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.