Comparisons to The Iron Lady, a sloppy movie that has Meryl Streep in roaring good form, are inevitable. Is Game Change better? You betcha. [5 Mar 2012, p.41]

After two flabby seasons, the Fox action series is back in bang-up shape. [25 Jan 2010, p.41]

The only disappointment is the werewolf makeup, minimal enough that Posey could still blend in at the mall. [13 Jun 2011, p.48]

It's the season's best new series, period.

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

Once The Shield grabs you, it's awfully hard to turn away.

The first few nights showed O'Brien settling in with his charmingly original humor, which is sophisticated yet twerpily silly. [29 Nov 2010, p.41]

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]

The series' grim tone and overall look of a grimy world in perpetual need of dusting or wiping is a long way from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and closer to Japanese movies like The Grudge. [12 Sep 2005, p.45]

The CW's best show since Gossip Girl.... it has a forthright narrative seriousness, a respect for the gobbledy-gook that makes up any superhero's backstory--and a game cast performing with the correct degree of seriousness. [19 Nov 2012, p.35]

In it's second season, Endings has clicked as one of prime-time's most sophisticated ensemble comedies. [28 Nov 2011, p.58]

It's the best new sitcom of the fall. [16 Oct 2006, p.39]

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 is still a distinctly Guest production: often poky, always charmingly whimsical and, from time to time, so astoundingly funny you seem to have shot into a distant stratosphere of pure comedy. [13 May 2013, p.45]

It might be unwatchable if Dern, who's excellent, didn't allow Amy's laughable obtuseness to be pierced by glimmers of empathy and acceptance. [ 17 Oct 2011, p.40]

Red Band Society, which could turn out to be one of the best new shows of the fall, is like that, constantly catching you unexpectedly.

Melissa McCarthy and Billy Gardell star in a sweet, old-fashioned sitcom. [Sep 27 2010, p.55]

The team behind Bad Teacher has successfully reconfigured the raunchy comedy into a heart warming sitcom starring Ari Graynor that is still bad in all the right ways. [28 Apr 2014]

The procedural elements of the medical drama hum along nicely, but it's Reilly's performance outside the operating room that makes this show worth watching. [28 Apr 2014]

It's both old and new, a comfy piece of nostalgia that doubles as a fresh guilty pleasure. [18 Jun 2012, p.39]

Reubens is getting a bit old for this, but Pee-wee's innocence, infantilism and camp haven't dated--there's a rebel in the ridiculousness. [21 Mar 2011, p.46]

Gabriel Byrne plays the part flawlessly, and he's up against tow especially rewarding talents. [1 Nov 2010, p.42]

It's funny and moves blindingly fast, barely giving you time to blink or gulp--Dark Shadows for the PlayStation age. [10 Oct 2011, p.39]

[It] looks like Sex and the City relocated to Northern Exposure. [18 Sep 2006, p.39]

West Wing politico Bradley Whitford reinvents himself for this entertaining free-for-all, a loose blend of buddy comedy and police action that's also an affectionate nod to series like Starsky & Hutch.

As a social experiment, this project fizzles because of the imposing scrutiny (even the phone is tapped) and because of the artificial relationship foisted on these instant loftmates. But as television, it's rather intriguing.

I'm hooked once more.

It's the gleeful goriness that sets the series apart. This is a show with plenty of guts.

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

Russell has an unassuming sort of star quality that draws us to her character, and the writing in the pilot is sensitive without being soapy.

Few programs are as genuinely youthful in look and altitude.

In fact they're all really nice, which is the problem. Except for some minor sexual tension, there's no conflict.

The writing can be clever.

Coast to Coast is like some hysterical hallucination for grown-ups, a show that makes oddball cartoons like Ren & Stimpy seem as tame as Muppet Babies.

The scope is a little cramped but the writing is wonderfully droll.

The makers of 24 needn't overuse the split-screen technique to emphasize the onrush of events. Viewers can feel the suspense start to build without seeing the seconds tick off on a digital clock. Give the gimmicks a rest. We're hooked without them.

While Hartman's comic mastery is sorely missed, Lovitz has earned his share of laughs with familiar tics and offbeat timing.

Though the show lacks the inspired cohesiveness of classic sitcoms like Cheers or Seinfeld, it is bright, brisk and well-played.

It's reliably amusing.

The crime at the heart of the matter isn't quite as intriguing as the one Mirren faced first time around. But the actress is again superb as a woman tenaciously pursuing a demanding job.

The PJs can be plenty funny when it isn't crude and offensive—and even when it is.

What I've come to appreciate in its second season is that CSI delivers the goods—mysteries that keep viewers guessing, scientific crime-detection techniques worthy of the Discovery Channel and a consistently intriguing character in team leader Gil Grissom.

As a raw police procedural, Gracepoint thrives thanks to legitimately unsettling twists, sharp revelations that focus our attention on new suspects. But it's in Carver and Miller’s competing worldviews that the show finds something more substantial to work with.

Is there an audience out there for a sweet, modest ensemble comedy about the staff of a Pittsburgh radio station, WENN, in 1939? Let's hope so.

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.

Andy aspires to write fiction but basically he's an ordinary guy—a role right for Richter—and the humor springs largely from the contrast between his fertile imagination and his dull, dry job.

Scratch the gritty surface of this new police drama and you'll find it's not a totally revolutionary contribution to the genre.

The show has a refreshing sense of humor and whimsy.

There are a few weak jokes, but in its substance, look (fly fashions), and sound, this could be a real trendsetter.

The humor is raucous and raunchy.

Unlike their self-absorbed counterparts on MTV's The Real World, these kids don't make you root for the sharks. But their unnerving docu-adventures do make you wonder about their parents.

This looks like another clever, irreverent, cutting-edge animated comedy from creator Matt Groening.

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.

Clever writing and the delightful Melissa Joan Hart... make this unlikely plot a high schooler's witch fulfillment.

Don't know if this extremely edgy material will wear well, but I'm up for more Action.

Though the characters endure some familiar embarrassments... the honest performances and perceptive writing will have you feeling freshly empathetic.

Peta Wilson, an Australian actress with the harsh blonde hair, snub nose and oversize, depthless blue eyes of your average mass-produced doll, makes a sexy, amusing Nikita.

The show may never again attain the sustained comic brilliance of last week's pilot. But this is a rarity for Fox: a sophisticated and clever sitcom.

The main plot lines are immediately involving.

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

You won't escape easily from this drama's grip.

There are a few misdemeanors: the over-the-top scenes between an agitated cop (Titus Welliver) and his shrewish wife (Jana Marie Hupp); the sneer of Hill Street vet James B. Sikking as an Internal Affairs Bureau lieutenant... and the mix of Brooklynese and police patois that makes some dialogue hard to understand.

In more ways than one, ER's new competitor is tough to watch. But the effort looks to be worth it.

Sex is showing more creative staying power than I expected.

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.

Achingly real stories of desperate teenage love, emerging sexual identity, athletic pressure and parental confusion.

This new Fugitive has a very good Kimble in Tim Daly.

It's a traditional, timeless sitcom scheme that would have worked as well in the '50s as it does in the '90s. ... The show's strengths are its uncluttered concept and its cast.

Even if the characters are growing overfamiliar, creator David E. Kelley's stories remain compelling and surprising.

Sheen's deadpan cool is the refreshing flip side to Fox's hyperkinetic heat, and his edgy chemistry with Heather Locklear has potential.

24 strains credulity here and there... and some of the season premiere's doomsday dialogue smacks of parody. But the real-time format builds tension week-to-week as well as scene-to-scene, and Sutherland keeps adding depth to his portrayal of a man staggering slightly with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Dramatic comedy or comedic drama? This new half-hour series is hard to label but easy to get hooked on.

The show is a train crash of sight gags, puns, spoofs and mock-existential ponderings. Inventive and daft, this cartoon is just plain ducky.

Funny, but showing its age.

Are they lovable? No. Are they watchable? Compulsively so.

This is hysterical entertainment for grown-ups.

If only the show had a more energetic atmosphere, its characters wouldn't seem so lost in space.

Shepherd handles the romantic banter quite well. ... But so far, Shepherd isn't particularly adept at the other comic demands of her role: the double takes, the slowly dawning reactions, the ironic deliveries and other tricks of the trade.

Once and Again can be self-conscious in its sensitivity, especially when characters confide their innermost thoughts to the audience. ... But I'm still impressed by the drama's respect for the complexity of life.

Imagine Twin Peaks for preteens.

The episodes have grown slower and schmaltzier since the gripping pilot, but this series is still as sweet as an egg cream made with Fox's U-Bet Chocolate Syrup.

Slightly ghoulish but engrossing.

This four-part series adapted from Stephen King short stories starts off with a must-see performance by Oscar-winner William Hurt—the same kind of funny, ferocious, uninhibited turn that gave such a live-wire jolt to A History of Violence.

The series nails everything that NBC's Smash failed to do with the world of Broadway theater last year, providing a rollicking backstage look at the crazy, temperamental people engaged in artistic expression.

Trading on a paranoid, conspiratorial tone that recalls The Prisoner and MTV's Dead at 21, the show is jumbled but jazzy.

The show's dependable high point finds him banishing everyone from the cooking area and screaming so many bleeped words that it;s hard to track a whole sentence. [27 Sep 2012, p.43]

On Masterchef, he's more considerate.... The true terror is fellow judge Joe Bastianich. [27 Aug 2012, p.43]

The high school stories are tighter-focused, and the Manhattan ones breathe with Broadway romanticism. [5 Nov 2012, p.42]

As lead detective, Mireille Enos is terrific and makes up for the sense that we're revisiting terrain already covered--and reduced to parody--by Twin Peaks. [11 Apr 2011, p.46]

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

It's the usual stupid fun. [11 Apr 2011, p.47]

In the show's best moments, this moral pickle (being a mole vs. being a cop) leaves Ryan scrambling to improvise ways to prevent gang crimes without really catching anyone. [26 May 2014, p.40]

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

Petals doesn't have the same smothering intensity but it's compellingly crazy, the TV equivalent of outsider art. [26 May 2014, p.42]

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

Intelligence is nicely done. [20 Jan 2014]

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