Probably the best comedy series on television. ... "The Larry Sanders Show" offers the sharpest of television's multitudinous media jokes while always remaining grounded as a comedy rooted in character. [16 Jul 1995]

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

Taut, efficient and directed with a scalpel, Breaking Bad remains a marvel.

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]

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

For fans of The Leftovers, the third season looks like the best yet. It’s funny, horrifying, strange and baffling.

A critic for this paper once declared "The Wire" "the greatest dramatic series ever produced for television" and as the fourth season gets under way Sunday night, there's no reason to quibble with that assessment.

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

A worthy successor to the original, Blue Planet II also brings an urgent environmental warning that the first lacked: It demonstrates that the seas are in trouble and that the world must act.

Atlanta is still good and still roughshod, but there’s a tougher texture to this season. That’s mainly the robbin’ part.

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

It's stunning for a TV mystery. It's actually mysterious. The mood, the characters, the surreal quality of how the story is told, are something different. It has a slow hypnotic movement, a style like a boxer in slo-mo. It hit me with tremendous energy and made me abandon despair at the state of TV mysteries. [5 Apr 1990]

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

A stunning, brilliant, terrifying launch to TV's best series.

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.

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

The Americans remains a superior American drama and--admittedly, without having a working knowledge on the subject--possibly one of the best Russian TV dramas, too.... These four [episodes] also feel weighted and forlorn, as the chain of lies loop around and around the ankles of Paige and Martha, or those others unlucky enough to know Philip and Elizabeth, with an anchor just waiting to be tossed overboard.

Be forewarned that opener is dense, quick- moving and largely absent the sort of explanatory dialogue that dramatic series typically use to ensure that we have our bearings. Even viewers who savored each installment of the original series may feel disoriented. Newcomers may feel as though they're watching a foreign-language film without subtitles. My advice is to videotape it, re-watch and have faith. The coherence quotient goes up by the hour, and patience will be rewarded. [30 May 2003]

I love the characters, the actors, the spell they weave, the way of telling a story. By the second episode, I didn't want them to solve the case so it would go on and on. Homicide: Life on the Street is another stroll down heartbreak alley. [31 Jan 1993, p.21]

With just eight episodes as evidence, this third season appears to be flawless.

Insanely great start.

Still TV's best--dive in while the water's warm.

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

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

Transparent is no longer as interested in trying to locate the comedy in these lives as the tragedy. The tonal shift is a huge one, and not necessarily a welcome one either.... Transparent is still sharply observed, and it’s still easy to admire the actors, especially Hoffmann and Tambor. Just harder to love the show.

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

The fourth season was great. The fifth at least needs to match it, and the evidence so far establishes that it will.

An overlooked TV gem wraps, and for the most part, beautifully.