Community (NBC)
Gets one more chance.

Cougar Town (ABC)
Fast-paced. Heavy-handed. Some laughs.

Eastwick (ABC)
Seen movie? Like that.

Flash Forward (ABC)
Season’s best new drama

Glee (FOX)
Overhyped cheese, but fun.

The Good Wife (CBS)
Lawyer premise executed well.

Modern Family (ABC)
Season’s best new comedy

Vampire Diaries (CW)
Teen teen teen blech.

• KITT is now evidentally a Transformer.  He literally transforms from a car into a truck at one point (though not for any particular reason.)  Did you see the Transformers movie?  Knight Rider looks like it will have about that level of substance.
• In the overblown command center, one of the perfectly multi-ethnic beautiful people beams, “This just got interesting!”  Evidently, she’s quite pleased that her friends are about to be destroyed by a heat-seeking missile.
• The heroine has a “reason” to strip out of her cocktail dress before the end of act one.  She was still in bra and panties when I gave up on watching.
• The technology strains believability so incredibly far that “cartoon” is not an apt analogy.  The original Knight Rider may have been aimed at twelve-year-old boys.  But the average eight-year old watching this newest incarnation will stand up and yell, “Shyeah! Like THAT could ever happen!”

Long story short, it’s a solid B-grade sitcom.  Nothing amazing, but not a waste of your time.  Jay Mohr, as always, delivers the needed charm.  The character quirks are (more than) defined, and the script offers a few solid laughs without being overly joke-y.

Best aspect: The cast.  Flat jokes aren’t oversold.  Characters feel full, even where they are 2-D in the script.  Of course, give some credit to legendary sitcom director James Burrows for his involvement (although he didn’t direct this particular episode.)

Worst aspect: A contrived and truncated scene in which Mohr’s character and new love interest receive unsolicited couples counseling over their one-day-old relationship.

Verdict: I might check it out again.  I probably rate this show about equal to its hourmate, New Adventures of Old Christine.  That is, it’s a reasonably fresh reinterpretation of old-school sitcoms.  It’s not hip enough to belong in the company of 30 Rock or The Office.  To this show’s credit, while I would have a hard time getting my dad to watch either of those to shows, I be he’d laugh along with Gary Unmarried.  But he’s a lot more willing to hear yet another joke about a putupon father dealing with a shrill ex.  Wait… was that a compliment?

Odds of success: As I mentioned in my review of Worst Week, this year represents and effort by CBS to push from 4 time slots offering sitcoms to 6.  The two new shows will BOTH have to bring in decent ratings and/or reviews for it to work.  (Here’s hoping they succeed!  Please, please, let there be more comedy writing jobs in the world)  CBS’s four existing half-hours are all successful, by some measure or another, and the two new shows are both good enough to compliment them.  Given a chance to find their feet and their audience, I could see CBS’s attempt working.

Are you the kind of viewer who expects a sitcom to deliver a little mindlessness at the end of a long day? Are you the kind of viewer who thinks Arrested Development or 30 Rock asks too much from you? If your TV is on CBS on Mondays at 9:30, you just watched Two and a Half Men, so the answer is very likely yes. If that’s your style, Worst Week will certainly be good enough for you.

The show is about Sam, an every guy with very bad luck. He has impregnated his girlfriend, and tonight they plan to tell her parents, who, by the way, hate Sam. And then bad stuff happens, and then more bad stuff happens, and then it gets more complicated until it’s over.

Inspired by a British show, one can see Worst Week‘s drawing room farce roots showing. In general, though, the escalating chain of complication fails to seem clever, original, or witty. If they get that part right, they’ll have a strong foundation upon which to drape those flourishes. Ironically, the best place to look for inspiration would be Arrested Development—one of those shows that expects you to pay attention.

Best aspect: It’s potential.

Worst aspect: Central plot point involving pee.

Verdict: I won’t turn it off if it comes on. But I’m not adding it to my DVR.

Odds of success: Strangely, I think I have to pin Worst Week’s success on the performance of Gary Unmarried on Wednesday. If that show makes a successful pair with New Adventures of Old Christine, CBS will have two nights that feature sitcoms. That will mean Mondays at 9:30 will need a slot-filler. And, as I mentioned, Worst Week is good enough. If, however, one or the other of the shows fails to deliver the ratings, look for the best four or five shows to get collapsed back into Mondays.

Perhaps its because I pay the bills as a professional yuppie larva trainer myself that I connected a bit with this show. Yes, it’s light fare. Lite, even. But, hey, while Privileged may be painting in archetypical characters, it promises to focus on the relationships between those archetypical characters in a worthwhile way. If this is your type of show, Privileged is at least a solid entry in its genre.

Best aspect: JoAnna Garcia, doing her best Amy Adams, seems to have the charm to anchor a show.

Worst aspect: Meanwhile, Garcia stays only this side of cloying so far. Also, there ain’t a whole lot of subext in this writing.

Verdict: Pretty sure I’m not the target demographic here…

Odds of success: It’s a niche show, so it’ll never score huge numbers. But on CW, it doesn’t take too many million to define a hit. While it has some competition in its time slot, Privileged follows 90210. That could be a smart lead-in for this kind of programming.