The beats here are familiar and comfortable. Perhaps best of all, they are actually moving.

Great cast, funny lines, but "Deed" loses momentum after a strong start.

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.

The characters are too unformed, the story too careless, the payoff (a word loosely applied here) too abrupt, although the end is obviously a setup for a second season. .... Ruth has some funny moments, at first anyway. If only there were more.

Good, smart, propulsive spy thriller.

If you must, watch for the little stuff: Some good performances (Chieng, Yang, Bennet), some funny lines, a clever kicker and that compelling premise. A shame all the rest is a mess.

Magnificent.

Edge-of-the-seat viewing but seat-of-the-pants storytelling. At least both Redmayne and Lynch shine.

At least "Before" had the decency to come up with a different ending. It's the beginning and everything in between that's the problem.

Solid opener that otherwise oversells the premise.

Some (make that a lot of) funny lines, but far too fat a target.

You must be content with a standard-issue mob turf war TV series, with thick overtones of "The Sopranos," as heavy and as gloppily applied as all that clay weighing down Farrell. This "Penguin" is a proximate real world, and not even a slightly heightened version of one, with no Batman and no fantasy world to escape to — or for it to escape to.

It's a slow burn that can be patience-trying at times, and it's fair to wonder whether there's really enough here to support eight episodes instead of, say, a single movie. But there's confidence to spare and a real sense that the show knows exactly what it intends to be, without compromise. And whenever the pace slows to a crawl, the actors are there to keep you engaged.

Wild, fun ride.

Engrossing history (and with an eyebrow-raising omission).

The weirdness is welcome, the concept has merit, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

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

As a viewer, you end up with a show that looks great, but ultimately trips up on the mechanics of basic storytelling.

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.

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

The elements don't quite congeal, but it's intriguing and well-crafted.

Fun, lively, imaginative — with a whiff of Disneyfication.

Fine import with not just one, but three emotional payoffs.

Skillful, at times powerful, blend of fact with fiction — and not always clear which is which.

Brilliant, unsettling, entertaining.

An inert, talky bore.

The first five episodes are best, with their show-within-a-show structure, specifically those San-Ti virtual reality headsets that Mark Zuckerberg would give half his kingdom for. They're a portal into a whole other world, with its own set of narrative rules, and even the occasional flash of humor. Mostly they're just fun. “3 Body” noticeably sags when the San-Ti no longer deploy them (although one does reappear in a closing scene of this first season).

Cerebral, engrossing.