Stitched into every word, every gesture, is an implicit recognition of that brutal Fargo credo: People can be cruel, stupid, mean and unintentionally funny, even the nice ones. Another winner.

Best show of the season? Call me crazy, but it's a loopy-twisted-serpentine whodunit revolving around a whip-smart teenage girl...So let's recap. Engaging star, cool characterizations, witty scripts, meaty backstory. What's not to like? Only that networks always cancel deliciously offbeat gems like this. Let's hope UPN doesn't actually want to be a "real" network, after all. [22 Sept 2004, p.C01]

It's just as good as I remembered. Even better, if that's possible. [8 Apr 1991]

The fuss is justified. Sunday's return of the Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss-created series is a triumphant one, and should easily establish Sherlock among TV's finest series.

"The Terror: Infamy" is so good and so cleanly told that it really doesn't require much of a primer before diving in, but a little background couldn't hurt.

L.D. is back, and - based on viewing the first three episodes - his genius remains intact. [7 Sep 2007]

"Doctor, Doctor" can be hysterically, outrageously funny. [13 Jun 1991]

Davies’ dialogue feels so organic to the characters it’s written for that it seems almost to bond to them, as naturally as if it was their skin or hair color. Actors in Davies’ production invariably rise to the level of the words placed before them. They certainly do here.

If there were an Emmy for most great moments per hour, "The Wire" would deserve it. [17 Sep 2004]

What you will certainly see is how finely tuned both the marital observations and comic timing are.... This summer's must-see comedy smash.

The show is sweet, gentle, sad around the edges. I really love it. [19 Sep 1991]

"Galactica" is so beautifully designed, shot, edited and acted that you can practically smell and taste its emotional validity.

"From the Earth to the Moon" is a series of one-hour movies about different aspects of the space program ... And they are masterpieces, at least the four I've seen so far. [5 Apr 1998, p.D39]

[Showrunner and creator Sam Esmail is] a Kafka in the director’s chair, who sees alienation where everyone else sees a Facebook “like.” It’s as compelling and timely a vision as there is in a primetime series at the moment, and darkness is the price of admission.

"I'll Fly Away" is a drama of substance, a big subject, a show about real people with great acting, great writing and strong emotion. [7 Oct 1991]

The hype is justified. Nashville's terrific.

Masters of Sex just gets better and better.

This show doesn't feel even remotely played out.

Solid start to what could--and maybe should--be a future CW franchise.

TV's best (but do your homework before diving in).

With the mix of bizarre cases and believably goofy characters, I found already I never wanted the show to end. It's great stuff working on three levels at once. [17 Sep 1992]

Fabulous, a truly stunning grab-you-by-the-throat TV experience. [11 Feb 1993]

Another masterpiece of a thriller. [11 Feb 1993]

Each episode is a gem but — since you asked — my favorite is "USS Callister," which borders on genius.

Even film school snobs like me can learn a thing or 10 from Moguls & Movie Stars. The breadth and depth of information rushing through each hour is astonishing.

Funny, smart, entertaining, excellent acting and writing. What's not to like?

Hip, clever and hilarious...A sparkling little character study, quirky comedy, relationship drama and all-around delight. [5 Oct 2000, p.B43]

A brilliantly written, funny triumph for Butler, who could become the new Roseanne. [30 Sep 1993]

One of the best new fall series and--double bonus points--it stars the great Hugh Laurie and Ethan Suplee, who ruthlessly hijacks his scenes.

One episode in, "Glee 2.0"--otherwise known as the fourth season--looks to be a winner.

"Bosch" honored the work of police without always celebrating that work — a neat trick, especially in 2021, but often effective here. As a reminder that cops are both fallible and human, this series always held them to a higher standard. In "Bosch," sometimes — most times, really — they actually met it.

Anyone who enters this fantastic and beautifully realized play-scape--which remains ever so slightly ghoulish--will stick around. This is a winner.

There's pleasure in every frame here--from terrific new cast additions (Molly Parker, David Glennon) to richer D.C. subplots. It all works, and it is all addictive.

Party Down took awhile to jell, but it has hit its stride as one of TV's most finely observed comedies.

It is so good, so unbelievable, I can't believe anything was that good on TV last year. And it's going to be even better this year, as it continues doing these shows about nothing. [16 Sep 1993]

The documentary cannily employs Goldberg's enthusiasm and some clever animations over Moms' audio routines to keep this lost legend's influence in the forefront.

The show is doomed, knowing the Nielsen families' love of vapid, meaningless, unsocial comedy. But that shouldn't bother anybody interested in seeing how good and funny a rich, socially meaningful and useful comedy can be. [2 Sep 1993]

Humor is also key in the capacious pilot hour directed by John Madden ("Shakespeare in Love"). Subsequent episodes echo its deft balance of epic scope and whimsical humanity.

Insanely great start.

There are three excellent reasons--Milch, Mann and Hoffman--why your faith will be rewarded.

Holzman's writing is brilliant. [25 Aug 1994]

It's smartly written; clinically interesting (Why is Tara this way?), and maybe even a metaphor for the challenges all women face.

A remarkable tour of a terrible part of our history that makes the case--a compelling one--that this history isn’t entirely in the past at all.

A socially responsible, heartwarming, beautifully made, written and acted series. [8 Sep 1994]

The best new show of the year. [28 Dec 1994]

An enthralling film.

Gorgeously acted, written, paced, structured and conceived, "Damages" remains one of the best shows on TV--and maybe the most enjoyably addictive.

First-rate and must-watch.

For a show forever detonating bombs, it's surprising how sweet and frothy Tara feels. Just a half-hour long, it doesn't waste a second, pulling a gun within the first few and no punches ever.

This remains one of the best shows on TV, and (as usual) not for all tastes.

Like a packed piñata of absurdity, each episode rains unforeseen treats, from physical pranks to existential banter to all manner of sexual exuberance. It’s all smartly visualized around town and briskly stitched together.

The first case in this innovative series is terrific. [18 Sep 1995]

The writers have great ears for "real" dialogue, and, in fact, not a single line here feels like a dead ball. The characters, too, arrive fully formed and believable. First impressions are absolutely vital in TV, and The Middle makes an excellent one.

Diaries is for Shandling fans, certainly, but it’s especially for any kid who might want to become a comic, or write for TV or get into this industry. “Zen Diaries” is a nearly five-hour-long master’s degree in “the business,” and also a sober, clear-eyed view of the risks as much as the rewards.

The horror is carefully and strategically placed; one mustn't have too much of a good thing, after all.... So settle in. You will be grossed out.

Lavisly illustrated with archival footage, much of it rare, The March makes it almost easy to forget that words--not to mention the one man who said them--were the real stars that day.... Excellent, exhaustive.

In the third season, the song remains the same. Biblical themes of fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, honor and dishonor, Cain and Abel are all baked under that pitiless California sun. Brace yourselves.

A warm, welcome and even moving return. Best of all, a reflective one.

These four episodes are just about flawless — a cohesive and deeply moving picture of the final hours of two desperately lonely people. Much better still, Dodi is humanized rather than demonized.

Miller's series offers a chance to understand Martin Scorsese's movies in a new way. What a gift.

Excellent, balanced, powerful, engaging, comprehensive perspective on the “trial of the century” and race. The first two parts are best.

Superb second season, if the early episodes are any indication.

A Year in the Life is a triumph. ... A sweet, sad, sentimental and (above all) joyous return to Stars Hollow.

Disturbing. Magnetic. Hold your breath. Watch.

A must-watch: The most important TV program of the year.

There are lots of other small touches--or technical flourishes--along with new cast members, notably Nina. Otherwise, best of luck finding anything radically different because there isn’t all that much that’s changed.... This is a “win-win”--for HBO, public TV, its most iconic series and those kids.

Who else but Larry David could have imagined that a "Curb" largely without the glorious Cheryl Hines could conceivably be funnier? Or that her absence might work as a comedic plot foil for one of its major story arcs? He did, and that's genius.

This is TV's best comedy. And there's nothing in the first two episodes that would suggest otherwise.

My pregnant friends polish up the hand-me-downs, shop for the rest of their gear at Target and worry to death about how to make ends meet when it comes to child care. They know what to name their offspring. That's what makes this new Bravo show exploiting the rich all the more fascinating.

Stunning, beautiful, hypnotic, engrossing, spectacular... That oughta do it here as well, except Frozen Planet unexpectedly adds another word: Unprecedented.

Prepare to reattach those jaws once again. Spectacular. What else?

How could you possibly go wrong with these two? You couldn't.

Whether it's Brent's starry-eyed foppishness, Dawn's artistic daydreams or Gareth's organizational stiffness, these are characters we don't see on American TV. They're not accomplished, clever or distinctive. But they're so well-observed, and so subtly personified, that it's as if we're finding amusement in people we know. [21 Oct 2004]

Here's to a long and fruitful run in the new home. Tuesday night proves exactly why Southland deserves one.

It's homage of the highest form, but comedy of the highest form, too. Cos quite obviously is far from finished.

Based on six episodes for review, Kimmy remains Kimmy, which is about as good as the news can get for fans.

Marry Me is the rarest of commercial TV sitcoms in that it's actually funny, has two standout leads and a superb supporting cast (especially Meadows and Bucatinsky).

[The] tightly crafted pilot abjures the urge to make its own judgments on good/evil, sanity/delusion, isolation/connection, conscience/capitulation.

Baskets builds into a character-study treasure, much like FX precursor “Louie.”

This teacher can be loquacious--oh yeah--but he's got a big heart, too. Danza, Northeast and A&E deserve credit for this series.

Bracing and tasty.

Nice to finally see a show nailing what it wants to be and say, in continually discerning work from Passmore, Szostak and series creator Sean Jablonski.

If all this sounds heady, pretentious or derivative, then Westworld may eventually turn out to be guilty as charged. But from at least from the first two episodes sampled, Westworld is also a genuinely different new series that offers something even better than that: It’s genuinely engaging.

Sincere host, unguarded participants, sensitive treatment. And more cool stuff!

From the setup to the incidentals, People of Earth is packed with humor and heart forever revealed in clever ways.

But the best stuff easily reminded true blue fans--and only true blue fans--why they loved this so deeply to begin with.

A head-spinning, yet deeply humane, thrill ride.

Smart, engaging second season (so far). The ensemble cast gets better and better.

Falco, Eve Best (Ellie O'Hara) and Anna Deavere Smith (Gloria Akalitus) are flawless, and... very amusing.

Like Seinfeld, Carmichael’s humor is sometimes about locating what’s funny in our narcissism, or his. But this episode wouldn’t work as well as it does if there wasn’t a moral, wrapped in a truth.

It's less the Plot Events that ring true here than the well-played little side moments and background squabbles, the simmering resentments and recriminations, the emotional tugs-of-war.

Of course there are dozens of loose ends in need of tying, but you do get the sense that some will actually get tied, and in a satisfying way.

Yes, it can be mean, and yes, superficial, and yes, a little draggy (almost a whole episode about a kids’ party, really?). But the cast is fabulous, and the script by Kelley sparkles. A winner.

No matter where you stand on the death-penalty debate, this is must-watch revelation--and, thanks to Herzog, tense and suspenseful drama.

Based on the first six episodes of the 4th season, OITNB remains fresh, funny/sad, smart, inventive, well-written, and particularly well-acted.

The Gus Vant Sant-directed pilot of what is easily the most important project in Starz history pulses with the sort of corruption that absolute power sires.

You can see Neverland as sly philosophical discourse, or you can see it as fantastically produced adventure. Just make sure you see it.