Penny Dreadful's gory moments are deployed strategically, and the adjective that best describes this show is not "bloody" but "soulful."

Full of fast-paced banter and pop culture lines, Riverdale starts this road trip as a fine ride.

There’s still plenty of humor, always bending toward the absurd, and Archer’s time travel has not stripped him of his signature phrases, attitude or fondness for bourbon and wordplay.

Damages isn't on the level of 'The Sopranos,' but, like Ellen Parsons, it knows what it's about these days. And if you want to see some prime, grade-A Acting, well, you could do a lot worse.

The good news is, Sarah, Cosima and the other clones retain most of the real estate in this gorgeously grimy biothriller, and watching the established characters relate to each other is still a lot of fun.

Fifteen minutes into A Gifted Man, the performance of Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Ehle and Margo Martindale had completely won me over, and of all the pilots I've screened for fall, this is the one I most want to see more of.

Tactical wins, taut storytelling and zombies munching tasty, tasty braaaaains: All that plus the addition of Michonne and David Morrissey as the Governor in upcoming episodes make me pretty damned happy that The Walking Dead is back.

The achievement of Penny Dreadful is that within its highly stylized, delightfully elaborate and occasionally batsh-t world, it has created complex, fascinating characters--or rather, it has begun to.

Episodes isn't a weighty series at all, but these actors elevate every scene they are in with spot-on comic timing and a graceful ability to play a range of conflicting emotions at once.

It’s by no means the deepest thing you’ll watch this year, but you’d have to search far and wide to find a program that hits its chosen target with such concentrated glee.

It's not as ambitious as Mad Men, of course, but it has its own very real pleasures.

The Defenders which, like those other shows, is a pretty straightforward legal procedural, has a surprising amount of fun with its familiar building blocks.

There’s a fair amount of darkness in this story, because the lives it chronicles were not easy. There’s also a fair amount of humor. Mostly there’s admiration for three women who in a very short time accomplished things their world saw no reason to think they could.

Some aspects of this show work better than others, but, in its generally excellent second season, the drama has cohered into a compelling, if sprawling, portrait of the Crescent City.

What's especially impressive in Season 3 is how cogently and clearly events in the two different universes are handled. It's not hard to tell which is which and it's not hard to follow how the two worlds are connected, and those connections have only deepened the mythology in pleasing ways.

Fortitude reminds me of "Borgen" because neither show is loud; nothing about this kind of drama is bombastic or outsized. Fortitude takes its time as it builds up its icy, workaday world and depicts the day to day lives of its residents.

Political Animals hews fairly closely to the USA tone and smartly employs any number of light-drama conventions, thus it can likely be enjoyed simply as an entertainment

Bradley brings a great deal of subtle pathos and doughty courage Hartnell's predicament, and ultimately, An Adventure becomes much more than a fun swing through TARDIS trivia. It becomes a story about hard work, ingenuity and a classy passing of the torch.

The good news is that it can be better understood even by raw rookies. More to the point, it’s worth the effort, because Tatiana Maslany gives one of the finest performances on contemporary television.

Fargo develops into a solid pleasure; it's studded with telling details, excellent performances and satisfying subplots Fargo" develops into a solid pleasure; it's studded with telling details, excellent performances and satisfying subplots.

If you watch Hannibal, it's likely to stay with you for days. Despite the darkness at the heart of it, that's a good thing this time around.

Sure, it's not particularly deep and has some pacing issues, but it's a generally watchable, well-acted effort.

The diverting and enjoyable Terriers occupies a different stylistic territory, but there's a noir strain underneath its shaggy exterior. As the best detective stories do, it features a smart, flawed lead character who is too stubborn and inquisitive for his own good.

The Hour has some pacing issues--there are sludgy patches that could use a bit more zip and energy--but overall, the show creates a delectable, specific world that's very easy to glide into and inhabit.

When We Rise doesn’t pick up a story at its beginning and doesn’t leave a story with an ending. What it delivers is a game-changing saga from the middle.

Going by the first two hours, this new incarnation of the show exactly as 24-ish as you'd want it to be.

It moves along with purpose and energy, but it's often at its best when finding colorful details and or allowing small, telling moments to breathe.

A taut, enjoyable second season.

There are some bumps in the road as the show lays out its premise, but Supergirl has a number of things going for it: Melissa Benoist is convincing and charming in the lead role; the supporting cast, which features the likes of Calista Flockhart, Chyler Leigh, Mehcad Brooks and David Harewood, is very good; and the leaders of the writing team behind it.

Mismatched cops forced to work together is one of the oldest TV tropes in the book, but The Bridge builds such a realistic, detailed world around the detectives here that the dynamic is often fresh.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine has a genial, pleasing loopiness and very solid work from an intelligently assembled cast.

Your investment in the many stories spun out by creator Julian Fellowes may take longer to develop this year, because the costume drama's pace is off in the early going and it's far more contrived and inconsistent than it was in its first season.

This amiable, entertaining show isn't trying to change the world or strain the boundaries of scripted television, and that's just fine.

The Leftovers is interesting television, even if, in the early going, it's not quite sure of what it wants to be or where it wants to go.

The good aspects of this show are engaging and Misfits is a damn sight more consistent than the most spectacular fail in this genre, "Heroes."

The parts that do work possess the doom-laden yet strangely optimistic romanticism of Milch's best work.

It would be a mistake to count this scruffy little comedy out. It's really charming.

I found Free Agents more than tolerable, and there's potential in the office ensemble that surrounds these two characters (though I wouldn't mind if the super-sass of Natasha Leggero's assistant character was toned down a bit).

Applegate and Will Arnett, who plays her husband, Chris, are very good, which is no surprise. It's nice to see Arnett playing something other than an emotionally stunted man-child, and if the pilot for Up All Night didn't make me guffaw all that much, it passed by pleasantly and it was good to see that creator Emily Spivey was able to wring comedy from the new-parent situation without using the same dozen baby jokes we've all seen 200 times before.

The good news is this modest show already has a number of things in its favor: Its pace is bracing, the choices are difficult and the danger the characters face is real.

The Secret Circle does exactly what you expect it to do, yet that efficiency ends up being refreshing rather than maddening.

It takes a bit longer than it should for the viewer to assemble a working knowledge of the show's core mystery, and there are some tonal issues (some attempts at jokey moments are a bit jarring), but overall, Orphan Black is a quite watchable thriller that plunges its heroine into a murky world that almost seems designed to drive her mad.

All things considered, though, this is a show that is pretty firmly fixed on what it does best--serving up soapy, Texas-sized shenanigans and trying to mix in a little seasoning of real emotion along the way.

This small gem of a film manages to be a finely drawn character piece and a searching exploration of what powerful people will (and won't) do to keep their countries safe, and it provides some great actors with meaty roles along the way.

The performances are nuanced and subtle.... Bakula's presence and air of experience add weight and depth to a show that occasionally seems too slight for its ambitions.

In the two episodes NBC sent for review, Port and Guarascio are respectful to what came before--possibly too respectful, but the desire to not rock the boat is understandable.

While it's no "Closer," the Eric McCormack vehicle Perception is perfectly adequate "Eccentric Consulting Genius" fare.

Thought-provoking and melancholy, like all good F. Scott Fitzgerald stories, The Last Tycoon delivers a good summer watch. ... All this said, The Last Tycoon has taken some critical heat, and not without cause. It has several unsparkling passages and weak spots.

As was the case with the second season, Season 3 of Luther is only four hours long, and the drama would probably be more satisfying if it didn't try to cover so many bases in that limited running time.

I'm happy to report that not being a fan of James Van Der Beek from the "Creek" didn't prevent me from enjoying the actor in the moderately amusing ABC sitcom.

The promising Shameless is a terrific showcase for Macy, Emmy Rossum, who plays Frank's daughter Fiona, and Joan Cusack, who plays the Gallaghers' neighbor. The show's younger cast members are also impressive; they have a low-key, realistic style that melds perfectly with the unforced truthfulness that Macy brings to his role

With its mildly irascible lead and its extremely sturdy central premise, it evokes USA's better shows, right down to its blue skies and palm trees.

All in all, the new season of Falling Skies gets the basics right.

The first two hours of Hit and Miss come across as a finely observed, well-acted independent film, and I wasn't really sure whether there was a lot more story left to tell as Episode 2 came to a close, but I'm willing to let Mia prove me wrong.

It tends to work a lot better as the season progresses--like a 19th Century train, this polished piece of machinery starts slow and needs to work up a head of steam in order to be enjoyed in all its Victorian glory.

As an origin story, Alphas hits some notes too hard and lacks a certain subtlety, yet there's potential in this tale, especially if it delves into the psychological cost of being extraordinary.

Sewell looks good in the Italian suits and shades, the supporting cast is generally good and the atmosphere is effective even when the pacing has problems.

Gleeson does a first-rate job with a character we’ve seen before, the tormented cop who plunges into a battle where he’s seemingly outflanked and outgunned. Treadaway is suitably troubling as a kid who represses such waves of rage and frustration that we don’t doubt it could explode somewhere. That the causes of his rage play as clichés doesn’t make him less menacing, though it makes the larger story less than subtle. Call it a solid campfire yarn.

It's light and diverting yet respectful of its characters and their histories, thus it can serve as a pleasant, earnest counterbalance to some of TV's darker dramas.

It's a self-aware superhero drama that manages to have some fun amid the righteous butt-kicking, and if it can develop its characters intelligently and keep up the sprightly pace, I'll stick around.

The Necessary Roughness pilot was enjoyable enough, but half the fun may have come from seeing Dani's adjustment to the big money, high-stakes world of professional sports. Can this show go the distance? It isn't clear yet, but at this admittedly early stage, the latest addition to the USA roster appears to be a promising rookie.

Created by John Singleton with Eric Amadio and Dave Andron, Snowfall is a good-looking production. It gets its music from turntables and boomboxes and it reminds us that South Central Los Angeles, for all its notoriety, has a lot of tree-lined streets and perfectly decent houses with front yards. It also reminds us that crack cocaine was not so much a brand new problem as the consequence of several larger and longer-simmering problems.

GLOW is not to be confused with a lecture on sociology and female empowerment in the workplace. It’s sprinkled with soap and isn’t above focusing on some of those body parts itself. But even if professional wrestling bores you to tears, GLOW spins some stories that ring true.

It's nice to see that in the first three episodes of the eight-episode second season, the plots, such as they are, have a little more discipline and focus than they did in season 1.

Blacklist: Redemption is a sturdy show built on a smart premise.

It's admirable that the production wanted to be so truthful to the experiences of the damaged men who emerge from long prison stints, but there are a few too many languid shots of Daniel staring at things that mystify him. But it's worth sticking with Rectify, which often achieves a tone of conflicted, bittersweet sincerity.

It's the kind of show that could well settle into a nice groove once it gets a few episodes in, especially given that all the performances are top notch, including those from Lucy Punch and Echo Kellum as friends of the title duo.

This Cougar Town vintage may be a bit brasher and brighter, but never fear: It's still quite potent and drinkable.

Undateable, a show that does not set out to reinvent the multi-camera hangout comedy but execute that format reasonably well, turned out to be a generally pleasant surprise.

Luther may veer off course at times, but it just about works because Elba never oversells Luther's charisma.

The odd-couple pairing is one of the oldest ones in the TV playbook, and the two mismatched waitresses in 2 Broke are good company, at least in the show's initial outing.

While a tale of restless discontent in a rich California coastal town offers an intriguing ride, it’s also a deliberate one. Think of it as a Sunday drive, at a leisurely pace that enables the passengers to absorb every detail of the scenery.

One of the best things about "Happy Endings," however, is how the character relationships all work--each combination of characters brings its own pleasures. Suburgatory isn't quite there yet.

While this is hardly the first complicated sibling relationship in a TV series, this one has the overlay of unspoken things both men apparently felt extraordinary circumstances had forced them to do.

The truth of the matter is, the pilot is well-paced and the first half is especially fun.

Hawkins does a solid job filling Jack’s familiar shoes.

A pleasingly executed diversion featuring capable and textured performances from actors in key roles.

The good news is that this show's building blocks are very strong. The dialogue, the world and the cast are all enjoyable, and the show simply exudes potential.

Once Duhamel and Winters settle into a rhythm and begin showing more nuanced aspects of their characters, I began to enjoy "Battle Creek" for the light, reasonably well-constructed crime drama that it is, and as the season develops, Shore is able to do a few interesting things with the question of whether people can truly change.

There's a tentativeness to Halt's first hour--it doesn't end especially strongly--but overall, the drama has a mostly credible pilot and lead actors who will probably be able take the show in compelling directions.

The good news is that the unusually ambitious Awake succeeds at several of the things it's attempting, and star Jason Isaacs grounds the drama with a charismatic yet subtle performance.

It does what it sets out to do reasonably well without breaking my brain in the process.

The show takes the time to give a few realistic dimensions to the characters' emotional lives, and each actor in the core trio has sharp comic timing.

I'll keep watching, given the caliber of the cast and the solidly made pilot, and I'll hope that Vegas gives these actors more to do than standing over bodies and leveling shotguns at city slickers.

If you can accept Midwife for what it is--and at its core, it's a pleasant, even romantic period piece about divergent people who learn to take care of their own--there are quite a few pleasures to be found here.

The whole point of the show is to display super sexy spies having cool adventures and getting to know each other again as they try to put the spark back into their marriage. There's nothing necessarily objectionable about that, but forgive me if I expect more from a series that J.J. Abrams is involved in. Having said all that, Undercovers is not a chore to watch.

The new cop drama The Chicago Code resembles its lead characters: It's focused, determined and ambitious--and sometimes it tries to do too much. Still, the handsome Code succeeds far more often than it strikes out.

Even if Scandal isn't quite as instantly addictive as "Grey's Anatomy" was back in the day, this is a well-paced, generally well-acted show with some promising elements (though there is also an occasional tendency to offer contrived redemptions that don't make a ton of sense).

Some of the mystical stuff in The Defenders remains just that: mystical. But after a couple of episodes, and a couple of fights that resemble high-tech barroom brawls, viewers will get the rhythm of the story.

[A] solid and confident show.

Now in its second season, Portlandia has matured into a comedic concoction that is consistently pleasing.

Season 2 has some nuanced writing and some cleverly observed moments. But there are also a number of grating elements on display as the season gets underway.

Its somewhat opaque characters never quite moved me on that level [of "Broadchurch," "Happy Valley" or "Top of the Lake"]. Though it's well made and respectful of its subject matter, something about this show keeps it not at the surface but more or less reliably near it.

All in all, the Alphas season premiere is competent and enjoyable when it comes to action and pacing, but this show (especially given its modest budget) will rise and fall on the continuation of the character development begun in Season 1, and the jury's still out on that front.

By casting Feore, Arnaud, Harris and the magnetic Irons in this Gothic soap opera about randy popes and their enemies, and by taking the world of 15th Century Rome moderately seriously, Jordan ensured that this drama would be more than just a mildly cheesy guilty pleasure. It's not much more than that, mind you, but you won't have to go to confession after you've partaken of this Showtime costume drama.

Calling Blood Drive a rom-com would be stretching things, but it is refreshing to see that love can still bloom in a world where, if you softly whispered, “I would die for you,” most of the population would take you up on the offer.

Lone Star doesn't have quite the same sense of place as 'FNL,' and it's far more of a traditional soap than the NBC/DirecTV drama. Still, Voight and especially Keith, who projects palpable charisma, give terrific performances as the strong, stubborn men trying to bend Bob to their wills. This is no 'Dallas' but a sincere look at one man's attempt to go straight without alienating everyone he loves.

For all its formulaic predictability, though, this show has an acerbic self-awareness that may defuse the cynicism you may bring to it.