Writer and executive producer Noah Hawley upped the game with a sharp, well-developed story involving multiple moving parts. It’s smart, thought out and full of watchable characters with convincing enough motives to create the perfect amount of viewer sympathy. The end result isn’t just a “Fargo” 2.0 (or 3.0 depending on your love of film), but an evolved story that takes television to a whole new level.

This is a television show at the very peak of its powers, confident and controlled. The cast and crew have done their part--your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is simply to tune in. You won’t regret it.

The acting is delightful, the visuals are sumptuous, the stories couldn't be more surprising.

Season 2 is bolder, stronger, and more audacious because now, actions have consequences.... For a TV show, the stakes don’t get much higher and Soloway nails it all with ease.

Louie is television's best half-hour drama. It's also one of the best comedies, when it still wants to be, which isn't all that often.

Few shows are so grounded. And, if you have a little patience, few shows are so worth watching.

Tambor anchors the show with his sad eyes, but Landecker, Duplass and Hoffmann also turn in strong performances as the addled children.... Episodes might break your heart, but you'll keep coming back for more.

Master of None is more articulate than any other show at putting under a microscope that generation’s neuroses, desires, and ambivalence. The series also happens to be sexy, hilarious, and very moving, a tribute to Ansari’s observational powers and ability to pinpoint the zeitgeist.

The Night Of doesn’t break new ground so much as it showcases a group of actors, writers and directors working at an exceptionally high level, merging potentially familiar genres into a thoroughly absorbing study of disparate characters brought together by a murder whose perpetrator remains a mystery.

Ultimately, this meandering, often brilliant show is held together by Glover, whose charming, sensitive presence is akin to the way Atlanta bops along on its own bemused frequency.

The FX limited-run series is every bit as watchable as the insanely watchable trial.

Orange Is the New Black is as scatological as ever in the second season and leans awfully heavily on lesbian sex to the point of repetition. But where it shines most is when it shows the sense of dislocation inmates can have from being shuffled around with little explanation. Prisoners come and go, and they all seem to have a story.

There's a looser feel after so much anger and grief; jazzy instrumental music underscores the twisting and turning action. It's top notch TV by directors at the height of their game.

With lead characters this complex, showrunner Michelle Ashford has plenty of material to plumb for episodes to come. Judging by the second season's start, Masters of Sex is just getting down to business.

The production is exceedingly well put together and boasts a fine cast that also includes Ann Dowd (pivotal figure in HBO's melancholy post-Rapture series “The Leftovers”) and “Breaking Bad” co-star Jesse Plemons. McDormand is nothing less than extraordinary in the title role.

Overall, the season gets off to a very strong--and interesting--start. The writing is deepening along with the relationships depicted.

Another season of fast-paced, dramatic antics with plenty of twists and turns to keep “Chapter Twenty-Three” on par with any of season 1’s installments.

Nic Pizzolatto’s script and Cary Fukunaga’s direction slowly, methodically earn every big moment. And when those moments arrive in the third episode, they’re legitimately terrifying.

The show works because all of its actors seem so human, so likeable, despite the words coming from their mouths.

Season 4 is so rich and dense with characters, backstories and subplots that some of its more interesting new additions remain mere teases. As always, the flashbacks remain the strongest aspects of the series.

At times, however, Hawley goes a little too heavy on the quirk, and Thornton, who last regularly appeared on TV in the John Ritter political comedy “Hearts Afire” in the early 1990s, overly indulges in that smirk. Bits between mob enforcers Mr. Numbers (Adam Goldberg) and Mr. Wrench (Russell Harvard) also wear out their welcome. The overall quality of TV's Fargo is high.

It’s exhaustive and it’s exhausting, and for a certain type of Beatles fan (like, I suspect, Jackson himself) it’ll be an irresistible delight. ... To embrace these near eight hours, you need to completely surrender to his pacing, to glory in every day of the Beatles’ sessions at Twickenham Studios and then at the smaller recording studio in the basement of their Apple headquarters. You may find yourself wishing that the boys would please shut up and play their instruments on a number of occasions, but the film clings to those endless conversations with the tenacity of McCartney trying to coax the right guitar line out of Harrison.

For the most part, Show Me a Hero revels in small, telling moments that say as much about human nature as how the American people perceive politics and politicians.

There have been an awful lot of movies and shows about lost children, but The Missing elevates the familiar dynamic to a new level with a gut wrenching mystery. By the end of the first episode, you really want to know what happened to the tyke while dreading where the answer might take you.

The “Rashomon”-style storytelling elevates the series from being just another conventional story about a middle-aged affair. But, that can't completely make up for overwrought moments in the opening episode.... But the biggest problem for The Affair is that neither Noah nor Alison is particularly appealing.

Mad Men is getting better as it goes on.

These characters are anything but flawless and one-dimensional. But, they are at their most believable and compelling when they relentlessly defend their children and loved ones and awkwardly try to make sense of their crumbling worlds.

By the end of the first hour you’re not entirely sure what happened or who is to blame, but you’re left with an unsettling feeling that even when the truth does surface the story won’t be tied up with a neat little bow as it would be in so many other crime dramas on television.