Category: First Impressions

Reviews of pilot episodes.

First Impressions: Hell on Wheels (AMC)

Hell on Wheels’ cliche-laden pilot is an unexciting add to the 2011 fall TV season.

Grimm’s nascent charms can’t help it escape a bad pilot script.

Allen Gregory’s nightmarish protagonist makes for a particularly unpleasant debut.

American Horror Story bears the creative signature of Ryan Murphy – and that’s not a good thing.

Whitney’s first episode is hopefully not a template for the sitcom to follow.

How to Be a Gentleman is a lazy, tired pile of cliches and unfunny jokes.

Charlie’s Angels is a grating, nonsensically serious remake full of bad performances and worse ideas.

Pan Am’s impeccable aesthetics and underutilized performers make for an odd mix.

FOX’s expensive, high-profile dinosaur series is the weakest, most impotent new series of the fall.

Free Agents might be onto something, if it can realize its promise as a rom-com dramedy.