The Pillars of the Earth, a six-part, eight-hour miniseries debuting Friday with a two-hour punch, delivers enough surprises to enthrall any thriller buff.

If the show can strike a balance between chuckles and capers, Covert Affairs won't be a secret. It will be USA Network's biggest hit.

The good part involves just about any scene focusing on Angie Harmon ("Law & Order") as Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli. The flip side? Just about every scene that isn't centered on her, especially those involving Jane's best friend, medical examiner Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander).

Hope you like looking at a golf ball, well, doing nothing. You'll see a lot of it during the hour. It sets the mood of The Glades. Sweltering stupidity.

Tonight's mystery ultimately doesn't hang together, but it does establish the show's light mythos in an easy-to-digest way.

"In this job, there’s no such thing as no such thing," Pete says. Exactly. Warehouse 13 is truly the show where anything can happen.

Louie differs from his late, unlamented 2006 HBO show "Lucky Louie" in that he dials back the volume. Yet he manages to not only push but also assault the boundaries of what's acceptable for basic cable, even at this late hour.

After watching the first four episodes of the sixth season back-to-back--an endurance test I don’t recommend--it’s apparent Rescue Me is recycling plots.

Rookie Blue is set in a nondescript big city, which also serves to make the series generic. The cast, however, is spunky and promising.

If you don't tear up at least once during each episode, you've already coded. "Boston Med" is the cure for summertime TV blues.

The players have all done fine work in other venues, but the story isn't here. The network that "knows drama" needs to step it up a beat.

Scoundrels is wicked fun when the Wests are being wild.

The Gates is ultimately just another literary mashup with the undead, like Jane Austen's "Pride & Prejudice" tweaked with zombies, only here it's a stifling John Cheever story with bloodsuckers.

TV Land's first original sitcom is the surprise of the summer, a sparkling, breezy comedy, in no small part due to the casting of this year's It Girl, 88-year-old Betty White as a cantankerous caretaker.

The discussion of vampire politics seems toothless at times, but True excels at setting up episode-ending cliffhangers. The episode pacing is superb.

This is a series with no redemptive value. It barely qualifies as entertainment, but sexy summer trash will always find an audience. That's the inescapable truth at the heart of Pretty Little Liars.

The alleged comedy follows this blended family's attempts to get along. The laugh track works harder than anyone here.

More accessible than “V” or “FlashForward,” “Happy Town” shows a sure hand with pacing and knows how to end an hour with a powerful cliffhanger.

Gravity’s inability to find a consistent tone may lead to its early demise.

Party Down, about a group of aspiring Hollywood types working as caterers, returns for a second season of stale jokes.

It’s a shame “The Tudors” is coming to a close. As Hirst has noted, there are generations of stories yet to tell. Count on this series to end on a royally good note

Unlike "The Wire," the pacing is lazy. Many of the moments seem authentic, but to paraphrase director Alfred Hitchcock: A good show is life minus the boring parts.

After the initial disasters, the rest of the show flatlines. Just as in the “CSI” universe, the lead characters are there to serve up exposition.

What separates “Tara” from “Jackie,” of course, is that Tara’s family is aware of Tara’s problems and supports her. In creator/writer Diablo Cody’s world, even the most damaged among us can lead healthy lives if they are loved for themselves. That’s a comforting message.

It’s a treat being able to enjoy their black comedies back-to-back Monday nights, but “Nurse” shows symptoms of a serious malady: serial recidivism. We’ve seen all this before. It’s time for Jackie’s world to come crashing down, the sooner, the bigger the laughs.

There are too many instances of people conveniently running into each other. In short, common sense is missing from Justified.

By dramatizing the true stories of the men who fought there, Spielberg and Hanks craft perhaps their most psychologically grounded work.

Sons doesn’t shine yet, but it could if the writers embrace their loony wild childs. Even at its worst, Sons is better than a third Seth MacFarlane cartoon

It’s a series that zips along in one direction, suddenly accelerates in another and veers out of control into a swamp of sugar and schmaltz.

King, Cudlitz and McKenzie carry this drama, in note-perfect peformances. They make Southland a worthy part of your Tuesday night stakeout.

He seemed nervous in a rapid-fire monologue that took shots at Dick Cheney, Alan Greenspan and Tiger Woods.

This sad sack of a show plays like an East Coast, economically challenged version of his HBO hit “Entourage.”

Reincarnation, recycling, rip-off. On network TV, it’s all the same. Whatever you did in a past life, you don’t deserve this drivel.

Unfortunately, the drama between Federline and Jackson seems to be about the only reason to tune in, making this serving of “Fit Club” especially tasteless.

Undercover presents a wonderful tribute to the working man and woman. Middle managers are the villains here, sitting at desks and docking workers for clocking in late at lunch. The hour ends with the predictable reveal.

A tired, messy show that reflects its star, fashion PR and marketing maven Kelly Cutrone.

Even offering a slightest knock of this show feels about as kind as, say, throwing a rock at a Haitian orphan. This viewer, however, is not convinced there’s a one-hour series here.

This is the best ensemble of any show anywhere, and watching these gifted actors bounce off each other is a joy. Damages proves capable hands can craft a thriller for TV.

Spartacus fetishizes violence even more than it depicts sex and nudity, which is often. There’s a whole lot of B.C. banging going on here.

Here’s the kind of firm even “Boston Legal’s” Denny Crane would have the sense to close down. And I don’t think I’ve ever sat through so many penis jokes in the 8 p.m. hour.

Fox’s Human Target is the closest thing on TV to swigging a keg of Red Bull. It’s one hour of pure energy, a blast of fun action and stunts.

The show is often so gross, one is tempted to suggest that our local arts schools should start steering its graduates toward more meaningful fields--such as automotive mechanics or doggy waste disposal. But Blue is also frequently funny in a raunchy “American Pie” way.

The show’s formula--particularly the ease in which the villains track down Chuck--is getting creaky.

The characters carry themselves with the kind of decency, maturity and occasional playfulness that is virtually unseen on prime time.

This spy spoof hits a bull’s-eye with risque snark and one of the best vocal casts assembled for any animated series.