Ones to See ... Ones to Flee ...

The Networks Make Grandiose Promises. We Level With You About the Highs and Lows.

Five Most Promising New Shows

1. "Kath and Kim." Call it adventurous or call it desperate, but networks are looking with greater frequency beyond our own sudsy shores for series to remake or adapt. This season's entries include Americanized shows from England (naturally), Israel, Japan and, as in the case of this show, Australia. NBC, in fact, is advertising "Kath and Kim" as "Australia's No. 1 Show." ¶ The U.S. version stars "Saturday Night Live" alumna Molly Shannon -- who's brightened up many a movie ("Talladega Nights" among them) -- as the cougarly mother of a sexy daughter (Selma Blair). They're both looking for Mr. Right; problems arise when they date the same mister, which just ain't right.

(NBC, Thursdays, 8:30 p.m.; premieres this Thursday.)

2. "The Mentalist." Adding to TV's population of both crime procedurals and semi-supernaturals, the show stars the dashing Brit Simon Baker (the stylish seducer in "The Devil Wears Prada") as Patrick Jane, a seeming psychic ("There's no such thing as real psychics," he likes to say). He helps California crime-solvers as they attempt to -- well, solve crimes, what else? ¶ Jane says he's not psychic, just observant; he's also blunt and sometimes rude, as when he asks the grieving father of a kidnapped girl, "Did you kill your daughter?" Meandering through a morgue, as detectives sometimes do, he passes one lifeless body and declares, "This one's gay." Although the pilot is a complicated mess, Baker is such a sly and commanding presence that he holds your attention in every scene.

(CBS, Tuesdays, 9 p.m.; premieres this Tuesday.)

3. "Little Britain USA," as recklessly silly as only British humor can be, is the evil little brainchild of writers and co-stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams -- a sketch comedy series that sometimes seems like a logical (though more often illogical) successor to "Monty Python" and Benny Hill. ¶ The cast of two, Lucas and Walliams, frequently dress as women in sketches that lampoon American foibles and folderol, with gleeful tweaks of the English as well. The humor can be gross, scatological and hideous, but it can also evoke the kind of huge, hearty laughs that only great clowns inspire. Although childish, it's not for children. Unfortunately, HBO has only six episodes to show, but more will follow if the ratings are good.

(HBO, Sundays at 10:30 p.m.; premieres next Sunday.)

4. "The Ex List" can be coy, corny and cutesy, but it has one asset to lord over all the other shows on TV: Elizabeth Reaser, an engaging and absolutely adorable actress who plays a 33-year-old single woman who's more anxious than most to find the right mate and go scampering down the aisle. The reason is that a smart-alecky fortuneteller looks at the cards and tells her, "You need to marry within the year or you'll spend the rest of your life alone." ¶ The comedy-drama has moments that are bright and snappy, although the heroine's slacker friends get tiresome -- as does a gal pal who on the pilot talks incessantly about pubic hair. It doesn't help that the script requires Reaser to say "totally" and "awesome" a lot, but then totally awesome is just what she is. Seeing is believing, and believe me, you see a lot of Reaser on this show. Her talents, however, are way more than skin-deep.

(CBS, Fridays at 9 p.m.; premieres Oct. 3.)

5. "Easy Money." The producers of this comedy-drama certainly picked an odd time to do a show in which the heroes are loan sharks taking advantage of the dollar-starved victims of a collapsing economy. And yet they get away with it, partly because the crooks are so small-timey and daft and essentially mean no harm. ¶ A very strong cast is led by the familiar Laurie Metcalf, her hair a raving red, and the unfamiliar but thoroughly ingratiating Jeff Hephner as the family's token truth-teller. Hephner looks a little like soccer star David Beckham and seems incapable of a dishonest moment on the screen, which suits his character to a T. Actually not just a T, but the whole alphabet.

(CW, Sundays at 9 p.m.; premieres Oct. 5)

Five Least Promising New Shows

1. "Gary Unmarried." Of the few new sitcoms blowing in with the fall, most tend to be about suddenly-singles and their attempts to find sex while avoiding commitments. CBS could advertise this loser with the slogan "Mohr to Love," because comic Jay Mohr, co-star of the movies "Go" and "Jerry Maguire," isn't as scrawny as he was when last seen on the telly. ¶ As a contractor named Gary Brooks, Mohr is stuck in a rickety sitcom as a newly divorced man who has two children and an ex-wife (Paula Marshall) engaged to the marriage counselor (Ed Begley Jr.) who was treating the kaput couple.