We have fifth-season banquet of delights spread before us.... With each season, that load is spread out more and more, with young players coming into their own and crafty veterans added to the cast. The storytelling also gets stronger and more assured, pushing Game of Thrones to greater and grander heights.

Writer David Farr updated le Carre's novel with expert care, and his script is stunningly realized by a sensational cast guided by the unerring direction of Susanne Bier. Indeed, just about everything goes right in this sexy, riveting and suspenseful miniseries.

Anyone who doesn't think this is the best drama on television should have his head examined. [16 Jan 2000]

Time and again, over a span of more than 35 years, we find Burns constructing bridges that insightfully and profoundly link Americans with their history. Nowhere has that been more powerfully true than in the 18 hours of his stunningly realized, intricately detailed 10-part film, The Vietnam War.

Still standing magnificently tall in its fifth season, Justified more than justifies its place as one of television's best dramas. That's a crowded field, of course, but, in this critic's opinion, it is not just one of the best. It is THE best.

[The first five episodes of this fifth season] provide overwhelming proof that “Better Call Saul” remains one of the best shows of any kind anywhere on television. And Odenkirk hardly is the only compelling reason to follow this series. All of the characters are intriguing.

HBO made four of the 13 new episodes available for review. Taken as a whole, they stand as compelling proof that the series' creator and executive producer, David Chase, still is in complete control of the brilliantly constructed crime saga. [4 Mar 2001]

Ambitious, imaginative, provocative and engrossing. ... A triumph of style and substance, it never sacrifices pace for preaching or pontificating. At least in the first six episodes made available to critics, it remains every bit as entertaining as it is intriguing.

An intense, intriguing and exciting mix of action and horror. [22 Sept 2004, p.E1]

From the first frame, it's clear that Jackie Robinson is a genuine labor of love. The warmly crafted two-part, four-hour PBS documentary from filmmaker Ken Burns positively glows with its admiration for the man and his accomplishments. ... Another mighty home run for PBS.

The ever-audacious comedy continues to surprise viewers in all sorts of unpredictable ways. As bold and daring as ever, producer-writer-star Donald Glover's cable series picks right up where the first season left off--fiercely funny and marvelously mercurial.

It's where quirky meets quixotic, and the mix is enchanting - equal parts wit and whimsy. [8 Oct 2000, p.11]

No drama mixes the profoundly painful with the profanely funny more expertly than Rescue Me, Denis Leary's FX series about New York City firefighters. As laughter wraps itself around anguish on this Manhattan landscape, you wonder if what's unfolding is an epic American tragedy or a raunchy workplace comedy. [12 June 2007, p.E1]

Generous with the laughs. A wonderfully quirky and stylish series from a creative team headed by director-producer Ron Howard, this isn't merely the best new comedy of the season. It's the best new show of any kind.[2 Nov 2003, p.J1]

Patience and attention to detail are rewarded handsomely, however, as Legion serves up a an instantly compelling narrative laced with an intriguing sense of mystery and wonder. It makes for a riveting adventure packed with razor-sharp dialogue, clever visual touches, surrealistic flourishes and wonderfully winning performances.

The highest compliment you can pay “Deadwood: The Movie” is that it is the continuation and the conclusion that both the series and its fans deserved. It’s just that good. It’s powerful, at times profound, at times bittersweet.

The hallmarks of a Hawley show are wonderfully offbeat yet endlessly intriguing characters, boldly innovative visual flourishes, a somewhat antic sense of humor, marvelously textured universes, compelling performances and whip-smart writing. Are all of these elements to be found in the immediately riveting third-season opener of Fargo? Oh heck yah, youbetcha.

A four-alarm run of fiery performances laced with hurt and hilarity. It means writing that swerves brilliantly from racy humor to lacerating pain, from steamy encounters to brutal insights. And it means spending quality time with some of the most human, street-level, flesh-and-blood characters you're likely to encounter anywhere in the television realm. [30 May 2006, p.E1]

Part of the intoxicating magic of Feud is the fierce relish with which Sarandon and Lange circle each other warily, clash, back off, then clash again. It is a mesmerizing, perfectly executed dance--a bitter tango staged somewhere near the intersection of "Sunset Boulevard" and the "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." The brittle dialogue rips along with waspish intensity, and adding to the storytelling wizardry is an outstanding supporting cast.

Amber Tamblyn (yes, she's the daughter of "Twin Peaks" star Russ Tamblyn) shines in the title role. Her Joan is a delightful adolescent mix of hope, doubt, joy, anger, anxiety, yearning and skepticism...Viewers searching for a promising new drama will do no better this season than Joan of Arcadia, which walks that tricky line of being spiritual without becoming preachy, touching without turning treacly, humorous without going for the cheap jokes. [26 Sept 2003, p.E1]

The Americans stands tall in a crowded field of quality dramas. It keeps getting stronger and stronger, a realization underscored by the arrival of the fourth season.

Russell brings great subtlety and appeal to the role, in an engaging show that captures the exhilarating and sometimes scary possibilities of a time of life when everything feels new. [29 Sept 1998, p.1E]

Better Call Saul just keeps on getting better and better. That's an easy call, particularly after seeing the gripping first three episodes of the "Breaking Bad" prequel's fourth season. ... One constant in Better Call Saul is that, as riveting as Odenkirk is as Jimmy, this hardly is a one-actor showcase.

"Justified" and Game of Thrones, each in its own way, has done its share to raise that bar to dizzying heights.

A rich, risky and satisfying adult drama that could be the next "Wiseguy" - and there isn't much higher praise. [26 Oct 1996]

Murder One is shrewdly constructed, quickly absorbing and absolutely first-rate - the best new show of fall...Terrifically scripted and perfectly cast, the show gets its biggest lift from the shaven-headed Benzali, whose brilliant performance as the principled, supremely confident Hoffman could be the best advertisement for defense attorneys since Clarence Darrow. [19 Sept 1995, p.9E]

His character is brought low often enough, but no comedy soars higher.

Fear of the future informs every scene and every performance in “Years and Years,” a deeply disturbing yet absolutely riveting six-part British miniseries. ... Along the harrowing way, Davies is swerving ferociously from horror to humor to heartbreak to heartwarming, without ever losing his balance. And the magnificent cast goes right along with him, with particularly strong contributions by Kinnear, Reid and Thompson.