It is Mr. Willis who elevates the show from good viewing to outstanding entertainment. [03 Mar 1985, p.3K]

Smartly written and utterly fantastic. [20 Jan 1998, p.E10]

Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher may not captivate like Peter Falk's Columbo, but she'll do quite nicely until something better comes along. [28 Sep 1984, p.2B]

The show is sometimes strained and tends to be a bit sappy, but Family Ties has some good writing. [22 Sep 1982, p.2B]

Mr. Rhodes is the funniest of the new season's comic-playing-a-maverick-teacher-fighting-a-school-bureaucracy sitcoms. [30 Sep 1996]

In less capable hands, the show might have turned into a far-fetched teen fantasy about life without parental restrictions...Here, it is a touching and finely crafted exploration of what it means to grow up without either the rules or the loving guidance of parents. [10 Sept 1994]

The show’s salty-sweet themes of loyalty and redemption contrast nicely with the vile comedic speeches Leary has made a career out of delivering.

The first hour of Scream is an efficient fright-delivery system wrapped inside a teen drama, but it’s meta-commentary that makes it worthwhile. That, and the pilot’s promise to spread out its jump scares more slowly and deliberately.

Warburton is spot-on perfect as Tick. [8 Nov 2001, p.E1]

"X-Files" fans have been talking up this show, sight unseen, for months, based mainly on rumors and snippets from the set. But Harsh Realm may well validate all that hype. [8 Oct 1999, p.F1]

Montage of Heck achieves its goal of intimacy almost too well. It’s such a tightly cropped portrait that criticizing it feels like criticizing Cobain. But it’s too long and a bit repetitive, and it keeps trying to explain its subject through his own scribblings long after his soul has been laid bare by more direct means.

A three-hour miniseries that bounces between tragedy and comedy with ease.

It's a more compelling, faster-paced and less frustrating journey than fans were treated to in “A Feast for Crows” and “A Dance With Dragons,” the novels that line up with the current action in Westeros’ winter-is-coming world.

Daredevil stands alone as an artful, gritty ensemble drama that could elevate the superhero origin story like HBO’s “True Detective” did for the crime procedural.

I could watch Roger (ever-dapper John Slattery) fire people all day long (Sunday’s surprise firing is an epic one), but Don’s cryptic conversations with strangers can feel staid and scholarly.... And then--herein lies the addictive nature of the show--the action pauses for just a moment, the acting thrums with tension, and you feel satisfied that you have been a good student.

Haggis’ journey into and out of Scientology could have made a fascinating film by itself, and he’s just one of a dozen articulate talking heads.

The Slap is rare TV, depicting the kind of drama viewers might find themselves caught up in. It’s nice to see a show shamelessly go about doing its manipulative business.

The moral quicksand that made The Americans so compelling for its first two seasons is deeper than ever.

The History channel’s Sons of Liberty miniseries tells a satisfying tale of Boston’s slow burn toward rebellion in the 1770s.

Frances McDormand delivers another one of her consistent, airbrush-free performances in HBO’s four-part miniseries, an adaptation of Strout’s book that focuses more tightly on its title character and ends up drawing to a simpler, more raw-edged conclusion.

Death Comes to Pemberley, on paper and the small screen, is not as satisfying as a newly discovered Austen novel would be.

Gunn and Tennant are flat-out fantastic in Gracepoint. The supporting cast, including Nick Nolte at maximum haggard levels, is compelling. They’re so good, it might take a while to notice that you’ve seen this story before, even if you haven’t seen “Broadchurch.”

It’s a pleasure to watch Bean fall into his “legends,” or fake identities, even as the show pushes the boundaries of what TV audiences might accept when it comes to instantaneous computer heroics.

This is a very talky show, filled with Braugher soliloquies, and it will be hard to top the first episode, which plays out like a Greek tragedy... But I was spellbound, except for the jarring interludes involving Gideon's motley crew of medical students. [10 Oct 2000, p.E1]

Sexy and stylish. [4 Oct 2003]

Like “True Detective,” The Knick benefits from a consistent vision and stellar cinematography. Its turn-of-the-century sets and costuming will transport viewers into the past more vividly than any stuffy sitting room in “Downton Abbey.” But it requires dedication to stick around with The Knick until the action gets going a few episodes in.

Every time the 1943 of Manhattan begins to feel like 2014, it returns to the nostalgia of movies like “The Right Stuff,” where brains and grit make the peace, back to a time when America trusted its fate to the smartest guys we could find.

It’s Gretchen and Jimmy’s repartee, their unrelenting need to voice their awful thoughts, that makes Worst worth watching.