With that ticking clock in mind, Benioff and Weiss are improvising with confidence and a keen eye on character. You can see stories being streamlined.

Scripter Peter Straughan masterfully hits almost all the right notes in this fictionalized account of Cromwell.... The stage actor doesn’t convey the cunning with which Mantel imbues her protagonist. At times his lawyer seems a bit thick. At the close of next week, however, Cromwell--and Rylance--find their footing.

Red Road’s depiction of mental illness is one of the most compelling on any scripted series, and Nicholson continues to amaze.

It’s not the end of an era. It’s the end of a good, occasionally great show that overstayed its welcome.

We’ve spent so much time on mundane love affairs, the nature of the resistance remains an enigma. The Dovekeepers spins history until everyone seems a bit dizzy.

The sitcom starts with one of the best introductions to a group of losers. By the end of the third episode Fox provided for review, I was yawning and daydreaming about buying nail fungus remover.

There are a number of bad wigs and beards on display here, but much of the cast surmounts the costuming problems. The pace and the depth of the story might have been helped by extending this film into a two-night event.

More a cotton candy bouquet than a documentary, It’s Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise introduces you to a man who has made millions of people happy--and would like nothing more than a chance to do it again.

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

One Big Happy is light and forgettable.

The Royals wouldn’t be watchable at all except for Queen Helena, played to the hilt by Elizabeth Hurley.

The cast mines genuine heartache in the mysterious.

American Crime’s direction is uncertain, but it looks to be one of the more uncomfortable, engrossing rides any commercial broadcast series has taken. Put away the phone and sit yourself down. You’ll want to see where this goes.

Tim Kring (“Heroes”) and Gideon Raff (“Homeland”) teamed to create this 10-episode miniseries, and while they’re smart enough to acknowledge their debt to “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” they aren’t able to match their source material.

Arquette is a cool presence onscreen and brings understated conviction to a character whose powers­ of observation border on superhuman.

Anyone hoping for a “Desperate Housewives” vibe (ABC’s last big Sunday hit) will be disappointed. This story unfolds as if it were told by someone overdosing on Ambien.

How far can Frank accommodate her when his own power base is splintering? That will be the most tantalizing plot to follow this season.

For The Odd Couple to work, you have to believe there are moments when these roommates want to throttle each other. This version presents a mild bromance. Nice for them, not so much for us.

A momentary lapse could lead to weeks of thought-provoking drama. The Slap echoes.

The destination to this journey doesn’t sound all that compelling, but Better boasts a caliber of actors other shows can only dream about.

The first three episodes are essentially capers involving spy chasing spy as angst-ridden Russians try to defect, the CIA tries to get to them and the SVR sics the O’Connors on everyone.

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

While these newsies may have outsized personalities, everyone shares a belief in getting the story right and serving the community.

Set aside the stunt casting worthy of a CW series and the detour into Lifetime territory. History’s Sons of Liberty, a three-night, six-hour scripted miniseries, crafts a compelling look at the men and the skirmishes that ignited the American Revolution.

The climax is predictable, but the epilogue is not anything you’d find on a CBS procedural and suggests how good this show and Wilson could be.

Yes, this reality cooking show is like those that have come before it, but--at least in this episode--it stands out for what it doesn’t have. There’s no yelling and there’s no long bleeps to cover up cursing.

Average acting and troubled storytelling can be forgiven in a film about music if the music is transcendent. But Lifetime couldn’t secure the rights to any Brown or Houston hits. So we get actors lip-syncing to imitators. Often the lip-syncing isn’t even synched.

It’s a sporadically funny opening to an inconsistently comical season. A couple of episodes are slapstick hits--such as when the gang enlists Dee to spy on a Chinese fish factory. Others are just creepy. But it’s a mix that has fueled the sitcom’s success for nearly a decade.