What makes these episodes feel extra-special is the sense of purpose to them. There's a big story being told here--not one that requires you to watch every episode (though your funny bone will thank you if you do), but one that seems to raise the stakes for everyone involved, and which makes the jokes funnier, the characters richer, in the process.

They know how great the show looks, they know how much their actors can give them, and they know just how much they can get away with.

As the follow-up to an incredibly strong debut season, it's even more fun.

Normal is overrated. Give me whimsy, dreams and Evil Troy and Evil Abed any day. Give me extraordinary. Give me Community.

The premiere suggests that the only other show that belongs with it in the discussion for the best drama on television is the same one we were talking about last season. At the top level, there is "Breaking Bad," and there is also--finally, thankfully, exceptionally--Mad Men, and then there is everything else.

It definitely has a voice, and it's a great one: witty and wise and warm and not exactly like anything you've heard before.

Silly or sober, Louie is one of the best shows on television.

While there are many extraordinary moments in the new season, there's still enough inconsistency that I'm still waiting for it to become the classic drama it so clearly has the tools to be.

Homeland functions terrifically as both a thriller and a commentary on our post-post-9/11 world, where the War on Terror and the concept of being constantly under surveillance are both facts of life.

Because the bond between them is so strong, all the show's disparate pieces - the filthy comedy and the desperation, the joy and the depression - hold together just as well.

It's clear and engaging and moving to this novice.

The sheer number of colorful characters maneuvering keeps things lively.

The acting, writing and directing are superb.

"Extras" finally achieves the greatness expected of the Gervais/Merchant team with Season Two.

Sick, twisted and darkly funny, "Dexter" is easily the best drama in Showtime history.

It's the best-looking pilot of the season--maybe the best new show, period--even though it may not look that good in the future.

The CW's Reaper and NBC's "Chuck," the two shows featuring the aforementioned Sam and, um, Chuck, are an unusual pairing in that they're not only both good--with ABC's "Pushing Daisies," they're the best new shows of the season.

AMC's "Breaking Bad" [is] still the best drama you're not watching.

There's no performance quite on par with Damian Lewis's star turn as the quiet, decent company leader in "Band," but the three leads all take advantage of their showcase roles to craft characters that transcend both war movie cliches and the actors' own mixed backgrounds.

That balance of viewpoints--positive and negative, tragic and comic--is what makes Carrier such extraordinary viewing.

The darker and more complicated life gets for the Sons, the better the TV show tends to be. And based on the four episodes I've seen, Sons is still at the incredible level it achieved a year ago, when it became one of the best dramas on television.

Treme may lack the obvious narrative engine that the cops vs. drug dealers narrative gave "The Wire," but it's already a smart, engaging, moving and funny series, one that in many ways is more accessible than its predecessor.

It's so small and spare and simple, and yet it can be incredibly effective at what it does. Nice to have it back.

It's not an ambitious show. It doesn't have the historical sweep and dazzling visuals of something like HBO's upcoming "Boardwalk Empire." Yet in trying to tell good old-fashioned detective stories featuring a pair of leads I kept wanting to spend time with, it quickly joined "Boardwalk" as one of my two favorite new shows of this fall.

Thanks to the sharp writing of Warren Leight and a revelatory lead performance by obscure journeyman actor Holt McCallany, Lights Out is a reminder of why Hollywood keeps making boxing stories. Because when they're done well, they're irresistible.

The characters are so richly-drawn, and so wonderfully-played, that the exposition ultimately isn't that great a stumbling block. I wanted to know more about these characters, and within an episode or so was eager for any bit of backstory that helped better clarify all the relationships.

Darn it if Justified showrunner Graham Yost and company haven't found a way to equal--if not top--that bunch [of opponents], while at the same time building on the lessons they learned in the first season.

In season two, the strengths of Treme remain strengths, while some of the show's weaknesses have been much improved.