[A] taut, ingenious spy series. [10 Oct 2011, p.44]

Prohibition is a merry, bullet-sprayed study of the era's rampant criminality. [10 Oct 2011, p.40]

So far the show is biting, funny, touching and surprising. In short, it's an absolute delight, and possibly even better than the landmark first season.

A crackling good British police procedural. ... The British accents and idioms can get dense, but don't let that throw you, you dozy punter.

The heart of the program is a talk show spoof in which guest celebrities try to hold up their end of the hilariously incoherent conversation.

NewsRadio is a nervier, more sophisticated version of WKRP in Cincinnati, updated to a time when people are much less secure about their jobs and far more wary about each other.

For the most part, the miniseries honors the soldiers' bravery without hiding their fears or failings.

Piven is an irresistible force—mercurial, mischievous and impossibly glib.

Thanks to the mesmerizing performance of Vincent D'Onofrio as New York City Det. Bobby Goren, this new series enhances the value of the brand.

Like The Next Generation, this show tends to be morally didactic. But also like its mother ship, Deep Space Nine is richly imagined, with good scripts and great visuals.

It has intelligence and feeling and brutality. The Sopranos hits all the notes.

This challenging show offers the viewer nary a morsel of TV comfort food. But uncommonly good writing and acting are satisfying too.

Mother-daughter tensions dominate the twist-ridden plot.

Stewart is more likable and less self-satisfied than Kilborn, and the show's satire is smart enough to have real sting.

The West Wing sure looks like a winner.

This cop has such a lock on our loyalty that we squirm when she loses face and pray she won't lose heart. Unlike her character, Mirren's performance is without fault.

The young actors are natural and convincing, and the high school characters manage to be funny without too much Dawson's Creek glibness.

It's stylish, clever and unpredictable.

All this may not make sense on paper—or anywhere else—but creator Steve Hillenburg (schooled in marine biology as well as animation) has made it a continuing comic delight, wildly imaginative yet never too clever for its own good.

One problem: The "Squigglevision" animation, in which line drawings sort of wiggle around the edges, gives us a headache that may require medical attention.

You'll laugh so often that you may not notice the blessed absence of a laugh track.

NYPD Blue's trademarks are still in evidence: the layered characterizations; the slangy, pungent dialogue; the black humor that usually makes you laugh in spite of yourself.

[The first episode] is packed with potential. It is fast-paced, funny, touching, romantic and surprising. Please note that we did not add "realistic."

Philip Marlowe meets Moonlighting—with a passing nod to The Odd Couple—In this delightfully inventive new detective show.

Now that's daring television.

It is a beguiling romantic adventure.

The concept seems to be an easy one to exhaust. But if the writing manages to stay fresh, we could be looking at the '90s version of The Bob Newhart Show.

[An] amiable send-up of small-town life.

Curb Your Enthusiasm has an unhurried, improvisational style that may cause restlessness. And David, playing himself as a cranky pessimist, is a determinedly unlovable star. But stay with the 10-week series and you'll be ensnared by his sly humor.

If you pay attention, the writing and direction reward the effort.

The season's nicest surprise.

A daring police drama whose growing moral complexity redeems its occasional excesses.

The early episodes of Season 3 abound in Six Feet Under's trademark qualities—complexity, humor and humanity.

The show has lost none of its manic lunacy.

The show moves methodically from one story line to another, progressing by inches yet holding our interest with its finely drawn characters and a rare ability to illuminate the gray areas of city life.

As I enjoyed this mystery series' second-season premiere, I recalled the satisfying feeling of watching Columbo in its prime.

I'm beseeching you to watch the pilot of this new series. It's not just extraordinary TV--it's the best piece of filmmaking I've seen anywhere this year. ... In subsequent weeks the series settles into a more predictable and sentimental mold, reminiscent of The Wonder Years, but it is still superior TV.

Intelligent, fleet, emotionally complex and lightly dusted with Kelley's celebrated sense of the absurd, this is the best hospital show since St. Elsewhere.

The new entry is more action-oriented and less morally ponderous than the recent Star Trek series. But it still suffers from its predecessors' overdeveloped air of gravitas.

Somewhat to my surprise, Sex and the City hasn't yet passed its freshness date.

Stewart has established himself as TV's most skilled lampooner since he replaced Kilborn at the Comedy Central anchor desk in 1999, and he's in top form this election year.

The challenges are ludicrous, but the results can be dazzling. [5 Sep 2011, p.44]

The formula still works. The Real Housewives of DC wasn't any fun, but the new Beverly Hills chapter delivers. [18 Oct 2010, p.37]

After an awful season 2, Lena Dunham's Brooklynocentric comedy celebrating coffee, ambition and sex is fixed. [20 Jan 2014, p.41]

Gritty and engrossing as ever.

It's lighter, smaller--West Condo!--but still a pleasure. [17 Dec 2012, p.37]

Despite its cheap shock effects, the show is indulgently ridiculous. [[28 Oct 2013, p.41]

Remarkable.

This fall sitcom is a hit entirely because of Deschanel's performance as Jess. [7 Nov 2011, p.41]

The series' sixth season begins with an intensely entertaining four-hour, two-night premiere. [15 Jan 2007, p.33]

The show is a trampoline that sags clear down to the ground, the better to catapult you off into the air. [18 Jul 2011, p.35]

ABC's reality powerhouse has just launched its 11th season untweaked and to great ratings.[11 OCT 2010, p.37]

Luck is a true original, a show with a tone like no other. [30 Jan 2012, p.43]

It takes awhile to adjust to the dissonance, but the muted naturalism of the superb cast draws us in. [9 May 2011, p.40]

The comedy here, as with Elaine, comes from watching Louis-Dreyfus's sophisticated, furiously sharp timing applied to a character who has the intelligence of a finch. [30 Apr 2012, p.35]

In such grossness is greatness. [19 Sep 2011, p.65]

This BBC hit is the soppily tender story of '50s midwives in London's East End. [1 Oct 2012, p.38]

Matthew Weiner has advanced the show far enough into the '60s that its fundamental philosophical question begins to generate its own oppressive suspense. [15 Apr 2013]

[Driver's] tone gets under the skin. As does the show. [19 Mar 2007, p.39]

The show's many subplots are handled clumsily, but these two [Grammer & Nielsen] are too good to pass up. 25 Oct 2011, p.48]

Given the amounts of sumptuous scenery to chew on, the acting is restrained, even if the gore and sex are not. [28 May 2012, p.40]

Luckily Blood is still buoyed by its weird, Gothic zest and the performers all operate with the same vibe of ripe sexuality and restrained camp. [4 Jul 2011, p.37]

Olyphant plays this laconic, loping lawman with a smiling minimalism that makes Givens both iconic and contemporary.

The 90-minute premiere sets up what could be a very good--by which I mean crassly turbulent--season 3. [23 May 2011, p.41]

This late entry in the fall season is one of the best. [25 Nov 2013, p.43]

Andy's humiliations as a minor celebrity aren't quite as funny as was his earlier shame at being a nobody, but as a satire of showbiz vanity, Extras can still be described as (what else?) stellar. [29 Jan 2007, p.43]

The first episodes are very promising, full of feints, fibs, and a big, fat shock. [16 Jul 2012, p.40]

The show has the makings of great--what else can I say?--escapist entertainment. [23 Jan 2012, p.39]

The show's tone [is] vulgar, jolly and winning. [16 Jul 2012, p.39]

With sharp camera work, pulsating music and no tedious, gimme-an-Emmy closeups, it's like CSI at warp speed. [4 Sep 2006, p.41]

What hasn't changed and what matters, is Mireille Enos's sodden, unshakable integrity as a detective who could outlast a pack of bloodhounds. [10 Jun 2013, p.48]

Challenging but engrossing.

Louis-Dreyfus's performance--which, like Congress, can be divided into two houses, Crackling Charm and Hysterical Ego--still drives the show, but we're getting more realistic sense of political gamesmanship. [22 Apr 2013, p.45]

The girls' chemistry should keep the show breakdown free. [19 Sep 2011, p.59]

One of the fall's best new dramas. [26 Nov 2012, p.48]

This show is so wrong. And I loved every minute of it. [5 Feb 2007, p.37]

Entourage remains supremely good-natured. [19 Jun 2006, p.37]

[A] fascinating reality hit. [28 Mar 2011, p.57]

[A] highly satisfying update. [8 Oct 2012, p.57]

It's very entertaining in its low-key, waist-widening ways. [20 Dec 2010, p.44]

Co-created by David Simon and Eric Over­myer, the team behind The Wire, this is a lovingly textured, slowly unfolding series set in post-Katrina New Orleans. [26 Apr 2010, p.40]

In its second season, the high school musical comedy occasionally flies off the rails...But maybe that's to be expected from this aggressively inventive pop fantasy, where mundane details like homework never matter. [1 Nov 2010, p.41]

Mad Men has both the greatness of execution and inscrutability of artistic intent, and it won't be until the show actually ends that I'll know which one won out. [21 Apr 2014, p.41]

It's just suspenseful and clever enough to keep you happily intrigued. [3 Sep 2012, p.39]

An intricate mystery confidently spun out with dark, unsettling shocks. [15 Jul 2013]

The Comeback is funny, especially when it skewers the tasteless and false in reality TV.

It's all so much fun, in fact, that I propose Dancing viewing parties: Break out the wine and crackers and let ABC provide the delicious, calorie-free cheese.

The Walking Dead has managed to work fresh morsels into television's grimmest stew. [22 Oct 2012, p.41]

Thanks to the nimble Leary, ever riveting as TV's most nuanced antihero (sorry, Tony Soprano), Tommy's tenuous struggle for sobriety is even more rewarding than last season's harrowing downfall.

Therapist Paul Weston a human-shaped cloud who grumbles with the low thunder of the maladjusted, has drifted back for a gripping new season of HBO's In Treatment. Gabriel Byrne plays the part flawlessly, and he's up against two especially rewarding talents. [1 Nov 2010, p.42]

Edie Falco makes the stakes scarily real. [21 Apr 2014, p.43]

The animated duo have returned, as dumb--and hilarious--as ever. [31 Oct 2011, p.36]

[It] remains a nervily ambiguous concept. [18 Jun 2007, p.37]

Johnson is the find of the season: She's the sunbeam that doesn't filter out dust motes. [29 Oct 2012, p.38]

This drive for revenge is what makes the pilot spark, smoke and go chug-a-chug-chug. [14 Nov 2011, p.45]

What's surprising and even touching is that Fergie may not be a hot mess, but she's an appealingly human one. [20 Jun 2011, p.47]

This could all pay off spectacularly. [8 Jul 2013, p.36]

Mad Love [is] a relationship sitcom with real chemistry. [21 Feb 2011, p.41]