Not everything entirely adds up during the very winding course of China Girl’s six hours. ... The performances, however, are uniformly on target. Kidman, part of the recent ensemble in HBO’s Emmy-nominated Big Little Lies, is even more impressive here as the possessive, high-strung Julia while Dencik completely inhabits the role of thoroughly oily “Puss.” Moss again is impressively nuanced as the unsteady Robin, whose flaws and needs are palpable.

Once one gets past the gruesome goings-on in Episode One, it’s full tilt ahead in a crazily appetizing tale that’s easily swallowed whole.

Barry isn’t always completely on target. There are more than enough nifty plot turns and deftly played scenes, though, to keep the series steadily on its feet before a season-ending cliffhanger leaves one very much wanting more.

The two protagonists carry the day, though. C.B. and Robin are well worth rooting for as they sift their way through both the crimes at hand and their own personal dilemmas. So keep writing these characters, J.K. Rowling. They’re every bit as down to earth as Harry Potter was fantastical.

Seduced and Abandoned doesn’t always stay on track, but nonetheless never derails. It’s both a romp and a stomp, with Cannes the go-between.

Dexter likewise remains in solid shape, with new characters generating some additional heat while its namesake keeps plying his trade.

It's a thoroughly entertaining romp, with the television industry as a combination Tilt-A-Whirl/merry-go-round.

Divorced Sam Fox (Pamela Adlon) fights most of her battles on the domestic front in FX’s wonderfully biting Better Things.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend romps and rolls without really missing a beat.

All involved are dedicated to the cause of making Vikings one of television’s most striking series. It’s also emerged as one of the best, evolving from a guilty pleasure at first to a first-rate tale of substance and even subtlety mixed with the cold steel of primal warfare.

Never fear. The Harlan County, KY of FX’s Justified remains mostly dirty to the touch, a breeding ground for knuckle-draggers and a few somewhat higher forms of low-life.

Maron, 49, seems to be effortlessly gliding through his angst, laughing only rarely while giving viewers far more reason to do so.

The Righteous Gemstones is hallelujah-worthy for its performances, energy, comedy, dramedy and occasional little heart tugs.

It's both a promising and foreboding series, with class warfare an ever-present force that wants no part of any idealized forms of truth, justice and the American way.

It all meshes together in enthralling fashion with a tale that’s understandable and a setting that’s tailor made for picturesque vistas. Last Kingdom livens up Saturday nights with Emmy caliber storytelling and oft-sumptuous production values.

[A] very amusing and splendidly acted comedy about what happens when an American television network mucks up a long-running, award-laden British hit.

The Normal Heart grows in poignancy as characters we’ve come to know are affected or afflicted by AIDS.

I’m Dying Up Here convincingly recreates both a period and the primal scream existence of would-be star comedians who seem to most enjoy trading very barbed insults during frequent gatherings at a local diner.

Although it arguably strings things out a bit too much, this newest Witness is a watchable feast of strong portrayals and mostly sturdy plot threads. Jones is a fearless, full-immersion actor whose performance spares him no personal indignities.

The starkest and grimmest yet with its depictions of migrant worker and teen girl trafficking. ... So as with When We Rise, applause, applause--even if it sometimes feels like one hand clapping.

Young Sheldon ends up having a mind of its own, even if it’s a prequel to a long-established hit. Armitage and Perry in particular are a perfect pair as precocious son and protective but not overbearing mom. There’s an awful lot to like here, with high expectations not only met but exceeded.

The Knick towers above previous original dramas Strike Back and Banshee, giving Cinemax a gold star on an increasingly crowded boulevard of bravura television.

What you’ll see is the best broadcast TV cop drama of the season, with a dirty-to-the-touch sleuth played to the hilt by an actor who’s very much up for this.

From a storytelling standpoint, the back-and-forth choreography is not without stumbles. Performance-wise, though, FX’s eight-part Fosse/Verdon is never less than all that jazz.

Weighing in at two hours, 40 minutes and airing in one sitting, HBO’s What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali, is as thrilling today as it was in his yesteryears. ... What’s My Name doesn’t delve into its subject’s personal life, focusing only on his career in the ring and his activism outside of it. That’s more than enough to easily fill its extended running time.

Castle Rock looks to be one of the best King things in years.

It's the strongest medical series since House arrived on Fox for an eight-season run that ended last spring. The genre badly needs a transfusion. And at last, here's a strong one.

Gracepoint may not be superior to Broadchurch, but makes its own mark as fall’s best new broadcast network drama series--even if in some ways it’s not. Tennant’s estimable talents are the driving force of both versions, with each of the surrounding casts helping to keep him on point.

Whatever becomes of Ragnar, Vikings has emerged in its second season as a series of appreciably higher quality. Its characters and storytelling, all within a world quite unlike any other on the TV landscape, have gone far beyond the cardboard stage.

Edelstein’s pitch-perfect performance elevates Girlfriends’ Guide to one of the best new series of the season.

Downward Dog obviously could have gone very wrong. Instead it gets almost everything irresistibly right, whether it’s Martin’s simple yet challenging life (“I’m only human,” he reasons) or the accompanying two-legged human endeavors that shift his mind into overdrive and this series into the realm of the near-sublime.

It shines through and stands out as the fall season’s best new comedy among the major broadcast networks. ... Her character is a fraud who so far doesn’t belong, but Bell herself is the very best thing about The Good Place.

Its characters and situations are alternately aggravating, humorous and, to a lesser extent, poignant. Parker and Church are fully in charge throughout as a perfectly imperfect duo. Yes, they’re both that good--in a series that demands just that.

Potentially the best new comedy series of this season.

Last Week Tonight probably needs to towel off a bit and present a more relaxed half-hour next Sunday. The premiere outing nonetheless showed considerable ingenuity and a willingness to take on topics that haven’t already been parodied to death.

Season 3, which again will have 12 episodes, shows strong signs of fully regaining its bite, passion and fury.

Through it all, though, Downton Abbey is still superior entertainment on a grand scale.

Sunday night's sixth season opener, "Meet the Blacks," is a gem from start to finish. Two subsequent episodes sent for review aren't as finely tuned, but still get high passing grades.

The four episodes made available for review keep Veep in its wheel house of low comedy executed at a high level.

Maniac, for its part, throws down a tale that swerves to the left and swerves to the right without ever losing velocity. But seeing is believing while not believing what you’re seeing is also part of the experience.

Visually entrancing, pointedly provocative and all over the place in time and space, Watchmen might make even David Lynch drop his jaw at times.

Alias Grace doesn’t wrap everything up tidily -- and at times can be a bit messy and far-fetched. ... The performances are uniformly first-rate, though, and viewers will get closure rather than any dangling cliffhangers.

The real joys of Smash are its performances and production numbers, some fantasized, others part of the bare bones auditioning process.

In these first three episodes, it shows no signs of getting stale.

Inventive and frequently hilarious. ... Future Man has a firm grasp of what it is and where it’s going. Coupe and Wilson excel as goal-fixated warriors from the future without any social graces while Hutcherson shines as a nebbish who both talks them down and strives to keep his own heart from beating off the charts.

Traffic Light is winning and amusing without being loud and loutish.

The portrayal of Paterno is right up there with Pacino’s very best work. Kudos to HBO for keeping him center stage, which is where he still belongs.

Whether young, old or in-between, all of these characters resonate in their own distinct ways as The Chi builds both momentum and suspense. This is no small achievement for Waithe, whose first TV series under her direct control is bursting with flavor and humanity in a South Chicago proving ground. The footing is always slippery, but the storytelling remains bracingly sure-footed.

References to Beyonce and Michelle Obama are worked in without reaching too hard. And the "black experience," although hardly monolithic, resonates in ways that make this version quite special and different.

No cameras were allowed for this [interviews with the band], making it sometimes difficult to decipher just who's talking during the otherwise brilliantly edited archival footage assembled by filmmaker Brett Morgen

Few TV dramas are as thought-provoking or daringly opinionated. Sorkin doesn’t always get everything right. Who the hell does? But he writes with purpose, force and conviction, sometimes with a heavier hand than necessary.

It's coarse and sometimes dirty to the touch, but pretty damned hilarious at crunch times. FX just might have the standout new comedy series of this season.

John Benjamin Hickey’s point man performance leads the way, with his character’s demons and dilemmas already etched like fissures in his face. Carrying the weight of the world can be heavy lifting. Manhattan so far shows every sign of being able to shoulder the load.

By the end of Episode 4, subtitled “It’s Not For Everyone,” the series is earning its mettle as a truly macabre, chilling and rousing war of attrition in which the winner will either take all or stop hell on earth in its bloody tracks.

Patrick Melrose is stamped throughout by Cumberbatch’s alternately furious and touching performance. But it takes a real despot to fuel his fires and shame, and Weaving is thoroughly up to commanding that role. Leigh likewise is a standout as Patrick’s cowed mother. ... Showtime in the end has a unique viewing experience, with some wit also in play amid the terrible consequences of being raised in a living hell.

It's a genuinely chilling four-hour adaptation of the tireless horror-meister's 1998 bestseller.

In short, a lot is very right with Get Shorty, which may well come calling again during next year’s awards season.

Dunst is the saving grace throughout a rollicking Season One that keeps delivering whenever she’s on screen. It may well turn out to be the TV performance of the year, with some very able assists from Pellerin, Rodriguez, Ditto and Levine.

Del Toro and Dano are both solidly believable, but the bravura performances in Dannemora come from Arquette and Lange as prison employees who get to taste freedom daily, even if it mostly tastes pretty sour.

Precious little, beyond his storied and enduring plays, is known about Shakespeare’s personal life or even his sexuality. So TNT is making him up as he goes along in a rousing, colorful drama that signifies more than nothing and indeed can often be quite something.

There’s a gainful, functioning relationship among the four oft-miserable principals. And so far it’s still in place after the first three episodes.

Spielberg has always had a facility for casting children and a fondness for the supernatural. In The Whispers he also gets the adult mix right in a bracingly good and shivery serial drama with much to show and tell in the first three hours.

The best new crime drama of the fall season doesn't necessarily have to be an original idea. It just has to have the right people in place.

Screenwriter Sarah Phelps has deftly adapted Rowling’s novel into a cautionary, metaphorical tale that pulls its weight and measuredly draws one in.

It's a distinctive, signature series from a decidedly singular voice.

Some of its mumbo jumbo may hurt your head, but the last words of Episode 2 are precisely on point. They whet the appetite for more, more.

Creators Fey and Carlock instill Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt with the infectious positivity of their title character, who won’t give up, no, she’ll never give up. Still, her hard knocks life starts taking its toll in later episodes, draining some of Kimmy’s ebullience and replacing it with a little petulance. The sunny side up Kimmy is much preferable.

So far this is solid and very picturesque entertainment, with a strong sense of foreboding built in.

It's FX scoring again with another out of the box, jump-in-your-face series that most assuredly isn't for everyone but most definitely knows what it's doing.

Purefoy and Williams are standouts throughout while Hendricks pretty much settles in. The bloody goings-on apart from their fractious triangle can be jolts from out of the blue. But there’s always some cauterizing banter just around the corner.

Whatever your religious beliefs--or lack thereof--The American Bible Challenge is good for the soul. It's also the best new game show in years.

Although Buscemi remains firmly in charge of this lead role, he's not the most interesting principal anymore. That pendulum swings to his wife of convenience, Margaret Schoeder (Kelly Macdonald).

It may be quite a challenge to keep up the pace and the quality. But the bet here is that these guys will find ways to keep making it all work for them.

The thrill of discovery is long gone for True Blood. But the thrill of a new season is still very much in play. The first three episode of Season 4 had just enough pulling power to keep me in the fold.

It promises to be quite a juggling act, with Leary as balls-out as ever in the early going of his latest daring enterprise.

Its downward slide shows signs of leveling off by the end of Sunday’s opening two hours. Danes’ Carrie is steelier than ever, her heart hardened to near-concrete while going about the exhilarating business of eliminating terrorists no matter what the collateral damage.

Kids Are Alright has some fine, funny lines and also plenty of companion story lines to follow besides Timmy’s. It’s the best of the fall season’s new comedies from a network that’s become well-practiced in turning back the clock and making shows like these tick.

In Ballers [Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson] brings it in full and then makes the sale.

It packs a lot of intriguing plot threads into its first hour while also brimming with money-on-the-screen production values.

Welcome to Sweden is more charming and amusing than laugh-out-loud funny. But its charms are considerable and the overall premise is bracingly unique.

Some of Rae’s best moments during the six episodes made available or review are when her character squares off with herself in a mirror and rehearses what she should or shouldn’t say in big moments.

Season Two has only just begun its twists and turns. But so far, so good, with ample possibilities still in play while Harry’s head tries to stay in the game.

Filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (The Black List, The Latino List) might have done well to just keep the camera on [Carmen Dell'Orefice] and let everyone else hit the cutting room floor. But other former supermodels are quite interesting as well, among them Isabella Rossellini, Jerry Hall, Paulina Porizkova, Carol Alt, China Machado, Marisa Berenson and Lisa Taylor.

Revolution, which has the overall look and feel of a big budget feature, delivers some consistently terrific action scenes.

Douglas, Damon and company put on a crowd-pleaser that even Liberace couldn’t top during all those many-splendored stage performances. A film that could have been so very bad turns out to be pretty mah-velous.

Fans of the fantastical can do far worse than Once Upon A Time, which manages to both stir the pulse and please the senses with its beautifully imagined medieval times.

Investing in ABC’s Emergence looks like it could be a winning proposition. And even if the suspense and premise begin to sag, there’s always Allison Tolman to keep hope alive. ... Tolman’s performance is thoroughly grounded.

The producers of Pitch of course say that it’s a character-driven drama with baseball action in the mix but not a focal point of each weekly episode. Episode One, however, is appealingly diamond-centric, with Ginny’s travails and resolve (plus some well-chosen mood music) providing more than enough tension to engage even hardcore non-sports fans.

Girlfriends doesn’t aways hit its marks--particularly during the over-reaching opening minutes of Episode 4. But the three lead performances, particularly on the part of Miranda Richardson, are more than enough to carry the day.

The first four episodes of Season 4 are a little weak downstairs while still remaining at or near the top of the TV comedy class.

It can be heavy-handed at times while also being overly tethered to somber narration from the renamed Offred (series star Elisabeth Moss), who used to be June.

Baskets will never be a walk in the park. And it no doubt remains too dark for many. Some rays of light are showing, though, by the end of Episode 4. Nothing overly warm and toasty, mind you. But some welcome little thaws.

Lost in Space didn’t have to be very good at all to improve on either the original or the movie. Still, it’s much better than might have been expected, as is Netflix’s ongoing One Day At a Time reboot. The Robinsons and their antagonists look good to go again.

It all makes for a promising start on a network whose best comedies invariably wind up on Thursday nights. Whitney is already there, and looks as though it just might belong.

Caan’s perfectly clipped delivery and his daughter’s well-timed comebacks make Back in the Game at least a standup double if not a sliding triple.

Elliot's (Rami Malek) haunted eyes and black hoodies, coupled with a blunt, abrasive take on humankind, propel Mr. Robot through a world of deep discontent and covert villainy.

Dear Mom, Love Cher is both a pleasant and evocative way to spend an hour.

Happy Endings quickly gets its game in gear and emerges as ABC's best new sitcom since Better Off Ted unfortunately failed to find an audience.