The ensemble works incredibly well together--in marked contrast to Selina's dysfunction, competitive staff--and there's a briskness and intelligence to the whole shebang.

It's a smart mix of soap opera, music and political intrigue.

[Deb's new] knowledge, and the way it alters Dexter and Deb's relationship, shakes the series out of the doldrums it's been in for several years now.

If it were just a collection of well-choreographed explosions and gunfire, it would still be an entertaining watch. But there's a genuine effort made to show the impact of all this mayhem on both the men perpetuating it and the people who are witnesses and/or victims to it.

The Last Resort pilot episode is far and away the best I watched for this fall season. There are some bumps in the next two episodes, but also some very promising signs that, coupled with the talent involved, has me wanting to believe there is a great series here.

The actors all get their moments to shine, even if their stories don't always feel attached to one another

Overall, The Mindy Project is a comedy that arrives knowing what it wants to be and what kinds of stories and jokes it wants to tell.

The Walking Dead is excellent with action, with suspense, and with atmosphere, and these early episodes have all three in spades.

Game of Thrones remains a very entertaining series set in a very rich world. But the longer it’s on, the more it feels like Benioff and Weiss are only scratching the surface of that world--even if that may be the only way to coherently explore it.

If Crossfire Hurricane doesn't offer much that's new, or tell a spellbinding story along the way, it still vividly captures how they became legends in the first place.

It's a very promising start, at a minimum. The distribution model for House of Cards may be looking to reinvent how we watch TV, but the show itself feels very much of a piece with what we've been seeing for the last 10 or 15 years.

It's a charming series that feels like it has a lot of potential for growth, and not just because its main character has nowhere to go but up.

As original series debuts go, it’s no “Oz” or “The Shield,” but it does the job it sets out to do in entertaining fashion.

Tom Chadwick is a man with a fixation that’s both reasonable and relatable, and he becomes our tour guide to the familiar, funny Christopher Guest worldview.

Felicity is very clearly targeted at the Clearasil set that worships at the altar of the WB's "Dawson's Creek," but if the show can maintain the charm and poignancy of the pilot, adults may also want to pay homage to television's newest star. [29 Sept 1998, p.47]

The first two ABC episodes of Scrubs, premiering back-to-back tomorrow night, more closely resemble the series in its marvelous early seasons, and suggest that Braff's victory lap will be a memorable one.

The "Seinfeld" plot doesn't kick off until the season's third episode. The first two, meanwhile, are a reminder of what a brilliant show, and a deep cast of characters, Larry has built ever since he said goodbye to Jerry and company.

The show's aura of jungle mysticism is so overblown it's hilarious. I love how the castaways have to kill rats for food and make fire with sticks, but the tribal council meetings take place on a lavish, obviously prefab jungle village set that looks like the Ewok treehouse city in "Return of the Jedi." (The million-dollar grand prize is sitting over in one corner of the set - a pile of cash in an open treasure chest. Very Scrooge McDuck.)...Asinine stuff - and intensely addictive. [2 June 2000, p.37]

Chiklis always sells his end of it, and when he has a great actor opposite him, you don't really notice how puzzling the story arcs would get.

The fifth and final season may be the most overtly farcical, but only because things in this slightly fictionalized Baltimore have become, if you can imagine, worse than ever.

For one night, this is the best House, and its leading man, have been in a long time.

The Lost season three finale was no fluke. The show has got its mojo back, and then some.

I've seen both of tomorrow's episodes, as well as next week's, and I loved every minute. But I'm also a geek who read Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov growing up.

Smith's work in "The Eleventh Hour" showed us exactly what Moffat saw in that audition...."Eleventh Hour" is also a great build-up for Karen Gillan's immensely likable Amy Pond, who has by far the most interesting, emotionally resonant backstory of the modern companions.

With the start of season two, it looks like the expectations might finally meet the reality--or however real a show with aliens and time travel can get.

Though it rushes a bit through its final episode, Torchwood: Children of Earth is big in a way that very little of TV aspires to anymore. Until we see what kind of late charge "Mad Men" will have when it returns in mid-August, this is the most exciting television of the summer.

The challenges--including a head-to-head competition where pairs of chefs are sent into various New York neighborhoods and told to cook the local cuisine--seem appropriately Big Apple-centric without being silly.

Twists and rule tweaks will only carry a reality show so far by the time you're into the sixth season. The format itself has to be durable, and the casting has to be sharp--both of which seem to be the case in the early going.