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]

[A] superbly tawdry new crime series. [8 Jul 2013, p.35]

Their white collar cases aren't always riveting but as summer fares goes, hot guys and Manhattan backdrops are a reliably escapist combo. [25 Jun 2012, p.47]

The overall mythology is sprouting nicely thorny tendrils. [10 Sep 2012, p.42]

This is probably not a clinically accurate portrayal of an OCD sufferer, but Shalhoub's gentle earnestness keeps it from being gimmicky.

The jokes are, for the most part, more clever than funny.

[A] rattling good series. [10 Jul 2006, p.39]

The girls, who keep breathlessly repeating the phrase "high fashion" as if it were a mantra, nonetheless behave as they always do, which is most of the fun. [13 Sep 2010, p.48]

Katie Leclerc is instantly, sunnily appealing as Daphne....Vanessa Marano is fine as the other misplaced kid, except she's a sulker and sort of a drag. [13 Jun 2011, p.48]

At this point the show may lack in si-prises, but like one of Miss Kay's lovingly prepared brisket dinners, there's pleasing comfort in its familiarity. [26 Aug 2013, p.37]

A tricky show with serious potential. [5 Mar 2012, p.45]

The badinage with his wife plays nice and easy, like Home Improvement, while that with his parents and brother across the street has more of a Seinfeldian silliness.

Slightly ghoulish but engrossing.

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]

The main plot lines are immediately involving.

Beautifully filmed, George Harrison: Living in the Material World is especially good on the singer-guitarist's post-Beatles life as he sought enlightenment in Eastern religions. [10 Oct 2011, p.40]

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]

The show is still crazily entertaining. [11 Jun 2012, p.41]

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.

Gregg has a deadpan ease that makes the engine purr. And his team is good-looking and stamped with just enough personality and humor: Without killing the fun, they ground the show. [14 Oct 2013, p.43]

[A] pleasurable, cheeky new crime drama. [21 Oct 2013, p.47]

This new series is a bold military thriller. [8 Oct 2012, p.60]

She's at her best mapping out the messy web of relationships that come with being the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and the late Eddie Fisher. [20 Dec 2010, p.44]

Set on the eve of the 1936 abdication crisis, it has melodramatic bustle and tender affection for its characters--of all classes. [18 Apr 2011, p.46]

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]

For all its "look what we can get away with" grandstanding and scalpel-sharp wit, Nip/Tuck succeeds best when it deftly pierces the heart.

Gilmore creator Amy Sherman-Palladino gives her actors a zip drive's worth of dialogue....Foster's got the mouth--and charm--to pull it off. [18 Jun 2012, p.43]

The history behind the story is tremendous--you feel its pulse. [5 Aug 2013, p.48]

It's a light, clever performance. But Episodes never convinces us this is really Hollywood. [17 Jan 2011, p.40]

A pallid imitation of The Larry Sanders Show, the series works best when its real-life guests are funny.

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]

A lovely piece of work. [6 May 2013, p.49]

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

This show has a light, charming sense of the ridiculous. [19 Mar 2007, p.39]

There's always a laugh or two. [30 Jan 2012, p.44]

About Face addresses some deeper implications--Gia Carangi's early death is a cautionary tale--but knows better than to over do it. [6 Aug 2012, p.39]

The one thing lacking is writing that goes beyond fondness into truly funny. [17 Feb 2014, p.45]

Very few reality shows generate real suspense and sadness at the moment of elimination, but this one does. [20 Jun 2011, p.53]

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]

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.

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

At its best, the show is outrageous and hilarious at once.

The quickened pulse is a plus: The violence registers as sharp, stinging slaps. [11 Dec 2006, p.41]

Horror isn't my thing, but this is pretty good. [7 Nov 2005, p.41]

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

Flawlessly done, but a tough sell. [2 Dec 2013, p.50]

This is Dallas with out all the barbecue sauce, a soap about dynastic Texans that feels closer to Friday Night Lights in its understated leanness. [27 Sep 2010, p.54]

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

It's painful to criticize a show that has intelligence and depth, but there's no getting around the fact that overarching earnestness and a subtle but troubling air of fatalism combine to make this a dolorous hour.

The show must carry on, and of course it does, but rather sluggishly.... Overall the acting from the ensemble remains strong enough to sweep you along from episode to episode. [13 Jan 2014, p.47]

[A] half-decent start.

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]

The series that strains our nerves and our credulity returns with more hour-by-hour suspense, and amazingly it still works.

An entertainingly sinister dip in the cesspool of 19th century criminality. [21 Jan 2013]

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

The series goes overboard on cutesy domestic details but as a Bret Bulletin, it should gratify and reassure his fans. [1 Nov 2010, p.42]

Collar's odd-couple tension tugs the show in entertaining directions. [13 Jun 2011, p.46]

Predictably awesome. [27 May 2013, p.42]

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

This new, fourth season isn't bad but it's a very different beast from the original, and it's not nearly as funny.

The pilot establishes an eerie claustrophobic dread, and well-budgeted special effects add intensity. [1 Jul 2013, p.35]

It is a beguiling romantic adventure.

It's a much more impressive spectacle than ABC's mindlessly entertaining Empire.

Fox... retains his wonderful timing and delivery. ... But the political satire that makes up the rest of the show is toothless, corny, passé.

Each episode tries to shoehorn in bold a history and an ethics lesson with the period dress and picturesque ports of call. The result, though visually rich, is like a fuddy-duddy theme-park ride.

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

This is all well done, and it's a great-looking production, but the weight of the drama keeps tugging toward a side plot about Braugher's 14-year-old stepdaughter. [10 Apr 2006, p.35]

Got to kick it up a notch, Chuck. [18 Jan 2010, p.41]

The anecdotes slam into each other with a punch-drunk indifference--but director Spike Lee's style is a series of swift jabs. [18 Nov 2013, p.47]

Not all of Gotham is as successful--a side plot involving Gordon's girlfriend Barbara Kean (Erin Richards) has yet to find its footing--but this dark (and cinematically shot) series will feel right at home as the lead-in to Fox's similarly toned Sleepy Hollow.

The interplay of the sexes has been used to better effect on other action vehicles--including FX's animated Archer--but the actresses lighten the tone, adding zip to a show that thrives on speed. [29 Nov 2010. p.42]

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

The jokes hop all over the place but the show, like Chloe, is refreshingly wild. [16 Apr 2012, p.49]

With its creepy soundtrack, terrifying visuals and ingenious plot twists, Millennium is far and away the best new show of the year.

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.

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

Two tense, tricky, fine performances [22 Jul 2013]

History's first scripted series is a headlong tumble into an irresistible and surprisingly neglected genre. [18 Mar 2013, p.41]

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

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is fine as it is. Tell your DVR to book it. [9 Dec 2013, p.43]

This is a carefully assembled, emotionally attuned drama about obese teens stuck in a summer weight-loss camp.

Queen delivers the basic goods (intrigue, sex) , but the only vivid character is Margaret Beaufort, mom of the future Henry VII. She's played by Amanda Hale with startling neuritic fervor. [12 Aug 2013]

The show is a bit of a junk heap--Fringe, Mission:Impossible and Death Becomes Her are in the pile--but it's a real adventure. [11 Jul 2011, p.34]

As the season goes on, the narrative grip will (one hopes) tighten and grow as richly decadent as the surrounding production--or Eva Green. [26 May 2014, p.39]

The show doesn't have the sinister intelligence of ABC's short-lived Invasion, but it's good family entertainment. [27 Jun 2011, p.45]

The talent is good, and on the long road to announcing a top 16, the show expertly milking every drop of pathos. [24 Oct 2011, p.39]

This blah drama about kids living in an LA apartment complex while hustling for big breaks is a Canadian import. [7 May 2012, p.46]

Bloods isn't groundbreaking, but there are hints of a deeper scandal woven into the solid plot. Worth checking out. [25 Oct 2010, p.39]

Jack is back, and he's still a lot of fun. [12 May 2014]

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

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

If the producers can keep the mood spooky, this show will have its devoted adherents. Deservedly so.

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.

The tone here can be offputtingly strange: brittle, flinty yet over the top. [20 Feb 2006, p.37]

In its second season, Patricia Heaton's family sitcom seems to have found its natural resting point.

I wish the show had a little more verisimilitude--the peasants' homes look cheap, not poor--but it's zippy mindless fun. [5 Mar 2007, p.37]

Promising ... Like [Out of Sight's Jennifer] Lopez, Gugino is a looker who can be tough, but she makes the character more open, more alive.