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.

I Love Dick very much shows as well as tells. ... A series that is completely willing to offend sensibilities while also engaging them.

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.

The series repeatedly bounces around, but coherently so. And in the early going at least, Flynn’s performance is the more interesting and affecting while also consuming considerably more screen time.

A surprisingly solid sitcom that for the most part keeps its balance amid one absurdity after another.

Winfrey’s performance, as Henrietta’s tormented youngest daughter, Deborah, is jump-off-the-screen terrific. ... Director George C. Wolfe (Nights In Rodanthe) has a tough story to tie together--and at times ties himself in knots.

The main characters also aren’t clicking on all cylinders yet, save for the dastardly Varga and his bitingly delicious way of putting things. ... This latest Fargo likely will be quite a trip, with its principal creative force, Noah Hawley, not to be discounted in terms of coming through in the clutch.

Absent the trappings of official power and high-stakes infighting by Selina and her team, the very blue banter at times seems both juvenile and excessive. ... The open question is whether Veep can sustain itself as a comedy about a festering ex-president who’s desperate to remain relevant in civilian life. But it seems likely.

After a crackling good start, Prison Break begins to wobble but doesn’t quite topple in succeeding hours.

It seems like a harmless little diversion at this point, with Elfman and Dratch playing well off one another in a fantasy that may have enough winning moments to survive its tough-to-pull-off premise.

The first five episodes made available for review are underwhelming and under-achieving.

Harlots tends to teeter between being a lark and a social tract. The flesh is willing throughout, but the structure can be a little weak. Still, this is a decidedly different and bracing look at ye olde England, with power struggles aplenty as women strive to assert themselves while men mostly just want to insert themselves.

More than halfway through, Shots Fired is still without any indictments while bobbing and weaving through various subplots. Still, it’s drama of a fairly high order.

You’ll likely at least be grinning, if not sometimes laughing out loud. Because after a halting start, the amusements are plentiful during the three half-hours made available for review.

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.

Season 5 of The Americans almost assuredly will round into form after a rather sluggish start compared to previous returns. In the initial three hours, the plot both thickens and sometimes congeals.

Stroma and Rodriguez have some sweet getting-to-know-you moments together while Bowman has presence as a menace run amuck. Still, by the end of Episode 2, a dull-edged redundancy is already starting to set in.

Making History doesn’t get everything right. But the series’ principal trio commit themselves fully, with Meester particularly fresh and appealing as a transplanted colonial having the time of her life as a newly liberated woman.

Bette and Joan gives Lange and Sarandon a sublime showcase from the first moment they hit their marks.

Chicago Justice, which some also see as something of a lightly camouflaged Law & Order reboot, gives NBC another steady hand that’s also no great shakes. But it’ll do, and Wolf very likely has more where it came from.

A conveyor belt of death-defying and death-dispensing action scenes.

When We Rise is an enriching, bonafide TV event of the first order and also powerful enough to change more than a few entrenched minds.

Crashing has enough mostly gentle amusements to keep it on track. And it’s increasingly easy to get on Pete’s side.

The dialogue crackles and the first featured case (in Episode 2) is buoyed by a guest appearance from Christine Lahti (Chicago Hope) as a very self-assured prosecutor.

Big Little Lies isn’t stitched tightly enough to be a truly great miniseries.

So far it’s strictly so-so on the storytelling front, but with some scenes that raise the bar beyond that. Those mostly involve Light, though. And she’s not the one who’s supposed to carry the load.

Legion jars the senses as a jagged-edged jigsaw puzzle that can’t easily be put together. But there’s no inclination to ever stop trying because the overall artistry is beautiful to behold and just won’t quit.

Hours two and three, also made available for review, are somewhat better executed [than the premiere episode].

The 24 franchise still takes itself very seriously and perhaps will somehow sort things out from a basic believability standpoint as time marches on. But in the first four hours, it’s too often 24: Cuckoo Clock.

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.

A violent, virile and often vile extension of the 2001 film that won Denzel Washington a Best Actor Oscar.

Superior Donuts may well get stale in a hurry. But it’s on a network that somehow has kept the idiotic and likewise eatery-themed 2 Broke Girls on the air for an astonishing six seasons. And this one is better than that.

Tudyk camps it up as Van Wayne, sometimes amusingly so. A villain known as Jack O’Lantern also gets off a bit of a zinger while flying overhead. ... The opening comic book credits are pretty cool, too. Powerless otherwise is notably short on pop or long-term promise, with things staying pretty flat throughout Thursday’s scene-setter.

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.

Riverdale can be overwrought at times and even too transparently politically correct at others. But it’s also crisply entertaining and particularly well-cast with respect to the pivotal roles of Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) and Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes).

Beaches hits some sweet spots without being overly taxing on the male gene.

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.

Intellectually challenging while arguably also going off the rails more than a few times, The Young Pope has its work cut out in luring a sizable audience.

It’s a solid enough re-start to a series that Showtime already has renewed for two more seasons beyond this one.

Three episodes deep, there’s an appetite for more, but not a ravenous one. Taboo could develop into a whale of a tale once Delaney is fully seen in his earlier element.

They thoroughly come alive in this instant classic about show biz addiction and rejection.

So far, muy bueno. Somewhat amazingly, this turns out to be a comedy whose time has come again.

Emerald City has its moment as a vicarious, danger-packed thrill ride replete with jolts, wonders and ample shivers amid its shimmers.

A little too much patience is required at times, but the first four episodes do include a brief glimpse into a pretty cool looking netherworld during Holden’s chemical injections at the hands of Willa.

There are likely to be more to come on a network that only occasionally fails to keep its crime hours in play for multiple seasons. Ransom is easier to take than some of them, and with a hero who doesn’t have to brandish a gun to get the job done.

You may not laugh until it hurts, but there are some laughs to be had. Particularly for those who also swear by Family Guy.

Perhaps Star will evolve and hit some higher notes in future episodes. But its premiere hour is mostly a patchwork quilt of fairly effective performance segments and threadbare storylines.

Although its super-bleak future is nothing new, Incorporated does an above-average job of bringing it all home.

Good Behavior so far is a work in progress with two leads who show considerable promise in terms of making it all work.

It’s all quite enthralling and majestic.

People of Earth has built a small-town universe with just enough quirks and intrigue to keep its premise in play. It has both heart and a sense of the absurd, making it increasingly “accessible” with the proviso that you’re just not going to get a laugh riot.

The cancer/pregnancy storyline unfortunately takes a rather predictable turn in terms of the woman’s hard-praying husband. But the dynamics between the willful Bell and his staff are well-played throughout.

Jack technically is a Gen Xer. But he might as well be the Quaker Oats man in the eyes of millennials getting the same broad brush treatment. It’s a wonder they can even feed themselves in a comedy that force-feeds its concept and swallows McHale whole in the process.

Those who have devoured the swervy, same-named Douglas Adams books could very well find themselves immensely entertained. Those who haven’t--guilty as charged--at least can admire the energy, cheekiness and slick production values without caring all that much how everything comes out.

It’s a shopworn premise to be sure, but the delivery system overcomes much of that. LeBlanc fine-tunes his doofus Joey persona and smoothly rolls with it at home, at school and in the workplace he shares with older brother Don (a serviceable Kevin Nealon).

So far it’s involving to a degree but never enthralling to the max.

Berlin Station so far looks like a series worth riding out, with Jenkins, Armitage, Ifans and Forbes all making strong contributions to the cause.

Graves assuredly will turn off some viewers with its title character’s U-turns from previous conservative positions on military spending and illegal immigration. The series clearly has an “agenda,” but isn’t all that artful in putting it forth. Nolte’s performance is energetic without being particularly memorable.

What if nothing ends up coming together? Although there are some signs of that, Falling Water also can be maddeningly inexplicable and perhaps not worth a long-term investment. So far, my interest has ebbed and flowed.

American Housewife so far is too busy taking offense to be much fun to watch.

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.

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.

Frequency does a pretty solid job of juggling its balls and creating new intrigues. By the end of the premiere episode, another perplexing murder mystery is in play while Raimy wonders what hit her.

Anderson is quite good in the lead role, though, and Sasse nicely upholds his half of the equation. But No Tomorrow decidedly is not a step-up from either Crazy Ex-Girlfriend or Jane the Virgin.

Atwell’s performance is solid enough, particularly when Armstrong is around for badgering purposes. But the weekly skirmishes with “The System” end in ways that at best strain credulity.

From the network that brought you Quantum Leap, it’s NBC’s Timeless, which can be far-fetched even for a show of this genre. But it’s also agreeably fast-paced and a good deal of fun before jumping through another hoop at the end that might make the present an almost equally wild mini-ride.

Through these first four episodes, Westworld flexes its lavish production values and has the kernels of what could turn into an increasingly absorbing morality play.

Friday’s curtain-raiser makes a better than expected first impression while at the same time putting Herrera’s hunky, soulful and appealing lead priest in play.

The resultant explosions look cheap and the cliche-pocked script keeps self-destructing--“We’re running out of time, Mac”--before the bad guys are neutralized. MacGyver deploys a few household items to make all of this happen, but not all that inventively or interestingly. Till’s acting remains a work in progress, if that.

This is a show without any nutritive value, innate appeal or sense of purpose. It slogs through its muck until the buzzer sounds.

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.

Crawford and Wayans prove to be a pretty good fit, as actors if not always as partners.

After a ridiculous opening bit--in which Maya recklessly drives the entire family to a restaurant whose 50 percent off coupon will expire in three minutes--both Driver and the show settle into a solid and for the most part amusing groove.

Wednesday’s opening episode, the only one made available for review, solidly sets the hook while only partly weaning Sutherland from all those years as Jack Bauer on 24.

This looks like a drama with a heart, a pulse and also the ability to skip a beat.

Weatherly is the here, the now and the only overriding reason to watch Bull. On his own or in the NCIS ensemble, his star quality is obvious and likely enough to carry Bull through a multi-season run.

All of this unfolds with complete and utter predictability amid a “Take my wife, please” collection of broad, flat, dated jokes delivered with a sledge hammer’s touch by Kevin and his coarse, chub-a-lub pals.

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.

There’s always a very outside chance that Son of Zorn could have the legs of an ALF in the annals of hybrids turned into weekly sitcoms. But this already looks like pretty thin stuff that’s not worth writing home about--not even from the planet Zephyria.

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

For the most part, though, You’re the Worst keeps clicking as a decidedly “adult” look at thirtysomething infantilism.

Atlanta is very distinctively [Glover's] baby through and through.

A drama that accentuates mob violence but lacks the “charm,” humor and overall empathy generated by The Sopranos.

On paper this seemed as though it could be a bit of fun. In execution, it’s labored and way over-cooked.

A grossly uneven but still oft-scintillating mess-terpiece.

Vice Principals can be coarsely amusing in fits and spurts. But when it’s bad, it’s horrid.

The rooting interests are many and varied in a drama that’s held together by the strength of its convictions and characters.

This is HBO’s best “limited series” since Angels in America, which in 2004 won all of the major Emmy awards in its category.

Queen of the South, based on the first three episodes, knows how to dawdle a little without ever slowing to a crawl. The action scenes are gripping, the language can be rough within the expanding confines of ad-supported basic cable and the glimpses of the flesh are fairly bold at times.

It starts to get better in Episode 2, courtesy of a killer raw rehearsal by the real-life band Reignwolf, which has been hastily signed to be the opening act in Memphis. The power of their music has some of the roadies believably transfixed. And for this short burst at least, the occasional magic of their profession is self-evident without any clunky pronouncements from Wilson’s Hanson.

The two episodes made available for review are not without pulling power. But how much staying power will American Gothic have over a long haul of 13 episodes ordered for Season One?

Animal Kingdom is nowhere near in the same league as The Americans or Fargo or the recently ended Justified. And if it’s trying to be Sons of Anarchy ... well, I think most viewers finally had enough of that, too.

Epps has his moments, the kids are well-cast and there are a few good lines. But you won’t be missing much if your Tuesday nights are already reserved for NBC’s competing America’s Got Talent.

This one lands somewhere between a pleasant surprise and better-than-expected.

One of the better things about this series is its ongoing updates via clever Gilligan’s Island-esque sing-along lyrics preceding each new chapter. Better yet is Winstead’s assured, appealing performance as a D.C. tenderfoot thrust into a new world of mystery and political polarization that escalates once those bugs begin infesting and in some cases, exploding the heads of their prey.

Outcast is beautifully composed cinematically, with a conveniently nearby woods providing an extra layer of creepiness. By the end of the initial four episodes, a spellbinding hook has been set, with the mythology enticingly unfolding amid week-to-week new vistas in exorcism.

The food looks pretty good. But that’s not enough to keep this drama from rising above basic cafeteria fare.