It's the jungle version of Saving Private Ryan's opening battle, over and over across 10 hours. Why, then, is this so excitingly powerful instead of just numbing? Because the stakes are huge: The historical momentum pulls you in and drags you along.

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

Tyson elevates this character into a prism through which passes the span of existence.... You will be sighing for days. [10 Mar 2014, p.48]

This remains far and away the best prime-time sitcom: crisp and farcical, but very kind. [25 Oct 2010, p.37]

This eighth season finds him spending time in New York City, and the trip rejuvenates him. [18 Jul 2011, p.35]

Sunny is Punch and Judy for our time: invigoratingly primal entertainment.[9 Sep 2013, p.41]

[A] cool yet intensely emotional British crime series. [24 Jun 2013, p.40]

Grabs you so forcefully that you won't shake free even when the drama strains credulity.

Though Tommy's conversations with Jimmy seem like a glib gimmick, Rescue Me redeems itself with rough firehouse humor and a realistic depiction of the emergencies faced by the crew.

This is adult entertainment in the very best possible sense. [7 Oct 2013, p.47]

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

A larger, wholly engrossing story about crime syndicates and hit men. [21 Apr 2014, p.43]

This new college comedy isn't quite in the same class [as Freaks and Geeks], but it captures the atmosphere of the dormitory as minimum-security madhouse.

The jokes take of on all sorts of unexpected trajectories--foul balls that score. [12 Mar 2012, p.45]

Discovery's Africa is yet another marvel of high-definition photography. [14 Jan 2013, p.56]

Nashville is the best new show of the fall. [29 Oct 2012, p.37]

In the golden age of narrative TV, cartoons offer countervailing subversive pleasures: They're juvenile, satiric, surreal. Those words all apply to the wild spree Rick and Morty. [23 Dec 2013]

Luckily the characters are so fully formed, and so fully inhabited by the cast, that the whole mess staggers up out of the trenches and keeps going. [9 Jan 2012, p.39]

Ned and just about everyone else erupts in violent arguments, denunciations, accusations, counteraccusations, diatribes--these are searing, electrifying moments, furiously articulate and delivered with escalating passion. [2 Jun 2014, p.45]

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]

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

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]

An instant classic.

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

We're betting that with experience, this inconsistent show can find a way to win.

Girls can still be Girls. [21 Jan 2013]

The comedy never quite lifts into giddiness, but there are lots of solid, unexpected laughs. And isn't that cause for celebration? [26 Apr 2010, p.40]

It's a good show, powerfully acted--especially by Katy Segal as tough mama Gemma--and true to its convictions. [20 Sep 2010, p.52]