Fresh Off the Boat is the funniest, most charming show of the season.

With Milch holding the reins, Luck seems a lock for the winner's circle.

A series with substance and heart that doesn’t insult the city or pander to stereotypes.

The background music works muscularly to pump up interest, but the story's pacing is ponderous.

The three-hour production got off to a shaky start with camera work in the 1959-set Rydell High seemingly ready to trigger mass vertigo. But by the time the cast got to “Greased Lightnin’,” a frenetic dance number that kept building and growing so much, it threatened to spill out onto your floor, the show was rocking.

Biderman’s work here is inexplicably lazy: South Boston natives are haunted or broken; L.A. natives are narcissistic airheads. Voight doesn’t so much chew the scenery as gnaw it.

Bishop is just so authentic as a widow finding her way that she deserves an Emmy. Some things, of course, will never change, and fans wouldn’t have it any other way. Sherman-Palladino’s dialogue still races, stuffed with pop culture references.

The show's concept is clever, and the pilot displays a blend of humor and drama with a bit of melancholy hanging over it. Shalhoub is excellent as the twitchy, mild-mannered Monk. But Monk can be an annoying character, and at times you may find yourself wanting to yell, "Snap out of it!" at the television screen. [12 July 2002, p.S36]

For all its reptilian quirkiness, there is some maximum enjoyment here. [4 Aug 1998, p.34]

HBO made the first six episodes available for review, and they’re all entertaining.

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.

Benoist is just so winning in this role.... As he did with CW’s “Arrow” and “Flash,” executive producer Greg Berlanti has managed to take a familiar superhero story and spin it into a TV show readers and new­comers can love.

NBC's newest drama Awake adds a drop of fantasy to its crime procedural formula and then practically buries it in musings about the mysteries of the subconscious.

Alan Ball, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of "American Beauty," has done something wonderfully unusual. He has written a tremendously life-affirming drama about death. [3 June 2001, p.43]

With scenes of brutality inflicted on slaves and the casual use of the “n” word, Underground can be difficult to watch. But there’s nothing gratuitous about this story. The series is enhanced by contemporary music from the likes of Legend, Kanye West and The Weeknd.

Blessed with Kelley's rich writing talent, "The Practice" zips along at a lively, "ER"-like pace. [4 Mar 1997]

iZombie is superbly cast and displays wit and surprises you don’t often find in the comics-to-TV genre.

This collection of characters - with all their quirks, quarks and nose jobs - is a winner. The women are strong. The men are sensitive. The life forms are testy. [5 Jan 1993]

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. looks to be the most fun you’ll find in an hour of prime time this fall.

Awkward is adept in some quick cutaways, as in a classroom scene that echoes "Ferris Bueller." Rickards works so hard to emulate "Easy A" star Emma Stone, she just might end up in a full body cast by the end of the season. But with the tide going out on such reality drivel as "Jersey Shore," Awkward is a cagey move for MTV.

Blacklist doesn’t have the pulse, say, of a '24,' but it races in the right direction.

The insanely intense action drama opens its final season tonight. Scenes of quiet only serve to bridge action sequences.

It's a shame--but not a surprise, perhaps--that directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato don't delve deeper.

The sets may at times look fake (is that Afghanistan or Vancouver?) and savvy viewers will spot the traitor in Mike's story line early on, but Traffic deftly puts tiny human faces on global problems. [23 Jan 2004]

To be fair, Last Resort does not insult ideology--it merely knocks your intelligence.

Twin Peaks: The Return was creepy, surreal, bizarre, and often unintelligible. Just like its predecessor.

Ramirez does an outstanding job capturing a gentle man and his passion for his work. Penelope Cruz (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”) co-stars as his doting sister Donatella, who has absolutely no use for Antonio. (That animosity is well documented.) Criss’ portrayal is brittle and needy (and not such a far stretch from the character he played on Murphy’s “Glee”).

There were moments during the first two episodes in which I wondered if the series was doddering along like a blindfolded Miss Marple. Have faith. Each episode swings in unexpected directions.