The cast is uniformly good, especially Corey Stoll as Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, the head of a Center for Disease Control team called in to investigate that dead plane.... The greatest strength of The Strain is its ability to revamp vampires while paying homage to the myths about them that have accrued over decades.

Later episodes get bogged down in subplots that feel like busywork meant to keep our characters apart, and perhaps there aren’t any major revelations to this show’s look at dating in your 30s. But Love’s modest, hesitant misadventures are charming in their own right. Maybe it’s not quite love, but it’s definitely like.

After an exceedingly violent first episode, it eases up a notch, and the show is better for it.

The jokes were mostly solid, but anodyne. Colbert projected enthusiasm, but it felt like he was in a hurry to get through the segment and to the desk.... The guest interviews were not great... For the premiere of the new Late Show to be a success, Colbert, like those guys, needed to convince us that he was having fun. And like the other Stephen Colbert did for so long, he needed to make us have fun watching him. Mission accomplished.

The brilliance of Showtime’s Ray Donovan expresses itself not only through the impactful intelligence of star Liev Schreiber, but through nuanced moments in its literary-quality storytelling--written and visual.

[A] very funny new sitcom.... Lowe and Savage have a crackling energy together.

Gotham is dark and unpleasant, but it's also exciting and unpredictable.

Make no mistake, The Comeback earned its second season and celebrates its triumph, foresight and timing with twice as much depth, humor and awareness.

At times there seems to be too much going on in the pilot, between Richie running away from gun-wielding lunatics, attempting to sign new talent, working to keep his existing roster, finagling a deal to sell his company and balancing his precarious home life. But it’s no greater a flaw than most pilots attempting to set up the scheme of things face, and the action never seems bogged down or tied up in specifics.

This is, like Alan Moore's “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” a clever exploitation of characters in the public domain. But creator John Logan's story also thrives on its own. Penny Dreadful is a beguiling examination of that space between life and death.

Outcast tries to maintain a sense of tension from episode to episode (only the first four have been made available to critics) but too many sags in the storytelling allow doubt to creep in.

Almost every episode trades on our familiarity with the type--the heavy sidekick, the dumb, bullying jock, the knockout who wonders if she should be with the heavy sidekick instead of the dumb, bullying jock--but that familiarity too often comes perilously close to breeding contempt.

24: Live Another Day does action scenes really well, but the dialogue suffers: It can be overly melodramatic and expository.

When stacked up against a series like “The Leftovers,” which also examines a cult, it feels flat at first. But once the story does finally get rolling, the intersecting elements begin to build towards a compelling story with more complexity than first meets the eye.

For a show about highly trained, incredibly intelligent agents, Quantico’s pilot often succumbs to lame-brained plotting and a less-than-convincing portrayal of its specialized milieu.

It’s Siff and Malin Ackerman, as Axe’s loyal wife (who’s like a sober Michelle Pfeiffer in “Scarface,” all sharp blonde bob and sharper tongue) who simply, by virtue of their talent, keep Billions from devolving into an exercise in white privilege and machismo, something it constantly threatens to do.

Although there’s nothing new here, per se, it’s still a solid hour of watchable drama that often plays out more like a movie than a television series.

This is silliness for its own wonderfully ridiculous sake.

Even if subtlety isn’t going to be part of the equation, Burns makes up for it with his wiseguy humor, rapid-fire dialogue and a high volume of plot.

Onstage, Gaffigan can be winning as a regular guy. But The Jim Gaffigan Show is merely ordinary.

Finding the proper balance for dramedy isn't easy and Girlfriends’ Guide fails miserably at that task.

It’s a charming and quirky romantic tale with an overarching twist thanks to the notion that the world may indeed be ending, and it’s pulled of by two completely watchable leads.

The Get Down exudes the filmmaker’s operatic, lovingly campy spirit, and in small doses there’s a sugary rush to his ecstatic sequences of crowded dance floors, fervent gospel choirs and kids hanging out on the roof of their apartment complex, dreaming of a bigger world. But it’s what’s in-between those standalone moments where The Get Down gets bogged down, the drab storytelling lacking the punch of the show’s period-rich production design and outfits.

Bunbury is a star in the making as the leading character. ... Gosselaar is unrecognizable thanks to some newly acquired facial hair. As a result viewers will pay more attention to his equally strong performance and interactions with Bunbury throughout the hour. Mo McRae, Ali Larter and Tim Jo round out the solid cast, making for a pretty entertaining hour.

That the limited series squeaks by as just entertaining enough is a disappointment considering the pedigree of everyone involved and the reputation of its source material.

For all of its ambition, the drama feels lopsided at times because Winfrey, Whitfield, David and Dandridge’s performances are so dominate and riveting, they dwarf everything else. In order to compel viewers to keep coming back, Wright and company will have to either focus solely on the big four--more Oprah, please--or flesh out the ancillary portrayals so that they’re more distinctive.

The surrealness almost disguises the repetitive plot of returning home as a manchild. But as a series, Baskets is more bleak than amusing.

[Davis'] performance is riveting; you can't take your eyes off this powerful creature when she's on the screen. Alas, the students aren't nearly as compelling.... When the action shifts to them, the drama suffers.