annie (ABC FAMILY)
“...one of the finest family-friendly flicks ever made.”
Sandy Deane, America Online

Funniest Commercials of the Year (TBS)
“There are moments here that are wittier than most things that air between the commercials.”
Mike Hughes, Detroit Free Press

Love It! Hate It! 12.23.06

BBC DECEMBER 22-24, 2006

C.R.A.Z.Y. (SUNDANCE)
"…touching and powerful and wonderful."

Linda Stasi, New York Post

C.R.A.Z.Y. (SUNDANCE)

"Far more ambitious than most independent movies…"

Mike Hughes, Detroit Free Press

Life After Tomorrow (SHOWTIME)

"…a delightful and insightful behind-the-curtain glimpse into the lives of a group of young girls who survived 'Annie'."

Michael Rechtshaffen,Hollywood Reporter

Da Kath and Kim Code (SUNDANCE)

"Fun will be had."

Alynda Wheat, Entertainment Weekly

Brothers and Sisters (ABC)

"…the nicely ripening show…has grown into an engrossing family drama."

Maureen Ryan, Chicago Tribune

Love It! Hate It! 12.22.06

BBC THURSDAY DECEMBER 21, 2006

Men in Trees (ABC)
"Men in Trees isn't quite appointment TV yet. More like very good date TV."

Matt Roush, TV Guide

Men in Trees (ABC)
"…a surprisingly refreshing romantic dramedy full of appealing characters."

Barry Garron, Hollywood Reporter

Men in Trees (ABC)
"'Men in Trees' wants to be a 'Sex and the Tundra' but is closer to 'Northern Overexposure.'"

Alessandra Stanley, New York Times

'Til Death (FOX)
"It's a lame premise burdened with even lamer jokes."

James Poniewozik, Time

'Til Death (FOX)
"…without the 'Raymond' writing team behind him, Garrett's not so much unleashed as he is uninteresting."

Ellen Gray, Philadelphia Inquirer

Biography of the Year (BIOGRAPHY)
"I can't help thinking that the choice of [Tiger] Woods says more about the dearth of outstanding personalities in 2006 than it does about the Tiger of the fairway."

Kevin McDonough,United Features Syndicate

Love It! Hate It! 12.21.06

Twentyfourseven (MTV)
"Besides not being very appealing, the guys are mind-numbingly uninteresting."
Tom Jicha, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Twentyfourseven (MTV)
"Twentyfourseven, a mix between Laguna Beach and HBO's Entourage, is an absolute dream come true."
Frank Farina, New York Post

One Punk Under God (SUNDANCE)
"…observant and heartfelt…"
Troy Patterson, Slate

One Punk Under God (SUNDANCE)
"Hark, a fine TV program with a religious theme."
Florangela Davila, Seattle Times

CNN Presents: After Jesus-The First Christians (CNN)
"Blah blah blasphemy."
Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

Love It! Hate It! 12.20.06

My Boys (TBS)
"Breezy, smart and occasionally funny…"
Brian Lowry, Variety

My Boys (TBS)
"'My Boys' is certainly a charming knockoff."
Virginia Heffernan, New York Times

My Boys (TBS)
"…a lackluster 'Sex and the City' companion."
Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Bad Girls Club (OXYGEN)
"This reality show…is perhaps the sleaziest, most outrageous one on the air right now."
Sandy Deane, American Online

Bad Girls Club (OXYGEN)
"The women run the gamut from bratty to borderline sociopathic, and each is obnoxious in her own way."
Troy Patterson, Slate

Identity (NBC)
"This is the worst game show on TV."
Scott D. Pierce Deseret Morning News

Love It! Hate It! 12.19.06

A Perfect Day (TNT)
"…more of a gag gift than a real holiday treat."
Laura Fries, Variety

A Perfect Day (TNT)
"This artificially sweetened fruitcake just lies there, as unappetizing and unwelcome as its inedible equivalent."
Robert Bianco, USA Today

A Perfect Day (TNT)
"If all you want for Christmas is a good case of depression, this movie is the ticket."
Gail Pennington, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

10 Items or Less (TBS)
"…a quick hit of inanity, as close to 'The Office' as anything else…"
Jonathan Storm, Philadelphia Daily News

10 Items or Less (TBS)
"Yet another doomed and dreadful attempt to bring improv comedy to television…"
Glenn Garvin, Miami Herald

Identity (NBC)
"…a miserably tedious mess…"
Tom Shales, Washington Post

Love It! Hate It! 12.18.06

Dexter (SHOWTIME)
"It's bold, different and exciting, with a central character and performance that take your breath away."
David Bianculli, New York Daily News

Dexter (SHOWTIME)
"…a perverse pleasure to watch."
Glenn Garvin, Miami Herald

Dexter (SHOWTIME) "
…one of television's most fiendishly intelligent new dramas."
Maureen Ryan, Chicago Tribune

Christmas Do-Over (ABC FAMILY)
"If nothing else, 'Christmas Do-Over' is 'Groundhog Day,' sloppily rewrapped and presented with less flair and good will."
Laura Fries, Variety

Broken Bridges (CMT)
"'Bridges' is tone deaf."
Lynette Rice, Entertainment Weekly

Heart & Soul: The Life and Music of Frank Loesser (PBS)
"It won't win any awards for avant-garde documentary-making, but 'Heart & Soul' does its job well."
Anita Gates, New York Times

Tsunami: The Aftermath (HBO)
"It is moving, tense and sometimes agonizing to watch, but the film is plagued by the sense that there ought to be more to it."
Tom Shales, Washington Post

Love It! Hate It! 12.15.06

Sleeper Cell: American Terror (SHOWTIME)
"It feels like a decent cop drama pretending to be something more important."
Gillian Flynn, Entertainment Weekly

Sleeper Cell: American Terror (SHOWTIME)
"…a compelling, kinetic ride that matches '24' in its power and is far more realistic and topical."
Charlie McCollum, San Jose Mercury News

Sleeper Cell: American Terror (SHOWTIME)
"The show isn't brilliant, but it is audaciously alive—suspenseful and probing, with just enough gratuitous sex and violence to remind you that you're watching a pay cable channel."
Paul Brownfield, LA Times

Scrubs (NBC)
"…hilariously manic and eternally underrated…"
Matt Roush, TV Guide

30 Rock (NBC)
"Alec Baldwin can fill any vacuum, with a take-charge performance that's the scene-stealing wonder of the season."
David Bianculli, New York Daily News

The Office (NBC)
"Kudos to 'The Office' for presenting a special that rises way above the obligatory holiday episode and that moves the story forward and provides a deeper understanding of some characters at the same time."
Kevin McDonough, United Features Syndicate

Love It! Hate It! 12.14.06

One Punk Under God (SUNDANCE)
"…an intriguing portrait of a very complicated guy doing his best to make sense of, and improve, the world around him."
David Kronke, LA Daily News

One Punk Under God (SUNDANCE)
"…compelling as hell."
Whitney Pastorek, Entertainment Weekly

George Clooney: An American Cinematheque Tribute (AMC)
"This is more a roast than a tribute, but it's a fun one."
Mike Duffy, Detroit Free Press

The King of Queens (CBS)
"…the only remarkable thing about the show anymore is its continued existence."
Alan Sepinwall, Newark Star-Ledger

Twentyfourseven (MTV)
"What's potentially scary about 'Twenty Four Seven' is that the empty, vacuous lives onscreen are apparently supposed to come across as glamorous and enviable."
Tom Shales, Washington Post

Love It! Hate It! 12.13.06

Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride (Starz)
"Take this crazy, wild ride."
Edward Havens, Filmjerk.com

Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride (Starz)
"A fully satisfying look at Thompson."
Marilyn Moss, Hollywood Reporter

Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride (Starz)
"…should satisfy those who have absorbed every bit of Thompson and still crave more."
Florangela Davila, Seattle Times

Big Day (ABC)
"The situations are predictable, the writing is unfunny and the cast is forced to overplay every scene in hopes of generating something resembling a chuckle."
Charlie McCollum, San Jose Mercury News

Big Day (ABC)
"…a stinking pile of unlikely plot twists, brain-dead dialogue and cardboard characters…"
Aaron Barnhart, Kansas City Star

The Lost Room (SCI FI)
"One of the most perfectly cast miniseries in recent history, SciFi's 'The Lost Room,' is also one of the most bizarrely complicated and intriguing."
Linda Stasi, New York Post

Love It! Hate It! 12.12.06

Wedding Wars (A&E)
" If GLAAD has a category for mediocrity, this is a shoo-in."
Barry Garron, Hollywood Reporter

Wedding Wars (A&E)
"It's slapdash and looks like a quickie cable movie, as if it were written and filmed too fast or breezily to create magnetic characters and memorable dialogue."
Doug Elfman, Chicago Sun-Times

Wedding Wars (A&E)
"Against all odds, this mishmash of stark contrasts emerges as a surprisingly engaging film."
Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Lost Room (SCI FI)
"It's as ridiculously dense as latter-day 'Alias', but not as much fun."
Matt Roush, TV Guide

The Lost Room (SCI FI)
"'The Lost Room,' has mystery, suspense, and laughs -- both intentional and unintentional."
Matthew Gilbert, Boston Globe

The Year Without a Santa Claus (NBC)
"…a number that was once innocent for kids and campy for adults is now sort of creepy and clunky for both."
Robert Bianco, USA Today

Love It! Hate It! 12.11.06

Tsunami, The Aftermath (HBO)
"…absolutely and inexcusably tasteless, tone deaf and wrong-headed."
Robert Bianco, USA Today

Tsunami, The Aftermath (HBO)
"…tedious and dry of real emotion."
Mark A. Perigard, Boston Herald

Tsunami, The Aftermath (HBO)
"Fiction and reality clash uncomfortably in 'Tsunami, the Aftermath,' a beautifully performed but ultimately unsatisfying drama…"
Brian Lowry, Variety

Tsunami, The Aftermath (HBO)
"It is often a beautiful, moving, and deeply respectful film, containing precious moments where the tragedy - completely and convincingly - becomes ours as well."
Verne Gay, Newsday

Sleeper Cell: American Terror (SHOWTIME)
"'Sleeper Cell' is so deadly earnest about the state of the world that it could serve as an audio-visual appendix to the Iraq Study Group report."
Alessandra Stanley, New York Times

Sleeper Cell: American Terror (SHOWTIME)
"When Fehr reprises the role of Faris, he re-creates one of the most vivid and frightening villains of our time."
Barry Garron, Hollywood Reporter

Battlestar Galactica (SCI-FI)
"Any show that can accommodate decadent cruelty, tragic bravery, and political divisiveness is one you ought to be watching, frakkin' spaceships or not."
Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly

The Wire (HBO)
"It's a masterpiece."
Maureen Ryan, Chicago Tribune

Love It! Hate It! 12.08.06

My Bare Lady (FOX REALITY)
"Despite the sneer on its face and the thinness in its soul, 'My Bare Lady' is intermittently entertaining…"
Troy Patterson, Slate

My Bare Lady (FOX REALITY)
"A more watchable series than you might expect."
Barry Garron, Hollywood Reporter

My Bare Lady (FOX REALITY)
"Between cringe-worthy auditions and the instigation of a predictable catfight , this here romp is a total turnoff."
Nisha Gopalan, Entertainment Weekly

My Bare Lady (FOX REALITY)
"Wonderfully seedy trash."
Marshall Fine, Star Magazine

Men in Trees (ABC)
"…a steadily improving romantic comedy that has turned into one of the season's most pleasant diversions."
Robert Bianco, USA Today

Watch Over Me (MY NETWORK TV)
"It takes itself far too seriously to be enjoyable…"
Robert Philpot, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Love It! Hate It! 12.07.06

Twentyfourseven (MTV)"This wanna-be's as dumb as dirt, and, as a consequence, even makes Hollywood seem more toxic than it probably is."
Verne Gay, Newsday

Twentyfourseven (MTV)"
And this, my friends, is why HBO has writers."
Ellen Gray, Philadelphia Daily News

Twentyfourseven (MTV)
"MTV's latest invitation to watch dislikable people do unattractive things."
Matthew Gilbert, Boston Globe

Twentyfourseven (MTV)
"…with this immature 20-something entourage, there's just too much irritating, self-absorbed monkey business."
Mike Duffy, Detroit Free Press

Dirty Dancing (WE)
"…the first steps of the TV series 'Dirty Dancing' look an awful lot like a reality-show waltz we've seen a time too often."
David Hinckley, New York Daily News

Wicked Wicked Games (MY NETWORK TV)
"Drama-rific!"
Courtney Potter, Zap2It

King of Queens (CBS)
"Kevin James is pure comic genius, bringing to life the kind of dolt behavior we'd expect from Homer Simpson."
Kelly Woo, America Online

Love It! Hate It! 12.06.06

The Bad Girls Club (OXYGEN)
"If 'The Jerry Springer Show' is like watching a train wreck, then 'The Bad Girls Club' is like being on the train."
Linda Stasi, New York Post

The Bad Girls Club (OXYGEN)
"… an inexcusable waste of time and tape that makes us all dumber for having watched it."
Andrew Lyons, Media Life

The Bad Girls Club (OXYGEN)
"…the 'Bad Girls' ultimately lose, and Oxygen at best attracts the same kind of fleeting notice generated when a drunk makes a scene in a bar."
Brian Lowry, Variety

Big Day (ABC)
"…a stinking pile of unlikely plot twists, brain-dead dialogue and cardboard characters."
Aaron Barnhart, Kansas City Star

My Boys (TBS)
"'My Boys' is a shrewd, funny look at what the genders have in common and can learn from each other."
Frazier Moore, Associated Press

Love It! Hate It! 12.05.06

3 Needles (SHOWTIME)
"…a true three-pronged gem that powerfully conveys the urgency of the AIDS spread with clarity, compassion and relentless sorrow."
Ray Richmond, Hollywood Reporter

3 Needles (SHOWTIME)
"It's hard to know what exactly the movie means with a lot of the choices it makes, even if, ultimately, it means well."
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

3 Needles (SHOWTIME)
"For all its gaping crevices and dangling threads, '3 Needles' sustains a mood of sorrowful gravity, bolstered by some powerful performances…"
Stephen Holden, New York Times

The Eleventh Hour (BBC AMERICA)
"…after a promising opening, it goes steadily downhill, from remotely plausible to completely ridiculous."
Robert Lloyd, LA Times

The Eleventh Hour (BBC AMERICA)
"…indulges in its share of scientific gobbledygook, but the basic formula hews closely to the well-established template of British mystery, with a pinch of 'The X-Files' for good measure."
Brian Lowry, Variety

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (NBC)
"It just needs to get over itself."
Matt Roush, TV Guide

Love It! Hate It! 12.04.06

The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines (TNT)
"Now we're talking truly inspired stupid."
Melanie McFarland, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines (TNT)
"It's a rollicking adventure in the spirit of Indiana Jones."
Frazier Moore, Associated Press

The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines (TNT)
"On the whole 'The Librarian' is, of course, quite boring."
Alessandra Stanley, New York Times

The Christmas Card (HALLMARK)
"It's such a generic story that you can divert your attention to other things and not miss a beat."
Barry Garron, Hollywood Reporter

The Christmas Card (HALLMARK)
"…an old-fashioned heart-tugger."
Kate O'Hare, Zap2It.com

Justice (FOX)
"'Justice' walks that fine line between mostly dead and all-dead."
Alynda Wheat, Entertainment Weekly

The Wire (HBO)
"…it's an astonishing display of writing, acting and storytelling that must be considered alongside the best literature and filmmaking in the modern era."
Tim Goodman, San Francisco Chronicle

Love It! Hate It! 12.01.06

Scrubs (NBC)
"'Scrubs' is back & just what the doc ordered."
David Hinckley, New York Daily News

Scrubs (NBC)
"It's sort of funny, but it has that hospital odor of something ancient decaying."
Doug Elfman, Chicago Sun-Times

The Office (NBC)
"'The Office' has been erratic all season, but even at its worst, it's still the best comedy on television."
Mark A. Perigard, Boston Herald

Ugly Betty (ABC)
"With each episode…America Ferrera confirms her status as the season's brightest new star."
Robert Bianco, USA Today

Afterlife (BBC AMERICA)
"'Afterlife' has more than its share of hokum, and some of its special effects are corny enough to make you suspect the spirit of Ed Wood may be hovering over the proceedings."
Brendan Bernhard, New York Sun