Unlike most serialized dramas of late... "24" continues to do everything right.

The language, the acting, the themes - everything in "Deadwood" is good as gold. In TV entertainment terms, maybe even better.

Fabulous in every respect.

In theme and execution, in caliber of performance and level of dramatic tension, "Sleeper Cell" is an impressive, relentlessly gripping drama.

One of this season's most tasty and twisted TV treats.

If you loved "The Office" you may have grave doubts that any followup comedy could be as good and as quote-the-dialogue funny. "Extras" is that - another triumph, and a perfect Sunday-night companion piece for "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

As with the Gervais-Merchant "The Office," the more time you spend with the characters in "Extras," the more you feel their pain as well as laugh at their expense.

It's one of the best new shows from any network this year, and is a total, almost giddy delight from start to finish.

Like the best TV comedies - from "Seinfeld" to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and all the way back to "The Jack Benny Program" - "30 Rock" sparkles not just because its central star gets to shine, but because everyone does.

The law-firm arena is one of TV's oldest and most familiar genres, but Damages enlivens it by defying expectations.

"The Nine," starting tomorrow, is the show most people will want to discuss at the office water cooler.

Every hour is impressive, surprising and entertaining.

It's bold, different and exciting, with a central character and performance that take your breath away.

"The State Within" is challengingly cerebral - but at times, it's also almost painfully visceral. Don't miss it.

Pushing Daisies is perfect.

Sameer Asad Gardezi and his writing partners have created something very different in Aliens in America--and something very, very funny.

The team behind this series--creator Tom Kapinos from "Dawson's Creek," executive producer Scott Winant from "My So-Called Life" and "thirtysomething," and Duchovny himself--makes it easier for Duchovny by surrounding him with sparkling female characters and talent.

With strong performances by a cast that includes Alfred Molina, Michael Keaton, Rory Cochrane and Chris O'Donnell, this adaptation of a Robert Ludlum novel reels you right in.

It's not comfortable. Just compelling.

The real skill and appeal of Mad Men remains in its characters.

Archer is the rare show that's in love with its own wordplay and good enough that this love becomes endearing rather than annoying.

Justified doesn't have the bite of "Fire in the Hole," from which the first episode was adapted, but it gets much of the tone--droll, a little weary, frequently tense, sometimes conflicted--never forgetting that at the core, good is challenging evil.

Watching HBO's new Boardwalk Empire is like sitting in your favorite tavern and hearing someone say, "Drinks are on the house." Friends, it doesn't get much better.

The next great "Masterpiece Theater" series has arrived.

Season one set the bar high. Season two clears it.

If Sunday night's two-hour return episode of Mad Men ended after the first four minutes, it would still put the show in contention to win its fifth straight Emmy as the best drama on television.

Whether you've followed the show to this point or not, you can tune in and savor smart TV drama at its best.

With the bar set at Emmy, Homeland has little room to falter. With this return episode, it doesn't.

It might be 16 of the best upcoming hours on television.

[Creator Julian Fellowes] never been afraid to have characters we like do things we don't like. That continues in season three, which finds plenty of new ground even as it inevitably begins treading back over some old.

While many shows that have reached this point in the road have left their creative peak behind, Mad Men shows no such erosion. It still has things it wants to say and it still has the poetry to say them well.

This 10-hour production on World War II in the Pacific is an ambitious, imperfect, intense and often compelling look at combat that gets dirtier and more ragged with each episode.

There's enough classic "Sopranos" action -- some of it involving extreme physical violence -- to remind the average person that where the Sopranos are is not where most of us want to go. Yet at the same time, these episodes repeatedly return to the ways in which the Soprano clan, in its desperate, sometimes twisted and sometimes touching way, seeks to embrace family values.

It just might be the kids, the ones who grow up too soon in the hard world of "The Wire," who steal opening night.

The episodes that kick off this last 10-show run don't feel perfect. But they almost always feel intuitively right.

How fitting, then, that the plastic-surgery drama returns Tuesday for its fifth season by dangerously reinventing itself. Dangerously - and totally successfully.

It boldly goes where no man has gone before.

"Big Love" sounds like a high-concept, comedic, intentionally sensational enterprise. Parts of "Big Love" are sensational, all right. But only in the best sense of the word.

Whichever the case, or whatever combination of the two, watching these 15 aspiring fashion designers compete for their big break is more fun than a new Victoria's Secret catalogue.

"Thief" brims with strong, potent performances.

Powerful.

It has everything you want from such a show: quirky characters, gifted actors, a captivating central story - and questions that leave you not only wanting more, but hungry for it.

Tremendously likable.

It has a sprawling cast, but even before the pilot is over, because of the clever way it's written, directed and acted, you'll know, and like, every single character.

I can't remember the last time I laughed so quickly and loudly at a new TV series.

The show itself, however, does much of its best work in the shadows, where nothing is that clear.

It's as quirky, original and funny a comedy as "Universe."

"Raines" not only deserves an audience - with any luck at all, it deserves a renewal, and a firm spot on NBC's fall schedule.

Elizabeth is mercurial, powerful, unpredictable - qualities made real, and a bit frightening, because of the intensity with which Mirren commits to the role.

Hilarious.

Any fan of Westerns, or of Duvall, will not be disappointed if this "Trail" is followed.

Their dance of love and rejection, of giddiness and bitterness, is a warped waltz, and Kingsley and Bening clearly relish every step.

Though the overall tone is light, there's enough darkness in "The Riches," and enough depth in the performances, to make you care about these people - even when you don't totally buy the premise.

In Treatment feels neither soapy nor formulaic, because of the intensity with which it's presented.

Chuck sounds like a regrettably derivative idea - a remake of "Jake 2.0." But it's not. Chuck is a blast.

If you relish the devious darkness of "Dexter" and the wonderful wackiness of "Weeds," you'll love the macabre moodiness of "Meadowlands."