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.

It is amusing in the right places.... It's also reasonably smart without being show-offy. Tuesday's launch, meanwhile, is a nice reminder that nothing--at least that good stuff--has changed.

Moving, emotional final season that hits mostly high notes, and satisfactorily resolves a whole lot of stories.

The Last Five Years will be a must for even casual Bowie fans, who are most likely still reeling from their idol’s absence. It captures the ever-changing artist in his most surprising incarnation yet: a mortal man.

Too much going on, but still an improvement over seasons two and three.

Uneven, intelligent, weird, sometimes funny (more often not)--and almost consistently engaging.

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

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

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

This is TV's best and brightest at the moment, and a wonderful tribute to New York's resurgent TV production industry.

With [Mike O'Malley's] fluid scripts, these sharp actors hit not just three-pointers but also free throws.

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]

The cast is certainly a good one, and Winslet is too much of a pro not to make Mare worth watching, at least most of her time on screen. It's all the time in between that's the problem.

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

Lots of first-rate performances--including by a dog--but some of the stories are a little bloated or unfocused.

While the story is briskly and engagingly told, with some key players debriefed, there's not a lot new here. It's a very good beginner's history.

"Black Bird" effectively conveys the complicated reality of undercover work and what it has to say about the human condition. This is a must-see and not just for fans of the prison genre.

This unique series is about life's inscrutable mysteries and the search for answers. The town of Jarden--and the Murphys--appear to be rich with possibilities in that search.

Cox remains a very engaging lead, and her supporting cast is rock solid.

Brilliant performance by a great actor in a desperately grim story.

If you loved it before, you'll love it again. "Auf"-ully good.

Still good, still not for everyone, and almost gone for good.

Steady start to the final season of a TV treasure.

I haven't enjoyed a new cable comedy so much since the first episode of "Larry Sanders." [15 Oct 2000]

Watch for any length of time and you may--as I did--have the eerie if not unpleasant feeling that you've been teleported to a decent network cop show from the 1970s.

Brilliant, unsettling, entertaining.

You get the sense that the filmmakers' vision and Wright's are never quite in sync--or perhaps are in sync too perfectly.

"Fargo" is still funny, bleakly so, and smartly written. Best of all, it's effectively cast three legendary actors (after "Ted Lasso," is Temple now officially "legendary"?) in memorable roles. Very memorable.

Browncoats Unite keeps the focus on the work itself. And that's what keeps "Firefly" afloat.

This "100" is indeed dazzling to look at and to listen to (in English, this "100 Years" would be — well — strange) while the cast is excellent. But what's missing is what possibly matters even more — those ideas, that magic. Without them, this is just another intelligent TV series with a lot of money on the screen. Márquez was right. His masterpiece is impossible to adapt.

Fascinating, disjointed, moving, tiresome, elegant, tacky, fast, slow. There’s a little something for everyone here.

For Mel Brooks lovers everywhere (you know who you are), but it's on the light side.

The Long Road can be tough to watch--I saw the first three episodes--but it does seem like it’s essential to. Excellent and unflinching.

As bizarre as things can get, Torchwood still feels more like sci than fi, and more ego/id than alien vs. human. The Gwen character in particular radiates intelligence, and empathy, and curiosity, about what's out there and what lies inside Jack. We can't help but share her, um, enthusiasm.

"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]

Entertaining, but the book is better.

That the whole pilot doesn't collapse into a pile of rubble is due to Rodriguez--or maybe because Jane is so confoundedly odd you want to see what happens next.

Solid opener, compelling premise, good cast and one major hole.

About as good a Community restart as anyone could have possible hoped for.

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.

A pleasant but routine sitcom that uses that decade of significant social change as a hook...The Wonder Years handles its period details - clothing, hairstyles - well. The look of the '60s is rendered with an authentic, evocative feel. Like virtually every sitcom, it has its banal moments, and here and there the gags fizzle. [30 Jan 1988, p.11]

Dream On is almost there. It still needs some work, though. [6 July 1990, p.43]

Warm, genial portrait of a great editor, but not much else.

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.

Six million zombiephiles watched the finale of the first season and those 6 million will not want to miss Sunday's opener, which is excellent and appropriately disgusting.

Unlike "Daddy Dearest," it's a warm, compassionate, story about a human problem the baby boomer generation sooner or later will be dealing with: what to do with geriatric TV set as they get on in years. It's not a big busy ensemble sitcom like "Cheers," more a one-man show for Grammer. But it's cozy, involving, socially relevant and marvelously amusing. [16 Sept 1993, p.93]

I mostly loved Game of Thrones, but occasionally grew a little weary of it as well. (And just to answer the obvious question, this is not a small-screen "Lord of the Rings.")

Funny and sharp, with some welcome (also inescapable) inflections of "30 Rock."

My fear is that the show may be too Alaska. TV is not ready yet for Nanook of the North, even if he has a New York accent. [10 July 1990, p.9]

Quiet, intelligent, worth checking out.

Nicely crafted, but still Hillerman-lite.

"Maisel" is still that charming, or irritating (your call) embrace of ethnic stereotypes, and filled with that dazzling, or grating, patter of quips, wisecracks, put-downs and zingers. It remains more about presentation, less about plot or character development.

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.

It's like "M*A*S*H" with just the helicopters showing up and no laughs. "E.R." is all trauma; you never get to know enough about the patients or get involved with them. It's just treat, release and move on. [18 Sep 1994]

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.

Mrs. Maisel can--yup--be chatty to the point of exhaustion, and a little can go a long way. But what’s here is worth savoring and, if you can get past the verbal gymnastics, worth the trip.

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.

She’s a terrific and effortlessly funny actress who establishes vivid characters with vivid lives. But Sam Fox obviously required a bigger reach, and Adlon accomplishes that here.

Orange" is a slog, where minutes seem to stretch into hours, hours into days ... and the drip, drip, drip of prison time becomes its own reality.

The show can be messy and confusing--a headlong rush to who-knows- where-or-why at times. But those clones keep it grounded.

Driver['s character] is so self-righteous in her advocacy, so insensitive to her impact, that a little of her goes a long way. And there’s more than a little of her here.

The busy season premiere quickly constructs an intriguing seesaw of aspirations and emotions, and it's self-contained enough to sell itself to even Nip/Tuck newcomers.

The story shambles at first, then picks up but never quite enough to place this among the better seasons of "Justified."

Seinfeld's gentle humor is easy to take. Unlike other current comedians, such as Andrew Dice Clay or Sam Kinison, Seinfeld isn't angry: He's more awed by the wonder of it all. [13 May 1990, p.13]

This evocative hour doesn't lionize Steinem, but simply lays out what happened.

I would say give them a chance. What else are you going to do for a half-hour after "Frasier"? [2 Oct 2001, p.B27]

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

An addictive show, with great cast, excellent writing.

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.

Silly, gross, soapy, mysterious, intriguing, exotic, erotic True Blood is fun. Even more fun this season.

Mr. Dynamite instead works best as musical biography, only fitfully as a comprehensive one.

To call "Lovecraft Country" "wildly original" seems almost a quaint understatement. But it is wild. And original. Little doubt about that.

Yes, this story’s kind of been told before, in various places, and in various forms over various decades--but with not nearly as many vulgar words called into service here.

If all this sounds like "24" has been hijacked by public policy wonks or Shakespeare profs, don't worry. Your show very much remains your show.... It's just that your show got a little smarter.

The first eight episodes (those offered for review) go down effortlessly and, if none was particularly memorable, each was pleasurable.

A particularly fine new FX drama marred only by a tepid pace in the pilot. But pace and story pick up in subsequent episodes.

Mann and HBO deserve much credit for profiling these extraordinary people. It's just too bad the execution tends to be a little long-winded or not nearly as expansive as it should be.

Not perfect, but pretty darned good, and Moreno and Machado are a formidable comedy team indeed.

I've seen four episodes; they're all good.

There are real pleasures with "The Hour," but the hour (actually, about an hour and 15 minutes Wednesday night) ticks by far too slowly.

The pilot’s tropes are overly familiar, the action sequences predictable. But this is absolutely a welcome addition, potentially a valuable one, and indisputably a long overdue one.

They've translated the radio show's aural mosaic to the visual medium so effortlessly in this first season of six half-hours, we hope Showtime orders more of this life we all can recognize.

It's the best new series we've seen in a while.

Some wild twists, but you've seen a variation before on one of them. Nevertheless, the Patty Hewes story is almost over, and in Close's hands, it's still compulsively watchable.

So far no amnesia bouts or cougar attacks. And no Kim! [9 Jan 2005]

Rest easy. Scrubs is just fine (with all cast members, except Jenkins, back), though the opening episode is superior to the follow-up.

Another Discovery/BBC beauty, but short on answering obvious questions.

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.

This "Dead Ringers" carves out a path that's fundamentally different from the one laid out by Cronenberg, and not just because of the gender-swapped leads. But even if it takes some time to understand exactly where things are going and why, it can fall back on one of the most remarkable performances in a good long while.

Tonight's first episode is highly recommended for Ed Begley Jr. fans who may have wondered what Dr. Victor Ehrlich has been doing since "St. Elsewhere." [20 Aug 1990, p.9]

White Collar is not original. But White Collar is enjoyable.

At times, Luke Cage feels like a series in search of a story, or a series intent on drawing one out, scene by chatty scene, over 13 episodes. (Six were available for review; I watched the first two, sampled the rest.) A cast this good, especially a Luke Cage this good, should compensate.

Uneven, but the core strength remains--a sitcom that embraces the uncomfortable, and sometimes the unmentionable.

Girls' moment is almost up, but this lovely, gossamer line ["I want to write stories that make people feel less alone than I did, to laugh about the things that are painful in life.”] reminds us why that moment was so special.

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

Sunday's episode is exceptional, marred only in a few spots by padding that's inevitable with these supersized episodes.

There's real thought behind The West Wing, a blessed exhilaration in this increasingly apolitical medium. For those who remember when '70s TV comedy took on the world, this is a welcome arrival. True, the pilot takes some fish-in-a-barrel potshots at sanctimonious evangelists, in Sorkin's speechifying manner from "Sports Night." But it also delivers that series' satisfying depth of reflection and rich characterization. Eventually. Once we know who these people are. [21 Sept 1999, p.B27]

His Haunting is a two-hour movie spread over 10 hours. That doesn't mean there's eight hours of padding here, but it often feels that way (I saw the first three hours and the last. Sorry, but even TV critics have only so much patience.)