FX sent the first five half-hours for review, and they're all gems.

It's compelling, enthralling and steeped in current realities.

The fun is in the snappy dialogue and the impeccable actors delivering it.

It keeps going about its business, getting better than ever each season with a restrained but gripping approach that's also sure to wear well decades from now.

Game of Thrones seems to be getting better all the time judging from the four episodes sent for review. It’s just that it also seems to be taking longer and longer to get there in the interests of servicing all the returning and new characters in play.

Louis C.K. shoots from the lip and keeps scoring. The beauty is the seeming ease with which he does this. And the knowledge of how hard it really is.

It's all a lot to swallow, let alone digest. But Game of Thrones nonetheless is an undertaking worth applauding for its audacity if not always for its overall senses of direction or cohesion.

As a fan from the start, I didn't love it, but liked it well enough.

It's FX scoring again with another out of the box, jump-in-your-face series that most assuredly isn't for everyone but most definitely knows what it's doing.

Weiner’s end-game for his leading man does not appear to be brightly lit. Nor is Season 6 of Mad Men off to a particularly sparkling start creatively while we wait for the worst to come.

It's a distinctive, signature series from a decidedly singular voice.

In the end, it may be the most fun you'll ever have with a Ken Burns film.

It has Emmy caliber performances from its two leads and an authenticity that won't quit.

You won't find a better rendering of time and place anywhere else on the sprawling TV landscape. This is still the real deal, through and through.

Girls above all is about uncomfortable creatures. That can be a helluva thing to watch at times. But still very see-worthy.

The disparate detectives of The Killing may have their own means and methods of getting to the bottom of this. But the overall air of believability is palpable from the start. All the better for taking a deep breath and diving right in.

The 90-minute HBO documentary, one of the very best in a long line of standouts, is in no way a pity party for Flood.

Through it all, though, Downton Abbey is still superior entertainment on a grand scale.

The drought-stricken, spirit-sapping Great Plains of the 1930s get the lyrical and learned Burns treatment.

So far it's the televised documentary film of the year, with its truths stranger than fiction from opening move to checkmate.

This is way too well-made a series to be dubbed a "guilty pleasure," even if a sizable percentage of the audience may watch purely for the visceral thrills of all that weekly bloodletting.

Kurt Sutter, SOA's creative mastermind, has kept the scripts tight and the action invigorating.

Viewers craving a satisfying gourmet meal rather than another summertime "reality" Moon Pie are urged to make The Hour a Wednesday night ritual for the next six weeks.

Douglas, Damon and company put on a crowd-pleaser that even Liberace couldn’t top during all those many-splendored stage performances. A film that could have been so very bad turns out to be pretty mah-velous.

Although its principal supporting players are first-rate, Rectify would be lost in transition without Young’s stellar work in the lead role. It’s a fearless, fully immersed, Emmy caliber performance tinged with sadness, searching, primitive pleasures and even a little comedy.

Season 2 so far is still a watchable feast of decayed human flesh and frayed nerve endings.

It sometimes lapses into the abundant cliches of its genre. Pound for pound, though, you won't see many better dramas this season. Gloves on or off, it keeps scoring points.

The real joys of Smash are its performances and production numbers, some fantasized, others part of the bare bones auditioning process.