This remains an intelligent, well-made drama that wants to get most of the history right, or at least not adulterate it too much.... But, alas, same virtues, same flaws.

Information tumbles off the screen and often flat onto the floor. Too bad, because much of what's here is very funny, if occasionally cruel.

Inexorably transfixing, whether you're taking names or taking notes.

Solid star turn, eerie production values, even a killer ending.

Jack and Ace are sharply drawn and played but they're also a pair of sulking men-children -- drab and colorless, or at least next to Bauer's feral Wild Bill. The female characters are also underwritten in the early episodes (although Starz promises the later episodes will redress that). Nevertheless, there is something here -- call it abundant promise.

Absent the overworked conceit of actors glancing at the camera to register annoyance or irony, this has turned into just another well-produced cop show with some excellent actors, like Imperioli or James McDaniel, who plays Det. Jesse Long and played Lt. Arthur Fancy on "NYPD Blue."

A watchable, engaging oddball.

As genre satire, Spoils is amusing. As film study, it's informative. As a viewing experience? Uneven: Sometimes funny, a little more often not.

It does well what standard sitcoms do.

Grim, sometimes grinding, but Jackson still wows.

The Whole Truth equals " Law & Order: The Next Generation." It's still just a little too overeager and needs to mature.

Pitch is doggedly inspirational. And despite its hackneyed moments, the pilot introduces enough meaty stuff to warrant a wait-and-see response. It’s a fresh concept amid TV’s sea of cookie-cutter franchises.

Mostly entertaining late-summer thrill ride, decent horror too.

Competent soap, and the new season is frothier than ever.

Proceed with caution into this foul but funny cauldron of catastrophe.

Super set-up seems to punch every teen ticket there is, with plenty to admit adults, too. Future execution will be key--in more ways than nine.

After a shaky start, Pete gets denser, trickier and better.

Producers clearly encourage some to-the-camera carping, but the overriding emotional tone is one of bonding and growth. And respect. In a reality competition!

Yes, indeed, a love letter this is, but 41 is better than rank puffery because it also takes the full measure of Bush.

A congenial and persuasive argument for why Apu must go.

Stallone desperately needs collaborators who understand how to get the most out of him. He finds that here.

Gardell and McCarthy are two of the more realistic-feeling, instantly appealing sitcom personalities in ages. They're enough to make it worth drudging through the sludge tonight's pilot considers comedy writing.

Being Human echoes, move for move, the BBC America fave of the same name. Yet, Syfy simplifies the tone into young-adult novelhood, where there's lots of white space around really big print. Subsequent episodes improve as plots thicken.

A little too Lemony, but genial, well-produced and presumably faithful to the Lemony Snicket vision.

Well-written, directed and acted, Billions is still badly in need of a more human touch.

Overall, this was a good start.... The show was rushed, the commercialism troubling, the interviews a mixed bag. But no one looks for perfection the first night--just signs, and they were mostly positive Tuesday.

Some twisty situations, some unexpected heart, some nuanced acting. Some serious single-camera potential.

Well-produced and particularly well-acted newcomer with a lot of moving parts, potentially too many.

Overall, a meaner, harsher fashion competition, but compelling.

The 5th improves on the 4th (or at least the four episodes offered for review do).

A not-bad techno-thriller that could go interesting places.

An amusing and not-bad game show; Bailey makes it bearable.

Does "The Office" proud.

Blessedly for fans who don’t want to work so hard, less so for those wonks who do, the second season is much easier. It’s still brainy while managing to push the new narrative ahead hard and fast. It also manages to splatter the brains too: Westworld is now less a searing indictment of screen violence (the first season) and more a straight-up snuff series.

Fist-clenching may be a novel approach, also a self-negating one, and Yellowstone--good writing, solid cast, nice views aside--can also be a bummer at times. Nicely done series that can also, from a viewer perspective, be depleting.

For such a vast and important story, Torchwood: Miracle Day feels strangely confined and artificial. Here's hoping for more by Episode 4.

It's intriguing, and worthwhile for audiences in search of something genuinely different. Whether that can be sustained over the course of an entire series of television remains an open question.

Still beautiful, still fun and still excellent.

Get past the tough-to-buy setup of the premiere, and Shades improves. The star? Initially tough to buy, too, but also improves.

Crazy Obsession gives us benign compulsives who mainly come off as amusing.

The pair has recast the concept and their chemistry into a suburban setting that feels fresher and friendlier, truly finding its footing at 10:30 with Sloane (and those gnomes).

It’s emotion that moves the story forward. Highmore’s face and attitude. Schiff’s faith and moral weight. Thomas’ curiosity-generosity. That sets it apart from “House.”

Noble intentions meet nice people.

This season opener is in fact a true data dump: Everything along with that name is unloaded. Blindspot instantly becomes a new show, which is a good thing. ... Along with some new characters, including Panjabi’s and another played by stage and TV veteran Michelle Hurd, Blindspot suddenly feels fresher, or at least intelligible.

Lugubrious, also highly watchable.

Vikings quickly settles into a fairly routine sword-and-sandal epic narrative that revolves around a sociopath overlord and the subjects who dare to challenge his authority. But it gets better.

A little clunky at times, but otherwise all is well here, thanks especially to Alexandra [Reid (Sigourney Weaver)].

Impastor weakens its good work by trying a bit too hard.

The best parts of Show Me a Hero are the sharply drawn mini-portraits of people who will ultimately move into the new public housing. Spread throughout the first five hours, you hope you will find a hero there, but in vain. They're just normal people looking for a better life, and ultimately find one.

The early part of the third may not be as good as the first season or stretches of the second, but for a few million anxiously awaiting Sunday, it's still good enough.

Heights almost feels like atonement for the biggest hit in MTV history. The kids don't swear (much), esteem their elders, work at their dreams and have no obvious or debilitating vices--until they drink.

Unassuming Longmire doesn't shout "LOVE ME!" but instead works its charms subtly, quietly.

I wanted to love Fringe, with its extraordinary pedigree and exotic, soulful Australian beauty Torv in the lead role, and splendid Noble in key support. Plus, Blair Brown's here, too, as a top exec at an evil corporation. But I just can't shake this word "derivative."

Another fine Hawke performance — and entertaining series — but the character he's created never quite gets a backstory, at least over the first five episodes.

This is pure kiddie fare; no big deal--Chuck's back; TV's a better place.

A baffling, beautiful, maddening, provocative puzzle.

Like all love affairs, this one needs the time to develop and gets it.

Often funny, engaging, and not nearly as complicated as it sounds, Dietland does grow progressively darker. This is a revenge fantasy, and with Marti Noxon at the helm, both “dark” and “funny” come with the territory.

This intelligent, sensitive portrait effectively explores a lost childhood and remarkable mind. It's engrossing to a point, then tiresome.

Still strange, dark, harrowing and often — unexpectedly — very funny.

The Save Me pilot saves itself artistically. But debuting in a summertime double dose makes series salvation improbable.

Watching “Shōgun" is a you-are-there-you-are-not-there experience — both bracing and chilly, not consistently engaging yet (paradoxically) always engaging, “Shōgun" draws you in, but never quite makes you feel welcome to be there.

Gritty, jarring, profane and smartly produced.

A partially successful reboot, with less music, more story.

Solid opener and Carey's theme song is a winner, too.

So yes, "Abbott" is familiar but the early episodes also have charm, potentially meme-able moments and what ultimately may matter most — heart. The year is new but we may have an early winner.

Suffice it to say, keep the kids away, but you will laugh - and feel guilty about it afterward.

Smart, well-crafted, layered — verging on over-layered.

Though they certainly cover the heady early days, filled with screaming girls and their cultivated persona as the anti-Beatles, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards aren't afraid to keep it real. Both show some interesting insights into their success.

A good portrait of a fallen man and the place he has fallen into. Promising--but also frustrating.

Still absorbing. Still painful.

It's an ideal match of creative talent and material, with serious appeal for history buffs of all ages.

Which isn't to say Duck Dynasty isn't entertaining. It's just more of the same.

No one wants this show to channel "24," but C-SPAN won't do either. For the most part, however, Madam Secretary charts a steady--and intelligent--middle course.

From "The Mod Squad" to "Being Human," TV's young misfits find it [family] where they can, and Tomorrow is that next step, too. Scripter Phil Klemmer wrote for "Chuck" and "Veronica Mars," good arguments for promise here (and "Undercovers," a bad one).

With some of the zip of the original, and some of the heart too.

Filmed in New Orleans, Coven wants to soak up some atmosphere, bowdlerize some local history and otherwise creep out viewers. At least on these three points, this season should easily score.

Lively pilot, with plenty of pop--but you've seen it all before.

It's completely out-there and a lot of fun.

Genial charmer that quietly makes TV history.

While you're left to wonder why these four stars need a reality show, or why the contestants never truly made it in the first place, "The Voice" should remain a solid performer for NBC--which it so very badly needs.

Monday's pilot can't quite close the sale, but there's promise here. The Chicago Code deserves another look.

The 10 episodes that dropped late Wednesday pretty much say there's nothing to worry about here. In fact, a few of these do gently temporize, and at least one treads water, but there are also four which are flat-out great (more on those in a bit). A pleasure as always if hardly perfect, this balance seems about right for a series that explores the gulf separating craftsmanship from genuine artistry, and whether perfection can bridge it.

Gravity looks like another slow build. Its characters aren't as directly defined, and initial episodes exhibit curious methods to its storytelling madness.

A well-produced film that is ultimately more painful than conclusive.

In blunt and at times salty language, Bush gets to say exactly what 9/11 meant to him; it's visceral but only occasionally revelatory. We all know this story very well. Maybe too well.

"The Violet Hour" is an elegant and surprising love story, while "The Royal We" is a sour disappointment. But the best news: A Matthew Weiner show is back on TV.

The main reason to give this version of "The 'Burbs'" a chance, of course, is the interplay between Palmer, Pell, Proksch and Julia Duffy ("Newhart") as the neighbors with a lot of time on their hands. They keep the energy high and the laughs coming.

Kings is a worthy enterprise that will deeply puzzle millions of viewers.

The Closer may be the most comfortable old shoe on all of television; slip it on and be assured of no blisters. In fact, the cast (and not just Sedgwick) is so competent, the characters' tics so familiar; and the format and formula so firmly etched in "ceeement" (as Brenda might say) that it all feels almost too comfy.

The Conners skillfully picks up where "Roseanne" left off and even manages to improve on the predecessor.

The second half is actually more enlightening, though, as Gibney and Foster do a remarkable job of explaining the challenges that Rolling Stone faces, while still celebrating its significance.

There’s a fine line between “calming” and “soporific,” but the new season mostly manages to stay on the right side of it, judging by the first three episodes.

The Writers' Room winds up more anecdotal than explanatory. Heavily edited/compressed, it makes for a breezy half-hour if not necessarily revelatory disclosure, at least in the three episodes sent for review.

The first three episodes of "McMillion$" unpack the incredible story of the McDonald's Monopoly scam with flair, even if the shape and contours of the series are familiar.

Like all anthologies, some hours are better than others (but most of these are good), and what Dreams lacks in razzle-dazzle, it makes up for in brains.

Tere's real promise in Parenthood. In time, we may all genuinely care whether Crosby and Sarah find themselves, or at least grow up.

Sontag, simply put, was a very interesting person, who fully inhabited some interesting times--which this film captures. But as to that genuine, lasting impact? Who knows: Regarding is so busy trying to capture this busy life, that it never gets around to an answer.