It's hard for an artistic entity to balance that kind of American duality. Mad Men does so in a subtler and more natural way than "Natural Born Killers" did satirically.

This is the best the drama has been in some time.

It's still solidly entertaining (if less so) thanks to Walsh and McMahon's dependable character arcs.

"Rome" treats viewers as long-term fans of deep terrain. To follow "Rome," it is required you keep up. If you do, you may be rewarded with a fine tale, proper acting and a better-told history lesson.

Hosts Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn are back. And once again, there's more meat to the competition than there is on the bones of the models.

The minute "Thief" begins running tonight on cable's FX, television reclaims its best actor.

"Boondocks" is a charming, amusing and good-looking cartoon. What's more, it establishes fertile, identifiable characters and story lines.

The acting, writing and directing are subtle and graceful.

It should get tighter as the season progresses. But I already laughed several times at the silliness of this week's first episode, which is more than I can say for most sitcoms.

A well-written and well-cast, if broadly drawn, show.

There's peril in traveling the well-worn path of unrequited love and adulterous wives. But what makes this beginning of "Brian" work is that the characters are nicely drawn archetypes, not stereotypes.

"The Unit"... is predictably Mametian only in that it's interesting, tightly written and finely shot.

It starts out a little cutesy but quickly finds laughs in crisp writing and really strong (and blessedly not-overblown) acting.

The world of TV benefits from having another good show, with relaxed Spade at the desk, mocking the Stepford-like trance with which entertainment-news shows like "Access Hollywood" mindlessly idolize stars into saints and sinners.

It's a better film than a viewer, and certainly a parent, could expect from a movie based on an 18-inch piece of plastic.

These tall tales flow into a stream of consciousness. That's good. The acting is convincing. That's good. The Irish stuff is heavy-handed. That's bad.

That cast and the sweet but not disgustingly sugary direction uplift "Mattress" from what could have been a merely not-horrible event.

"Miracle Workers" is genuine, naturally sweet and never exploitative.

The playful and creative scripts are pretty fun. The good-looking cast is solid, led by Barrowman, a graduate of Joliet West High. The special effects are iffy. It's no "Buffy," but like "Buffy" it's getting better with age. It's not hard to imagine it could be must-watch TV by season four.

"The Class" is a good example of how any premise can be turned into good fiction, even if it's cluttered with tired cliches.

I predict those struggles for allegiance to be reflected in the microcosm of smalltown Jericho. Instead of “North and South,” we may be about to get “East and West.”

It isn't as ambitious or objective as HBO's "The Wire," but it's about as close as broadcast TV gets to "The Wire." It finely depicts the daily grim and gritty existence of kids and adults dealing with narrow hopes, sad expectations, provincial victories, race and poverty.

t's not perfect. A few situations and lines are hyped-up "Sex and the City" moments, like when a distraught Lipsticker complains, "I need a cupcake." But if you can moan your way through such moments, the show gets more serious as it goes.

The execution is cute, silly, heartfelt and sweet (not saccharine), plus it's shot at the cinematic level of a moderately funded romantic comedy movie.

"Desire" is (I can't believe I'm saying this) good. Compelling. Stupid. Well-acted. Not terribly written. Funny on purpose. Better than most series on TV.

If you enjoy inside baseball, it's an interesting dynamic to view, and it's made cohesive by solid efforts from the actors, scriptwriter James D. Solomon and director Jeremiah S. Chechik.

The show's first three episodes don't always land their punches. But "The Riches" takes daring swings. And the acting, especially in Monday's debut, is as good as it gets on TV.

I said this is an old-school literary movie because it is a gallery of objective portraits, leaving the viewer to absorb narrative while pondering various parallels and themes.