[Rectify] feels damply airless--the tension might be ripped open at any moment by a thunderclap of revelation.... It's a disturbing, impressive performance [from Aden Young as Daniel]. [13 May 2013, p.49]

[Larry Hagman's last days on the show don't] keep Dallas from being robust fun. [4 Feb 2013, p.42]

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

Boardwalk is still solid, but it's sacrificed some of its nervy power. [10 Oct 2011, p.40]

Burton and Taylor is a wry, bittersweet take on a celebrated Hollywood romance. [21 Oct 2013, p.48]

This could be the fall's finest drama. [9 Oct 2006, p.41]

A looser show [than The Office], another comedy of frustration, but with a feckless sweetness (which is exactly what My Name Is Earl lacks). [17 Oct 2005, p.39]

An explosion of fireworks. [1 May 2006, p.39]

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]

The game changer sets season 7 on an exciting new course. [8 Oct 2012, p.60]

The season's nicest surprise.

Bell is an attractive lead, but the show... starts out by taking itself too seriously and working too hard to establish an atmosphere of teen angst mixed with noir mystery. It wouldn't hurt if the student-sleuth lightened up.

No doubt about it: Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibson are cute together. ... We will grow tired, though, if the writers don't eventually get beyond the stereotypes or if Dharma and Greg resolve every dispute by having fabulous-—and cute-—sex.

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

The humor is so lighthearted, the show practically skips. [20 Feb 2012, p.48]

The show fades away like a Mari Gras parade drifting out of range. But it's a potent memory. [16 Dec 2013]

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.

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

Branagh is very fine as Wallander. [10 Sep 2012, p.40]

Once you grow accustomed to the trash talk, however, the series draws you deeper and deeper into a little world where the law holds no sway and right is trodden in the mud.

All in all, this looks like one of the brightest new shows of the season.

Regina King heads the solid ensemble. these folks are dutiful, proud and bonetired. [10 Jan 2011, p.40]

The opener, which Hanks himself directed, bogs down with tedious "Can we do this?" conferences ... Part 2, however, soars.

A wiry, tired jitteriness has crept in. [24 Oct 2011, p.48]

In the tradition of Cheers, the show thrives by selling up distinct, contrary personalities and making them collide for a half-hour each week. So far the writing is sharp and punchy.

What's amazing is how quickly it all falls into place--the show goes like a shot. [25 Apr 2011, p.43]

The emergency sequences are pure adrenaline rush, but the drama, romance and humor ladled into the lull periods are pretty hackneyed.

For now, apart from the Underwoods, it's underwhelming. [17 Feb 2014, p.43]

An irritating comedy-drama. [15 Jul 2013]

So cheeky, sexy and alive that you can't help enjoying it.

A slight, bright, British caper. [16 Dec 2013]

Though overequipped with distracting extras—-flashes of fantasy, slapstick sound effects—-this dark comedy definitely grows on you.

In the solemn pilot the youngsters were all incredibly mature, incredibly patient, incredibly understanding and incredibly dull. But the characters seem to be growing more selfish, randy and funky.

Eclipsing even last summer's BBQ bacchanal involving an ancient spirit, the new season feels like one big undead sex party-a kinky alternate lifestyle where vampires and monsters do the nasty (and other violent acts) in roadhouses, backrooms, backwoods and the occasional antebellum mansion.

It's stylish, clever and unpredictable.

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

Beneath the grit, this is a tale of chivalry. [31 Jan 2011, p.40]

Early episodes can seem as static as a stakeout, and the viewer has a ton of information to absorb—much of it conveyed in obscenity-laced slang. But as we gradually get to know the players... The Wire grows electric.

NBC hasn't had a show this impressive since the first season of Heroes. [6 Feb 2012, p.39]

I'll take Hour's rather sour worldview--deadlines in deadly times--over the grand uplift of HBO's The Newsroom. In a nanosecond. [3 Dec 2012, p.44]

The show falls prey to a faint preciousness in the voiceover narration from its correspondents and host Glass. They overarticulate the ironies instead of just letting you watch. Which you should do. Watch. [26 Mar 2007, p.37]

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

You may well have misgivings about yet another season for this show, particularly with Haysbert out of the picture. ... But the plot, which involves the abduction of a high government official, will absorb viewers once again.

The photography is sweepingly gorgeous--this must be the best of all possible planets. [18 Apr 2011, p.46]

The West Wing sure looks like a winner.

Season 3 of Showtime's great Nurse Jackie brings romance to student nurse Zoey. [25 Apr 2011, p.44]

Joe Mantegna and Mary Steenburgen are fine as Joan's parents, but the series shouldn't go out of its way to play up the dad's role as small-city police chief. Keep the emphasis on God's plan, not man's law.

While the show's humor can be raunchy or even cruel, the voice work is pure unruffled deadpan. [18 Jan 2010, p.42]

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

Dr. Katz is a cartoon cross between The Bob Newhart Show and Seinfeld.

Bravura performance, but Braugher needs support—stat!

The best thing from Season 1 remains the same: Mary-Louise Parker. [21 Aug 2006, p.37]

A newsmagazine with a hip attitude is basically a good idea. A newsmagazine with a flip approach is not.

Migrations' animals provide a humbling lesson in resilience and determination. [15 Nov 2010, p.44]

When The Close comes to a close, we'll lose one of the best TV detectives of the past decade. [11 Jul 2011, p.33]

The poisoned relationship of attorneys Ellen Parsons and Patty Hewes has gone slack. But The supporting cast is superb. [8 Aug 2011, p.40]

Project Greenlight is a dream come true for a guy named Jones, but it looks like less of a thrill for the average viewer.

A lot of momentum is lost having the lovers live 60 miles apart.... But the tender wrap-up will leave the waterworks flushed and refreshed. [9 Sep 2013, p.42]

The show is a birdhouse full of woodpeckers. [24 Sep 2012, p.54]

It feels so close to actual American life that it lacks the gut excitement that would take it over the line into true entertainment. [9 Oct 2006, p.41]

The high school musical comedy occasionally flies off the rails. But maybe that's to be expected from this aggressively inventive pop fantasy. [1 Nov 2010, p.41]

It's tense, engrossing, mildly ludicrous--and worth checking out before the Cold War melts. [11 Feb 2013]

These joined stories never forge into one strong plot, but there's always Duvall. [3 Jul 2006, p.35]

Lee may lack the essential sweetness, or pathos, to make Earl ever seem like more than a cute variation on those lovable, loquacious losers who tumble, beer can spurting, through Coen brothers movies. [3 Oct 2005, p.39]

In all, black-ish is Everybody Hates Chris meets Modern Family, but not quite as funny as either. Well, not yet, at least.

Though it seems a product of calculation more than inspiration, Roswell has appeal.

If you want edge, here's Dexter. [9 Oct 2006, p.41]

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

We'll see how season 10 holds up once the chosen contestants move on to Hollywood, but for now Idol remains firmly on its pedestal. [14 Feb 2011, p.39]

The first two episodes of season 3 are reassuringly grounded in believable intrigue. [7 Oct 2013, p.49]

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

Watching Nucky's frenemies thrive like poison toadstools ringing a tree--that's a grim, gripping spectacle in its own right. [9 Sep 2013, p.42]

Some of the first-season bugs have been exterminated simply by recruiting young roommates who are more interesting and charismatic, people who smile and laugh a little more.

Judd Hirsch, Jeff Conaway, Tony Danza, Randall Carver, Marilu Henner and Andy Kaufman are a New York cab crew in a sitcom that does produce some genuine comedy.

The two hours available for review are cinematically rich, full of sleek, oily pools of darkness. [11 Feb 2013]

His delivery, which falls between Monty Python and Austin Powers, explodes with enjoyable little pips of indignation. [26 May 2014, p.42]

The show is technically flawless--so is Macy strutting like a mangy Mick Jagger--but the Gallaghers' raucous, defiant pride never really engages me. [20 Feb 2012, p.46]

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]

Put his [Bobby Cannavale's] floridness up against Buscemi's poker-faced acidity and you get fireworks. [24 Sep 2012, p.57]

Denis Leary's superb comedy-drama about New York City firefighters, will end its seven-year run a few days before the 10th anniversary of 9/11. [15 Aug 2011, p.34]

Season 2 of the Hollywood satire still plays too broad, [...] But Matt LeBlanc's understated performance as himself has gotten even better. [9 Jul 2012, p.36]

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

Garner has an appeal that transcends implausibility.

The acting is what keeps the show addictive--particularly good is Julia Stiles. [29 Nov 2010, p.44]

If it doesn't have the ABC sitcom's [Suburgatory's] satiric sheen, it captures some of those glum patches that strike in adolescence. [2 Jul 2012, p.38]

Remarkable.

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.

Entertaining, though short of super.

As police superintendent Teresa Colvin, Jennifer Beals gives a revelatory, no-nonsense performance that should make Tom Selleck's mustache bristle with envy....This should be lots of fun. [7 Feb 2011, p.39]

[A] delicious over-the-top comedy. [2 Oct 2006, p.45]

Fall's best new sitcom has the manic zip of Malcolm in the Middle and the diabolical humor of raising Arizona. [27 Sep 2010, p.55]

Kane's visions aren't done with originality, but Grammer's performance is still powerful. [27 Aug 2012, p.48]

Given that there's no earthly reason for Angel besides the sex appeal of David Boreanaz, it looks like a pretty good show.

Here's one of the most offbeat new shows of the new season. Also one of the best. [13 Sep 2010, p.48]

The show needs to guard against the cutesies ... and allow both principals to do more than talk about their sex lives.

But even if the clipped dialogue sometimes suggests cop-show parody, the well-constructed mysteries give Without a Trace a strong foundation.

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

House stands out on the strength of its misanthropic main character.