Bigger, brassier and even more thrilling, Homeland has boosted the stakes.

Burns and Ward pile on so much detail, alongside so much stunning footage, that by watching this whole spread--to borrow that famous and also well-rubbed line -- will be like arriving "where we started and know the place for the first time." Magnificent. Of course.

A brilliant piece of work, also profoundly dispiriting.

Target is pure, utter, ridiculous, over-the-top-into-the-ravine entertainment.

All the performances are outstanding — O'Reilly has played Mothma in various movies and series for two decades — but the ones that'll knock your socks off are by Kyle Soller and Denise Gough.

Watching the first couple of episodes once again I am marveling at how good the show really is. [16 Jan 2000]

A re-energized and immensely entertaining start to the third season.

One of TV's best shows, comedy or drama, because this series often succeeds as both.

A beauty that will mostly make you laugh and, of course, cry.

It's world-building without the world having already been built in countless other movies, TV series and comic novels. Watch and you have the feeling that you are at the outset of a momentous journey. ... Spectacular.

This one is stylish, smartly produced and has a very appealing cast.

Man, is this a good show...Boomtown is so good, it single-handedly restores your faith in broadcast networks. They can compete with the "freedom" of premium cable. All it takes is creative smarts. And NBC's Boomtown has plenty of those. [27 Sept 2002, p.B02]

You can't go wrong with Smith ("That '70s Show") or Lenehan, pros with impeccable comic timing, which leaves relative newcomers Bornheimer and Hayes. Thumbs-up here, too. Worst Week may be the best new comedy on network TV this season.

You too may begin to see what this newcomer appears to be: a raucous, smart, gentle, imaginative and consistently funny comedy that scores early and often.

Yes, Dannemora is hard and cold. The light is muted, the shadows deep, while seven hours of this could easily turn into prison time. But thanks to that cast and Stiller's masterful direction, they don't--not once, not remotely. One of the best series of the year.

From this, you will gain a keen understanding of what lies beneath those endless rows of markers at any military cemetery. This is an honest and often magnificent tribute to the 1st Marine Division.

Like "Mad Men," Wife has an obsessive attention to detail; it's a hurricane of detail, in the visual touches, legal patter and the actors' unspoken flourishes. Nothing seems extraneous or out of place. Also like "Men," this show cares as much about silence as words, or that which isn't said (also a form of eloquence).

Lean, laconic, precise and as carefully word-crafted as any series on TV, there's pretty much nothing here to suggest that the third season won't be as good as the second--or better.

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]

People are dogs, too. We also have complicated emotional lives, further complicated by our professional ones. We also seek food. We also seek love. We obsess. Nan and Martin’s bond works--and consequently this terrific series works--because it abides by these simple, inalienable truths.

A luminous and fully alive portrait by a first-rate actress.

Excellent actors playing excellent actors--and largely succeeding.

"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.

Episodes is flawless and hilarious. What a pity it lasts only seven episodes.

It's extraordinarily familiar territory, as well-trod as any moment of pop cultural history. And yet "The Beatles Anthology" still feels as fresh and as relevant as ever today in the way it presents the dizzying whirlwind of this sort of fame from the front lines.

There is an insistent, glowing, pervasive optimism over these 80 minutes that the TV screen can barely contain.

The show also feels more nuanced. If season 4 was like a giant exhaled breath, then season 5 is an inhaled one. The story beats are more deliberate. There's also a sharpened sense of building anticipation--or impending doom.

The precision of "Saul's" craftsmanship--writing, direction, acting, and all the way down to craft services, for all I know--makes this the best series on TV. And there really is no contest.