The Sci Fi Channel's brilliantly reinvented Battlestar Galactica - a terrific miniseries in 2003 - is now the full series it deserves to be. If it's given the room to grow that the 1978 original never got, it could end up being one of the best sci-fi television outings ever...An intelligent, attention-demanding, character-driven show, it marks a maturing of the sci-fi series genre. This series is to ``Star Trek'' what ``Hill Street Blues'' was to ``Dragnet.''

Cybill is bawdy, rowdy and fun. Indeed, it's a comedy for the over-the-hill gang to look at - and laugh ruefully along with all the wrinkle, cellulite, bad date, bad sex, bad marriage jokes. [11 Jan 1995]

If the concept is captivating, the execution, at least in the pilot, leaves something to be desired. [12 July 2004, p.e37]

The production values are exceedingly high, and you could find worse excuses to stay up past your bedtime. [12 July 2006, p.038]

Kevin Smith's animated "Clerks" is pure looniness with a crunchy layer of sweetness at its heart. The stars of the original 1994 indie film are all here, including Smith as Silent Bob. The animation is crisp and the facial expressions alone can be hysterical. [31 May 2000]

The Beat resonates with a quirky, dark pulse. [21 March 2000]

This part of Dylan's story is, of course, well known. In understated style Scorsese makes it fresh, unearthing a wealth of rare performance footage of the impossibly young and magnetic singer and mixing it with incisive talking head interviews. [26 Sep 2005, p.41]

This eight-episode installment available Thursday just might be my favorite of the series. It has more heart and far more willingness to address the messiness that comes with adolescence. It also features several genuinely creepy moments that have everything to do with something not of this world.

The number of betrayals and reversals in the next two episodes are enough to twist any sane viewer into a pretzel.

It all seems so ridiculous until you remember we lived through it. At times, “Loudest Voice” plays like a white collar version of “The Sopranos,” as when Ailes orders his PR guy and fixer Brian Smith (Seth MacFarlane, “The Orville”) to take care of a leaker. Crowe, covered in mostly great prosthetics and looking as if he is wearing a fat suit that ate another fat suit, wheezes with every waddle and authentically underplays a human volcano.

The results are nothing short of breathtaking. Without relying on the fancy special effects of a film like "Apollo 13," the 12 episodes tell their fascinating real-life sagas patiently, clearly and with reverence for the courage of the astronauts and their support teams. [3 Apr 1998, p.52]

The six-part “Years and Years,” an often funny, often bleak, deeply unsettling look at our near future, follows the fortunes of the Lyons, a Manchester, England, family as they are rocked by the political and technological changes shaping the world. Imagine “This Is Us” crossed with “Black Mirror,” only with a slightly lower body count than the NBC sobfest.

ABC’s “Reef Break” is everything that CBS’ “Hawaii Five-0” should be — breezy, bright, a wee bit sassy, a whole lot silly, the ideal summer show to catch as a nightcap before bed.

As with every good soap, there’s a bit of cathartic pleasure in seeing rich, gorgeous people suffer like the rest of us mere mortals. Whatever word you choose to describe “Big Little Lies,” the new season looks to be just as addictive as the first.

Whatever pacing issues the miniseries has fade away in the final, 90-minute installment as DuVernay proves to be a canny storyteller, saving the most harrowing, horrific, heartbreaking chapter for last.

Newcomers can enjoy the film on its own — it features a few flashbacks to catch viewers up to speed — but it’s best savored after a series-binge. This film can stand as a series finale and, just as strongly, as a springboard for more episodes.

When “Catch-22” takes to the skies, it soars. The aerial sequences are some of the best visuals seen in any TV production, beautiful and terrifying.

In this true-life horror tale of a government refusing to acknowledge scientific fact and its ruthless demand for obedience, “Chernobyl” feels especially timely.

Williams is magnificent. ... It’s a small miracle that “Fosse/Verdon” never loses sight of its goal — capturing the love and frustrations of two talented people who could never let each other go. “Fosse/Verdon” is “Scenes from a Marriage” — with none of that jazz.

The dramedy digs deeper, tightening the connections between these seemingly random residents.

Despite the often tense, even grisly moments, the show remains furiously funny — as when Oh as Eve reacts to a robocall from a roofing company or craves a hamburger during a visit to a makeshift morgue. As the object of a growing manhunt, Comer manages to constantly keep viewers off-balance with a performance that is perpetually off-kilter.

Mattfeld delivers a nuanced performance as a woman who has chosen to meet the world with hostility as a calculated defense. No matter how middling the story, she’s always worth watching.

In its best moments, this reimagined “Zone” features some of today’s most intriguing actors and swerves from fun to disturbing and back and is just as provocative as the original.

The #MeToo movement would seem impossible to riff on, yet Veep’s gloriously inappropriate writers have found a way.

In true Bluth fashion, what you think you know about the Bluths you don’t know at all.

After watching the first five episodes, I don’t recommend watching “Now Apocalypse” every week. I do suggest waiting to the end of the season and downloading the series in one sitting. Now Apocalypse plays like the kind of show that can only benefit from a decadent binge.

Leaving Neverland is not balanced, not by any standard. It is, however, a devastating testament to how childhood sexual abuse rages like a ferocious cancer through survivors and their families.

If its characters continue to be dumb about someone in their midst (hey, see how that title comes into play), it could diminish them and the show. ... [Unlike ABC's Whiskey Cavalier,] this show goes beyond the standard cloak and dagger to ask some serious ethical questions about methods and how even the most seemingly benign operation can lead to civilian collateral damage. For treating us like grown-ups, you might be willing to make friends with “Enemy.”

Documentary Now! is smart TV.

In broadcast TV terms, this is more “Night Gallery” than “Twilight Zone.” ... Weird City is built on one twisted foundation.

The story is a little too Dark Phoenix, and the series’ pacing can be maddening. But you have to love an action-packed finale that rips from a kid’s birthday party at a bowling alley (little Kenny is never getting over that one) to a concert hall on the cusp of the apocalypse. The climax is an ending and a beginning. Umbrella Academy is just getting started.

This adaptation from executive producers Geoff Johns and Greg Berlanti (behind all the CW superhero shows) is just as wonderful and weird as the comic.

At a half-hour, Song of Parkland is too darn short. And some perspective from the parents of the teens here would have been welcome.

Simm is very much the thinking man here, an academic thriving on his wits. Leung is affecting as a young woman whose quest rocks the core of her identity and her own chance for love. ... The miniseries almost sticks its landing. Its final scene can’t resist a bit of mawkish sentimentality to wrap the story. It’s not earned or needed.

Just at the moment when you’re getting tired of the “Groundhog Day” antics and thinking Nadia’s rerun rumpus is a trip to anywhere, Russian Doll drops a twist in its third episode that changes everything.

Night’s pacing can be frustrating — this mini would be a lot more effective if it were cut to four hours--but the surprises and twists in the final two episodes make it more than worthy of your investment.

Judging from the first five episodes the cable network provided, the sophomore season looks to be an upgrade from the first, but Shaw proves to be the least interesting person here. That’s not the slam it sounds like. The Brookline native gives her cast juicy material, and they steal the show from her.

This season is more season one True Detective than season two True Detective, with Ali giving a tour de force performance as the show toggles between three time periods. The bad news? The central mystery is more fitting for a CBS crime procedural, and over eight episodes is stretched to its limit.

Schooled at its goofiest recognizes the value of teachers.

Too often “Project Blue Book’s” approach makes “Dora the Explorer” look like a work of subtlety. Government coverup? Check. Conspiracy? Sure. Shadowy men wearing fedoras? Why not? The truth may be out there, but is it here? With a series like this, it’s best to indulge your own inner Scully.

There are moments when Innocent Man plays like one of those popular true crime podcasts. Its storytelling can be pokey and features a dizzying array of supporting characters--the pistol-packing preacher is a highlight--and a few, granted, become stunningly significant as the narrative continues.

Tethered by Gonzalez’s authentic performance, Icebox doesn’t ask for sympathy, nor does it demonize the people Oscar comes in contact with as he tries to remain in the U.S.

Emmy winner Amy Sherman-Palladino, the series creator, writer and director, has imbued Maisel with more genuine humor and warmth than any of her other previous work. This cast is ready to impress.

Despite the schlocky space adventure, the series just might hook you because of its flawed protagonists.

Britton plays Debra as if some Botox seeped into her brain. Bana charms while simultaneously simmering.

My Brilliant Friend is presented in Italian with subtitles. Don’t let that scare you off. Take the journey. Amid the brutality, an intimacy and honesty unlike any other flourishes.

In the first three episodes at least, the series features some surprisingly tense adult moments and some language that was bleeped out. Along the way, there are some cutting observations about the pageant scene.

You can see all the jokes coming because they crawl down the road and wave their little hands before arriving. ... But in the hands of such masters, especially Arkin, who proves to be a thoroughly grumpy treasure, familiarity can be delightful.

There’s a method to this madness, and it cribs from Gillian Flynn’s (“Gone Girl”) stylebook in that you can’t trust anyone’s narrative. The accumulation of details leads to startling, horrific realizations.

The pacing shouldn’t work, yet it does. The private stories pull you in. This is a great cast playing.

Esmail is one of the few directors who takes full advantage of the medium, imbuing ordinary objects with menace--a trio of vending machines, fruit being harvested--and distorts sound to pluck your paranoia. There are tracking shots in the first four episodes that play like homages to Alfred Hitchcock. As for Roberts, I’m not about to sit down for a film marathon--but I am down for the rest of Homecoming.

In this truncated season (only eight episodes as opposed to the usual 13), Wright remains outstanding. But “House” suffers from the same problem as HBO’s “Veep.” Both started as daring satires of the highest office in our land and both have been surpassed by our current reality in which every day brings a new tweet storm of chaos.

Finally there’s something fun to binge and share with friends.

The performances are solid and ingratiating. ... The miniseries’ resolution is particularly satisfying and even surprising for a story that originated in the 19th century. In Seres’ confident telling, The Woman in White is as relevant as the Time’s Up movement.

The film is mostly a dance between Dinklage (also an executive producer here) and Dornan, who rises to the occasion and gives the best performance of his career as a man struggling to hang on to his sobriety even as he’s dragged through a hell of Los Angeles.

All gathers a charismatic cast, even if some look like they belong in high school about as much as I do. Logan is especially strong as a young woman searching for her own redemption. But having established some prickly relationships in its first two outings, All fumbles some story continuity in its third episode (airing Oct. 24) with a seeming revision in the fractured friendship between Olivia and Leila.

Netflix might be the dominant streaming service player when it comes to original series, but quantity never trumps quality, as Man proves. The detail in imagining New York City as a Nazi stronghold remains extraordinary, from the skyscrapers bearing the flag of the Third Reich down to the swastika ice sculpture dripping at a fancy party.

Bergen still rattles off her lines as if she’s in a hurry to get to lunch, but the cast has chemistry to spare.

Peregrym fits as the quintessential Wolf heroine: Broody, brunette, powering through her angst, which in typical Wolf fashion is considerable and grows exponentially. The drama’s explosions are harrowing, and the score adds an appropriate amount of dread to the grim investigation.

Maniac’s backstories are fascinating, with Owen’s family coming off especially twisted. ... With so many film stars turning to TV to star in TV shows, they can start to feel like vanity projects. That’s not the case with Maniac.

The two episodes tonight give you a chance to see how a series can change post-pilot. One of the nerds disappears from the core work group, and Emet’s oldest son is dramatically recast. ... Bad’s supporting cast excels at tormenting Emet in the most loving ways.

While there are elements that might remind you of Armisen’s beloved--and so missed--“Portlandia,” “Forever” isn’t a sketch show. It takes some fanciful risks, but it remains grounded in Oscar and June’s journey, together and apart.

Once you get deep into the premiere, which with its incessant voiceovers plays more like a talking Viewmaster reel than an hour of television, you may find yourself hooked--and recognize some wry observations about human behavior at the root of this thriller.

Just about all the choices are bad in this season of Ozark, making this season your best Labor Day weekend binge.

The eight-episode season (streaming tomorrow on Netflix) doesn’t always make sense and yet it does enough things right--especially in the depiction of naive, impetuous adolescents--that it casts a convincing spell.

The documentary, filmed over several years, takes a nonlinear approach to White’s career and skips over things like her first two marriages. Just go with it--it’s worth the ride and ultimately leaves you wanting a week’s worth of clips.

Disenchantment casts a demented spell.

The important thing to know about this season: Issa is pushing forward. Insecure shows life never stops being a work in progress.

The humans in Animals are idiots. But the critters often have funny things to share about how we all need our packs to survive and thrive.

It brims with nice, talented people making impossibly crazy beautiful things. It’s charming and sweet and might just inspire you to make something.

You may think you know the story, but the accumulation of detail, in new interviews and video and audio clips in this six-part documentary from producer Shawn Carter (also known to the world as musician and mogul Jay-Z), begins like a light snow fall and turns into a bracing nor’easter.

Castle Rock shows a tremendous investment of time and creativity. It’s worth your walk on the dark side.

The subtleties in [Kristin Kreuk's] performance help fill in the gaps in scripts that at times range from flat to merely functional. Burden of Truth, which has already been renewed in Canada, is a show by and for adults looking for something a little challenging.

The two-hour documentary Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind captures the magic and the mania that was the iconic comic. Bursting with hilarious clips and bloopers, it’s almost as good as having Williams back.

It’s funny, sad, invasive and unhinged.

GLOW just bubbles with scene-stealers.

While the production values may be loose, Impulse’s entertainment value runs strong.

Arrested Development is back. You’ve earned the insanity.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is lush, gorgeous, Gothic and at times plotted tighter than a corset.

Safe is one of those series, like HBO’s “Big Little Lies,” that focuses on the lives of the beautiful and the well-to-do. It doesn’t suggest the rich are just like us. It suggests they are even more miserable, and in the case of Safe, probably quite monstrous. That’s a story that translates just about everywhere, apparently.

Despite some shaky attempts to build a convincing world, The Rain has much in common with “The Walking Dead.”

In its sophomore season, the series creeps deeper and serves up countless harrowing, haunting moments.

Netflix’s energetic reboot of the cult sci-fi series adheres to the best spirit of creator Irwin Allen’s vision of a family in space fighting for their futures.

The script is deliciously witty, but it never lets you forget some nice people are coming to perfectly horrible ends.

A star arose during NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar: Live in Concert last night. No, not singer John Legend, though he did grow into his part as the son of God in this adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber rock opera, and not pop star Sara Bareilles, who was technically sound as Mary Magdalene but never seemed to find her heart. Broadway veteran Brandon Victor Dixon stole the show as Judas.

The Crossing has its moments, but if you look too closely at its story, it melts away like ice cream cake left out in the sun. ABC is promising flashbacks to fill in the visitors’ stories, another “Lost” tic.

Trust at times seems about as factually accurate as the “B.C.” comic strip, and Boyle’s visual affectations and his over-reliance on split-screens do not always serve the story well. (He directed the first three episodes.) .. Whatever Trust’s hold on the facts, it more than makes up for in its performances.

Roseanne’s ability to pivot from silly to somber and back again without ever missing a beat made it unique in prime time. The revival looks to be just as authentic.

“I Kissed a Girl” pop star Katy Perry, country superstar Luke Bryan and music legend Lionel Richie form a panel that doesn’t so much practice tough love as dole out “Chicken Soup for the Soul” critiques.

Cross brings to this six-episode season all the intensity of “Luther” with some deeper questions about personal responsibility in the face of overwhelming disaster.

“This place, umm, has a vibe,” Earn says at one point. The same might be said about “Atlanta.” Once visited, it cannot be forgotten.

For all the story’s shortcomings, you’ll come back for the acting.

The longer you stick with this nine-episode season, the more the players reveal themselves. It’s a big part of how Britannia,”written and co-created by Jez Butterworth (“Black Mass,” “Edge of Tomorrow”), transcends its genre roots.

You can keep “The Alienist” at arm’s length because it is set more than 100 years in the past. No such luck with “Bellevue.” The brutality, shock and outrage ring all too true.

Not nearly as bright as “Supergirl,” as angst-ridden as “Arrow” or as campy as “The Flash,” “Black Lightning” lights its own path--by being a story about the debt we owe to our community and the importance of inspiration.

If this truly is the last season of The X-Files--and star Gillian Anderson has said it is, at least for her--the Fox sci-fi conspiracy thriller is going out giving what fans want. Mostly. In this, its 11th season, the show brings back familiar faces, opens some new mysteries, solves others and gives plenty of reasons to ship FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson)’s quirky relationship to the stars and back.

A true heir to Serling’s vision of reality taking a sharp detour into the unknown.

The staging was clever and fun and the performances ranged from good to fantastic.