By the end of the first episode you have little idea what’s going on; by the end of the fourth show the series is starting to gel a bit, but questions have been piled upon questions and soooo many characters have been introduced you need a scorecard.

The violence factor is as high as the candy-colored production values, Kate Walsh returns as the dripping-evil top villain, and Ritu Arya adds snap as a sharp-talking wild card. Race and LGBTQ issues provide ballast, but for the most part “The Umbrella Academy” is just inspired bloody silliness the second time around.

“Maid” shines a warm, personal light on all this while telling a story that’s enlightening and entertaining. It’s never really heavy-handed but it can be exhausting. It should be.

Mariah’s World isn’t breaking any molds. But because the supreme diva Mariah is the star, there’s a certain ridiculous, hilarious, hyper-stylized charm to the proceedings.

"True Detective: Night Country" is best taken as a small town story, which uses a crime to peel back the region's layers of humanity, nature and corruption, to expose the depth of the darkness within.

Harlots, on Hulu, is certainly audacious. And ambitious. But whether it will be able to pull off it’s fine-line feminist balancing act remains to be seen; this show may end up groundbreaking or it may end up a train wreck. In the meantime it’s hard to look away.

This is a Tim Burton production, so it looks great. But looks wouldn't matter if Jenna Ortega's deadpan wasn’t just as elastic as it needed to be — she consistently pushes outside the caricature enough to keep things lively.

[A] promising mix of urban decay, moral corruption and brutal betrayal that’s likely to fuel Sun.

The level of profanity here would likely give any real life vice principal a heart attack, and Gamby’s stupidity is world class. Eventually you realize he’s just a lonely, sad jerk in need of validation. Comedy, you’ll recall, is just tragedy upside down.

Based on the novel by Kristin Hannah, “Firefly Lane” is so efficient it nearly takes the guilt out of guilty pleasure.

"Saved by the Bell" is a throwback that looks forward, embracing the past while living in the now. And it shows that you can teach the old school some new tricks.

Is GGR the best show on television? No, but it’s pretty solid.

"Get Back" isn't for everyone, nor is it meant to be. But to Beatles obsessives, and they're a group that numbers in the millions and spans generations, "Get Back" is a holy grail, and it delivers.

As the season progresses, Mapleton re-emerges and it becomes a tale of two deeply weird cities. It may all be a tease, but give The Leftovers this: It is the strangest show on television.

What The Newsroom lacks in vampires, serial killers and terrorist love affairs, it makes up for with topicality, intelligence and messy romances.

Occasionally gory and suffused with black humor, there’s still a sunny sincerity to the show. Simply put, iZombie is death done cute.

Although this is certainly the most narcissistic talk show in memory, it depends wholly on whether you enjoy Chelsea or not.

Showtime’s favorite psychopath is watching his life unravel. Again. Which is tough for Dexter but probably good for the audience.... Last year, the ship was righted as Deb disintegrated and Dexter found true love. Will this season bring justice, cheap thrills or a violent conclusion? Hopefully, all of the above.

Watching Shooter as a series is like falling back into a well-known and familiar story, just one with lots of guns. It’s downright comfortable. And that’s odd.

It’s a rich mix of intrigues with the occasional bout of brutal violence as Delaney tries to build his own empire and assumedly reclaim his one true illicit love.

What The Lost Tapes adds, beyond all the terrifying footage, is a plethora of perspectives and insights.

Halt is wise enough to play this out against Gordon’s stress over providing for his family, Joe’s mysterious background and Cameron’s cute pixie haircut. The ad men in “Mad Men” changed a great deal; the people who put a computer in every home changed everything. And that keeps Halt and Catch Fire interesting.

Whether viewers will feel too challenged by Ellie to smile along remains to be seen. Hopefully they won't; TV needs crazy-vain-brave risk-takers badly. [26 Feb 2002]

It’s hard to say where The Bridge is going, but so far it looks like a trip worth taking.

It was before reality TV, so it was before reality TV became all hot tubs and hook ups. It was about young people discussing issues that matter to them in a frank manner, and "Homecoming" is positioned as the same people — now not-so-young — discussing those same issues and how they matter to them today. The idealism of the project then is what makes this concept, and this cast, worth revisiting today.

There are knocks in Seduced and Abandoned, but none of them seem that hard.

The Middle East lends itself to intrigues, backstabbings, frontstabbings and long-term vendettas like few other places, and writer-director Hugo Blick lets his puzzle pieces assemble with slow, deliberate power and more than a few surprises.

Handled correctly, this has “Lost” potential.

The slow burn approach actually works nicely, assuming you can calm your appetite for immediate destruction.

Family Tree is addictively silly stuff.

Alliances are made and broken, power shifts go this way and that, blood is spilled, and wenches keep wenching. It’s oddly addictive, and the cast--made up mostly of British, Australian and Canadian actors--is as sharp as you’d expect from pay cable.

The balance of action and story is nimble, and in the series' first episode — only one of six episodes was provided for review — seeds are planted for conflict, team building and drama of the personal and global variety.

The potential for cop burnout exists with all the new crime shows this season, but "Trace" is among the most promising entries. [26 Sep 2002]

Relentlessly dark and slow boiling, True Detective may promise more than it can deliver. But it still delivers quite a bit.

Madison, a conflicted yet driven narrator-as-victim, makes this a unique piece of true crime filmmaking. He captures the messy darkness that can hide behind seemingly shiny lives. Including his own.

The real cement here is two Oscar-winning actors painting a portrait of aging lovers staring down their eventual demise. There is no greater dilemma or darkness. And “Night Sky,” to its credit, knows and shows this.

The set-up isn’t unique, of course. There have been numerous shows about doctors and lawyers and such having to fight their way to success in a crowded field. The difference is those characters usually do something redeeming along the way. These people are just plain greedy and flippantly vile. Which doesn’t mean they can’t make for a guilty pleasure. And they’re a varied lot.

The Walking Dead may be starting to walk in circles, but the scenery is still spectacular and spooky.

Nip/Tuck isn't perfect, but with its flawed, fumbling and very human cast of characters, it's a cut above the usual TV drama. [22 July 2003, p.5E]

The nice thing is it pretty much works. Oh, there’s a great deal of silliness and some false notes — it is a ghost story, after all and some explanations add up while others just drift away. But in the end “Bly Manor” dares to make at least some sense (which is likely blasphemy to Henry James fanatics).

This is a solid, risky show with loads of potential. Keep it coming.

It’s an intentionally delicious and messy show, born to be binged, although a lot of the name-dropping – Tallulah Bankhead, Noel Coward -- may float right by some. No matter, its glittery blend of the tacky, corny and controversial, while lacking real weight, is an escapist balm.

“Ozark” still has its crazy nooks and crannies — Ruth’s young cousin Wyatt (Charlie Tahan) takes up with the much older deranged opium grower Darlene (Lisa Emery), things like that — and the troubled, still-loving chemistry between Marty and Wendy remains powerful. Plus gangsters, drug cartels, body counts, all the standard pleasures of crime shows.

“Chloe” is an intriguing tangle of lies and obsession, a well-made striptease of a show that slowly reveals all over six episodes of cringey psychological suspense. Heads don’t explode, super-heroes don’t save the day and nobody hires a hitman. Instead “Chloe” is that rarest of birds, an adult drama, albeit one stuffed with odd turns and awkward encounters.

Mamet is known for tight, pointed dramas, and he holds true to his rep here, creating a mystery, procedural and character study all in one.

It’s “Veep” at a car company. You could do worse. The cast is strong and the characters become clear in the opening episodes. ... Early episodes are a bit loose, but creator Justin Sptizer knows workplace comedies.

A period piece with serious punch, The Knick isn’t for the faint of heart.

Despite its straightforward plotting and the obvious contrast in cousins, Mortimer lets “The Pursuit of Love” play messy, since that’s how life itself plays.

The production values are high, the acting efficient, the story teems with twists and turns.

There are few serious undertones, but lots of lively excitement, despite all the lingering questions, which will assumedly be answered. Have faith.

Although the first episodes of the new season lack the snap and sizzle of the first season’s sexual discoveries, the air of indecision that haunts the show feels both accurate and unique.

Like "The Simpsons," "Married with Children," "Malcolm in the Middle" and other Fox sitcoms, the ridiculous reach is what makes "The Mick" work.

Simply put, Smallville is super. A new spin on the modern myth of Superman, it's part action series, part teen romance and part high school drama, done with superior production values and featuring an array of new faces that could quickly become familiar. [16 Oct 2001]

This is a disaster movie writ large for TV and the simple fact is, it works despite some none-too-subtle turns. You can’t help being enthralled by a story you wouldn’t want to be a part of.

As summertime smarmy yarns go, American Gothic holds promise.

Turn becomes more tense with each episode, at least through the first three, and that’s a very good sign.

Even though Loki delivers his usual subservience-is-freedom speeches and has bouts of self-analysis, the touch here is pretty light. Hiddleston is a wonderfully physical comic actor, all twitches and muttered asides, and Wilson offers a casual contrast to Loki’s royal airs.

This is all in the name of torch-passing, handing off the role of Hawkeye from Renner to Steinfeld, and it's more exciting, one supposes, than doing it in a press release. But just like Hawkeye himself, nothing here feels essential.

The high production values and the series' ability to pivot its storytelling — the third episode is a lovely and quite moving distraction from the main plot — keep it fresh, even as the show's familiarities and the rudimentary bickering between characters ("you sure do ask a lot of questions!" Joel crankily remarks to Ellie, as he'd rather walk in silence) ring all sorts of bells.

The tone here is David Lynch meets David Cronenberg meets Quentin Tarantino, moody and heightened in the early episodes, then ever more weird and gory. It all hinges on Salazar and treatises may be written on her huge, expressive eyes, which jump between angered, exhausted, erotic and (repeatedly) horrified.

The eight-part miniseries, a BBC co-production that begins Saturday on Starz, is handicapped a bit by its overly hotheaded protagonist, played by James Nesbitt. But if his access as a grieving father to crime scenes and witnesses often seems a bit preposterous, the story's many side alleys and turnabouts serve as ample distraction.

Instead of being seriously macabre, it goes for broad satire, although it certainly has its gory moments. It’s an odd mash-up that leaves little room for real connection to the characters, having faith instead in laughs and blood. Then again, laughs and blood have a good track record.

It leaves some questions hanging and spins on a bit when it comes to trans history, but “The Lady and the Dale” is undeniably a gas.

Surprisingly, it pretty much all works. The dark secrets (there are many) balance with the apparent fluff, making for an engaging, never-dull series. Maybe the Gilmore Girls should have had guns.

It’s all very silly, but there’s bite beneath some of the yuks.

A sprawling look at the gay liberation movement in the U.S. during the past five decades, spread over eight hours, featuring an abundance of talent, occasionally too earnest, at times heartbreaking, and pretty much always eminently watchable.

One of the producers here is Jason Katims ("Friday Night Lights,” “Parenthod”) and the warm familial intimacy of his previous shows flows through “Away.” The cast is uniformly strong and there’s a reason Swank has two Oscars. “Away” isn’t great but it is unique, and that’s good enough.

It takes some soapy turns in season two, and Carell’s character can seem stranded in limbo, but this is big starry television about big starry television that dares you to look away. Tune in.

"Pam & Tommy" doesn't make fun of them or their relationship, but shows it for what it is: a match made in the stars. James' physical transformation is astounding (she's aided considerably by prosthetics), and she finds the warmth within Pam, the naïve small town girl with dreams that perhaps outweighed her talents. Stan is clearly going for it in the role of Tommy, and he softens some of the rocker's harder features and less desirable traits; he makes him lovable.

Hauser doesn’t set out to overwhelm. In fact, his monster is all the more scary because he’s so low key and obviously demented. But he has so much there that all else seems commonplace.

Creators Amanda Peet and Annie Wyman keep the show loose enough for cute side storylines — David Duchovny! — but never let things wander aimlessly. With six quick episodes they offer a glimpse at the absurdities of modern academic life and cultural sensitivities, while also dancing on romantic comedy notes. Nice.

The series looks promising, if puzzling.

At first you’re rolling your eyes at what seems an absurd stretch of a premise, but soon enough you’re buying its always-on-edge predicaments and after a few episodes you’re hooked into its story-upon-story acrobatics. Pete may be sneaky, but he’s not dull.

It holds together as myriad characters come and go thanks to strong turns by Kazan as a sister driven to find out the truth about her brother, and Gabriel, as a wife who finds her reality in tatters. They are the anchors who keep this dervish series grounded.

Morally and historically significant, emotionally wrenching and politically terrifying, The Normal Heart is more important than artful, and that’s just fine.

Obviously all four friends are constantly on the verge of disaster because, well, who isn’t? That Delpy and Landeau spin their stories with a mix of humanity and absurdity is, again, both impressive and righteously French. C’est bon.

The proliferation of characters can be disorienting and super-Bibb is criminally underused, but “Jupiter’s Legacy” works for the most part if your idea of entertainment leans that way. Glittering costumes, eyes that shoot laser beams, explosions and destruction galore. That’s entertainment circa 2021.

It’s all a bit fuzzy, but then it’s all in good fun. Television has plenty of room for strong female characters.

It could all be so cheesy, but somehow it’s not. Credit DuVernay for giving us a sense of Louisiana--and black--life that rises above mere plot manipulations. You believe these people; you care for them. And that’s sweet enough.

While it's certainly not the most innovative new show this season, it knows exactly what it wants to be, which isn't a full-on copy of "CSI" but close enough to seem familiar. And it delivers the same slick, well-produced, well-acted sort of analytical whodunit as the original. [23 Sep 2002]

There’s just enough crazy in Ray Donovan to keep things interesting.

The pilot is a bit clunky setting all this up (there’s also Jack’s local bartender and friend, Eddie, played by Chris Williams), but the actors are all pretty sharp, as are the cross-generational jokes.

It’s all technically impressive. And it’s all a monumental bummer.

Strained at times, wandering at others, “Perry Mason” finds its footing eventually and by its end you may want to watch a second season even as you hope it’s better than the first.

You get the feeling creator Rockne S. O'Bannon is building a puzzle box to nowhere here, but Knepper's malevolent glare sets a nice, unhinged tone, and there's certainly plenty of room to move forward.

Langford (“Knives Out,” “13 Reasons Why”) is effective if not exceptional, somewhat mirroring the entire enterprise. The gore quotient here runs high, but unlike “Thrones” and “The Witcher” there is no underlying erotic throb fueling things and humor is scarce.

The highly watchable second season does a good job examining questions of family, trust and friendship while offering up plenty of shootouts, fights and dicey situations to keep things moving. Unfortunately the writing here can get pretty lazy in those dicey situations.

Gaffigan offers some nice ugly tourist notes, but as the show goes on he leaves Spain behind. At the end he’s riffing on American rodeos and talking about the Toledo Zoo. Not surprisingly, he’s funnier on home ground.

This show fits perfectly into the network's mystery/cop-heavy schedule and audiences should be able to blur right through it comfortably. As comfortable blurs go, Battle Creek is indeed a success.

“City” is based on a nonfiction book by Justin Fenton and somewhat weighed down by its solemn intent. It doesn’t have time for humor and it doesn’t have the space for subtlety. Too many scenes are plain explanatory and grim business simply leads to more grim business. Still, Simon has always excelled at capturing specific cultures and their contradictions.

"Swarm" plays with form the way "Atlanta" was able to completely switch styles from one episode to the next, and it finds freedom in its narrative looseness. If only it had more going on underneath its hood. ... But at least with Fishback in the driver's seat, the ride is never dull.

It all looks good, but Arjona never gains real traction as Dorothy and some of the side stories become distractions. Still, Emerald City is an ambitious, if derivative, project for broadcast television.

It’s intimate stuff and a clear showcase for the actors, who are uniformly fine. The weak spot is Brooke’s weekly episode — she’s struggling with sobriety, a struggle that’s overly familiar.

The first episode is shaky, but the series stabilizes as it progresses. Nothing’s all that startling or original, but it all flows along until you realize you’ve watched four shows in a row and you’re wondering whether life has any meaning.

When the dramatic scenes work, especially in the opening episode directed by Duvernay, there’s a real family feel. But later episodes can come off too earnest and scripted, veering toward the afterschool special feel of yore. ... But this series is about spirit and perseverance and cultural chasms and race. It’s the sort of thing that should be shown in schools and probably will be, to the benefit of all.

Kinnear, as always, is a likable presence, and he and Summers seem like they’ll have good chemistry if the show ever calms down.

As the show flies by, the nightly scare stories work more effectively than the lumbering haunted house stuff, and of course all of this is housed in a Young Adult world that may be a bit gory but is essentially wholesome.

Rhimes brings in familiar faces from other Shondaland shows, travels to exotic places, has Anna strut about in all manner of glitzy outfits — Anna loves to shop — and generally offers up solid modern TV entertainment. But a tighter, more succinct work would have lived up to Garner’s performance.