Co-created by David Simon and Eric Over­myer, the team behind The Wire, this is a lovingly textured, slowly unfolding series set in post-Katrina New Orleans. [26 Apr 2010, p.40]

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]

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]

It's just suspenseful and clever enough to keep you happily intrigued. [3 Sep 2012, p.39]

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

The Comeback is funny, especially when it skewers the tasteless and false in reality TV.

It's all so much fun, in fact, that I propose Dancing viewing parties: Break out the wine and crackers and let ABC provide the delicious, calorie-free cheese.

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

Thanks to the nimble Leary, ever riveting as TV's most nuanced antihero (sorry, Tony Soprano), Tommy's tenuous struggle for sobriety is even more rewarding than last season's harrowing downfall.

Therapist Paul Weston a human-shaped cloud who grumbles with the low thunder of the maladjusted, has drifted back for a gripping new season of HBO's In Treatment. Gabriel Byrne plays the part flawlessly, and he's up against two especially rewarding talents. [1 Nov 2010, p.42]

Edie Falco makes the stakes scarily real. [21 Apr 2014, p.43]

The animated duo have returned, as dumb--and hilarious--as ever. [31 Oct 2011, p.36]

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

Johnson is the find of the season: She's the sunbeam that doesn't filter out dust motes. [29 Oct 2012, p.38]

This drive for revenge is what makes the pilot spark, smoke and go chug-a-chug-chug. [14 Nov 2011, p.45]

What's surprising and even touching is that Fergie may not be a hot mess, but she's an appealingly human one. [20 Jun 2011, p.47]

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

Mad Love [is] a relationship sitcom with real chemistry. [21 Feb 2011, p.41]

The pace sags, but the accumulation of sacrificed lives gives it all a haunting sorrow. [4 Jun 2012, p.44]

In its second season, the spy parody remains my favorite animated series, thanks to its retro visual design--this is a cartoon for the age of Mad Men--and the vicious, dead-aim put-downs that make up most of the dialogue. [14 Mar 2011, p.42]

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]