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

[Bello's] sour, tough intelligence is right on the money. [3 Oct 2011, p.45]

In season 2 this fluffy spy caper about gorgeous CIA operative Annie Walker is starting to deliver on the seductive fun promised by Piper Perabo's sly, flirtatious smile in the opening credits. [25 Jul 2011, p.40]

Up All Night is adorable without being cute. [3 Oct 2011, p.41]

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 characters are too uneven a group: Some of them you instantly overlook, like the olive in a cocktail. Even so, thus has potential. [3 Mar 2014, p.41]

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

This is a happy carnival of singers, Magicians, dancers and --this season-0- what appear to be gnomes. On the judges' panel, Howie Mandel has turned out to be a improvement over the thumpingly earnest David Hasselhoff. [25 Jul 2011, p.39]

Ghost Whisperer can be surprisingly moving. [24 Oct 2005, p.41]

Unlike Daily anchorman Jon Stewart, he's not only ridiculing the headlines but mocking himself. This is closer to acting than comedy, and it may be tougher. But Stephen Colbert is a great American and deserves our support. And suppore. [7 Nov 2005, p.41]

Their interaction is friendly, if mildly teasing, professional and catfight-free. This allows the show to have the relaxing, unchallenging pleasures of good fluff even when the premiere is actually going a bit heavy on the gore.

Sex and the City is definitely striking me as funnier this time around.

The series is unmatched as a portrait of the entertainment industry. [8 Aug 2011, p.39]

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

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

Party's fresh-faced young stars are still worth watching, but the show's focus on the family's closeness has inevitably weakened as the kids fall in love or move away.

The opener sets this all up smoothly, and Collette, combining a mother's protective instinct with type A pride, is great to watch. [23 Sep 2013]

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

The pyrotechnics involved in the opening heist are good, and the cast is a dream. [25 Sep 2006, p.43]

This bifurcated character--Mother of the Year meets Jack Bauer--isn't always believable, but Judd welds the two Beccas together through sheer willpower. [19 Mar 2012, p.41]

The first few episodes of Rake are, if anything, even fluffier than White Collar. All the better for Kinnear to gently cut through the whimsy with his sharp delivery. [27 Jan 2014, p.39]

This enjoyable series from the Grey's Anatomy team is sort of Doctors Without Borders--who are also without too many clothes. [24 Jan 2011, p.41]

The show is cleverer than you'd expect. [20 Aug 2012, p.41]

Tudor history is irresistible, even if the bedroom gymnastics here seem more in keeping with the Playboy Mansion than a royal palace. [19 Apr 2010, p.47]

The acting is good, especially Bill Skarsgard and Landon Liboiron.... I like the show's languid, dreamlike beauty, but horror fans may be less patient. [22 Apr 2013, p.47]

Stranger isn't nice--not with the mortar shells she routinely fires from her mouth--but she's one of reality TV's most vivid characters. [29 Aug 2011, p.36]

Visually... Daria is misconceived.

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

With its rugged leads displaying a light comic touch, the series has a fresh appeal. [3 Feb 2014, p.44]

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

When you're hot, you're hot-which is why having Betty White in the cast has generated an unusual amount of buzz for this TV Land sitcom. But her costars-ace comic actresses Wendie Malick, Jane Leeves, Valerie Bertinelli-are the ones who add sizzle to a not too promising vehicle.

She discusses her problems with a warm directness that makes them sound as if they could be anyone's. The show is less authentic when she learns about recovery from non-celebrities blindsided by tragedy. [16 May 2011, p.48]

VanCamp goes about her business with a purse-lipped Jodie Foster earnestness that makes her hard to root for. But Stowe coos, scowls, flirts and thunders. She roils Revenge. [26 sep 2011, p.56]

Top Design will make you not want to leave your TV room--no matter what it looks like. [5 Feb 2007, p.37]

[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]

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

666 Park Avenue remains good Gothic Trash. [26 Nov 2012, p.44]

The show is vaguely mystical, implausible and sappy, but if you're in the right mood it's very moving. [5 May 2014, p.46]

The acting is flat, but the show casts a hokey spell. [19 Sep 2011, p.65]

Behar is the true star. She's funny, likable (without sacrificing irreverence) and sensible. She's much too good to be sidelined an average of two days a week.

Chef remains the model for cook-off competitions, balancing casual insight into culinary art with psychological snapshots of the aspiring chefs. This recipe can't be improved on.

The opener mostly succeeds in maintaining a tone that's more racy-adult than naughty-juvenile. The only element that doesn't mesh is the character of Alley's father.

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

Revenge's second season recaptured its melodramatic mojo after a muddled month. [12 Nov 2012, p.39]

A satisfyingly meaty drama. [11 Jun 2007, p.41]

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]

In the premiere of this likably preposterous new show, [Chloe] learns that these changes are embedded in her DNA and can be traced back millennia. [20 Jun 2011, p.58]

Both intriguing and irritating.

Williams's humming energy is charming (and more softly winsome than it used to be.) The challenge is to surround him with actors with enough skill to play off or with him. Gellar, as his daughter, doesn't quite pull it off. Hamish Linklater, as an art director, does. [4 Nov 2013]

This makeover series isn't breaking any new ground: A wallflower, repotted and pruned, blooms overnight into an assured woman willing to tackle her dream date. The real asset here is its charming British host, style adviser Louise Roe.

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.

If Faris is the little engine that could, Janney is the caboose along for the ride. [4 Nov 2013]

With the second episode, though, the whole tone improves: Delany's performance seems to have caught some of the coppery warmth of her hair, and we spend more time with a good ensemble. [4 Apr 2011, p.49]

The show has a sly self-awareness that effectively disarms those who would accuse it of merely putting a gay gloss on stock hetero situations.

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

Somehow the premiere hour fills in all this background without getting lost and--more importantly--with sincerity and sensitivity. [10 Jun 2013, p.50]

The show is cornball, but I'm willing to grant him this small, soft lob toward career rehab.

The show, now in cycle 16, moves with a brisker confidence, and that's better. [28 Feb 2011, p.43]

High-pitched farce is 3rd Rock's stock-in-trade, and sometimes it just wears us out. But we marvel at how skillfully the writers and directors keep the balls in the air as they juggle as many as three situations per episode.

It's a gripper. [25 Sep 2006, p.43]

Gina Gershon's performance as designer Donatella Versace is fabulously strange. [7 Oct 2013, p.49]

The sitcom banter is actually delectable: zingy and absurd. [8 Oct 2012, p.57]

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

Grey has been on long enough now that it has lost much of its erotic sizzle--McDreamy is edging toward Mcnappy--but the satisfyingly steady seventh season is a model of a hit that keeps fitting nee characters into the blueprint. [20 Dec 2010, p.41]

The story is promising. [9 Apr 2012, p.42]

The camera work is shaky, the music is gritty, and the endings aren't always happy. But the fact that you can almost smell the B.O. on some of the people piling into that truck makes it a raw, more real alternative to the usual sugary sweet. [21 Nov 2005, p.43]

The arbitrary leap overseas moves the show that much closer to pure sitcom--an improvement. [22 Aug 2011, p.45]

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.

Crisis may not be great, but it works. [24 Mar 2014, p.35]

At least Endings has something fresh at it's core....Even better, the well-cast ensemble includes Casey Wilson. [25 Apr 2011, p.44]

This partly improvised comedy is closer to Girls than All About Eve: wistful yet stinging, silly yet wise about the instability of even the deepest friendships. [24 Mar 2014, p.37]

The 100 is imaginative, surprising and fun--Lost for kids. [24 Mar 2014, p.39]

Scandal is about as realistic as Mamie Eisenhower Witch Hunter but it has so much headlong energy, you may not care. [9 Apr 2012, p.40]

The Soul Man isn't great, but it's the best sitcom yet developed for TV Land. [2 Jul 2012, p.40]

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]

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]

Growing Up Fisher is a winning, welcome example [of a family sitcom], conceptually novel and solidly cash. [24 Feb 2014, p.37]

It's trite and obvious, and meant to be, with songs that are shallow, sunny and snappy.... Just Go with it. [22 Jul 2013, p.48]

The show is fueled with so much soap-operatic hot air that it takes off. [26 Sep 2011, p.54]

The fast-paced craziness has a hit-or-miss quality, but I'm still laughing at the thought of an action flick pairing Jim Caviezel's Jesus with motor-mouth Chris Tucker.

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.

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

On balance it's a good, fun show. But it's not a true standout.

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

Girls can still be Girls. [21 Jan 2013]

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

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

This version, set in Paris, compensates with an atmosphere of chic rot--they have that over there--an increased body count and an excellent cast. [19 May 2014, p.44]

There's nothing subtle about the physical comedy in the pilot, as Bette visits a cosmetic surgeon and takes a stab at strenuous exercise. But "broad" is a term Midler has always been comfortable with.

At a full, commercial-free hour, this can all start to drag a bit. But L.A. is strongly evoked as a casually sensual backdrop and-thank you!-that awful L Word theme music is gone.

At its best, it's still several strides behind the savage, protean wit of The Simpsons, and the humor sputters when the focus is personal—detailing Sherman's dating woes or his relationship with his son.

[A] smartly crafted show.

The cast plays out the adjustment with the right touch of pleased humor. [4 Oct 2010, p.37]

Taut and stylish.

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]

It's always good to see dancing that's dancing and not a montage of repositioned limbs.

The drawback to Catch Fire is that we aren't yet interested enough in the backup characters. For now Pace is reason enough to watch this on whatever TV, laptop or mobile screen you prefer in the digital age. [9 Jun 2014, p.33]

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