The fifth and final season of David Simon's peerlessly acted, stunningly scripted, revolutionary drama of 1,000 moving parts kicks off Jan. 6.

Dark, textured, and lively--this is how Dickens is done. [20 Jan 2006, p.66]

The best worst series on TV. [30 Sep 2005, p.89]

The more leisurely pace allows for some singular moments. [17 Mar 2006, p.101]

[The first episodes are] four of 24's best hours to date. [20 Jan 2006, p.59]

Prison Break has the dark social hierarchies of Oz and the clever inventions of Escape From Alcatraz.

The biggest worry with The Nine is that its mystery will start to crumble after a dozen episodes or so. But for now, it's one smooth, creepy, cool operation.

If Brotherhood isn't as brilliant as The Wire, it's just as believable. The cast is so solid.

The sheer number of plotlines can be overwhelming, but the images--flowers dropped on the side of the road, a dusty van sliding away--are relentlessly riveting. And the series only gets better from here. [5 Oct 2007, p.66]

There are no big sociopolitical statements here, no guerilla-style confrontations, no scenes of squirmy awkwardness, no multilayered pop culture references. It's just a very smart, very funny show.

Wise steals this, show, and his costars aren't easy prey. What's more, the dynamic is quite clever. [28 Sep 2007, p.94]

The premiere jumps the series from 1960 to 1962, but it plays coy with most of last season's cliff-hangers, including the whereabouts of Peggy's son with married exec Pete Campbell (played with oily brilliance by Vincent Kartheiser). It's quite a tease, but the debut proves Mad Men is as smart as ever

The series shows the darker side of Belle's work without getting into that porno-punishing crap so often disguised as morality lessons. The series, like Belle, is far too smart to succumb to such an average attitude.

At one point, before a press conference, Dern morphs her face from that of a human being into Harris' crazy-cuckoo public mask, and the moment is absolutely chilling. Fair? Debatable, but like Recount, it's a gorgeous bit of political theater.

It's a testament to Curb's cleverness that what's now rote--Larry offends, we cringe--can still be so surprising.

Like last season, the plots are thick and quick-flying. (Also like last season, the abstruseness can sometimes feel showy.)

Nip/Tuck has reclaimed its sense of humor.

Big Love has dropped the last vestiges of its ostentatious quirkiness and fashioned itself into a rich and grounded family drama. [22 Jun 2007, p.62]

Braugher [has] never been better... rarely has a character hopped onto the screen feeling so completely real. [31 Mar 2006, p.51]

Andy Barker isn't as complete a comedy as Andy Richter Controls the Universe — the first three episodes feel like a series of very funny bits that have been welded together. But so did 30 Rock when it first started, and that's now the best comedy on TV.

Every so often, when the tension feels DefCon 1 high, there's a temptation to remind Sorkin that the fate of the free world isn't at stake. Then again, with such mesmerizing speed-bag dialogue, Studio 60 is a great case for taking TV seriously.

Even at its yuk-yuk-kiest, the show is elevated by Corddry. [9 Mar 2007, p.96]

The drama's strange coincidences and unlikely twists are boundless. But The Riches is like a skillful shell game: Even when you know you're being played, the dizzying machinations are irresistible.

Stylized, soapy, silly, it's one of the most interesting shows this fall. [12 Oct 2007, p.64]

Tell Me is an incisive drama, but it's not an easy commitment.

While there are a a few too many "awkward-guy moments," there are enough genuinely sweet ones to balance them out. [28 Sep 2007, p.93]

Kalyan and Byrd are two likable, unaffected actors (or at least as unaffected as Aliens' heightened reality allows them to be; this show would be a mess in lesser hands).

Meaty, gorgeous and sometimes soapy. [10 Aug 2007, p.58]

With its paranormal occurrences, ever-autumn aesthetic, extraneous flashlight use at crime scenes, odd bursts of humor, and constant friction between faith and doubt, Fox's new sci-fi serial Fringe just might be a worthy successor--finally--to "The X-Files."

The Ex List could be one of the more charming new shows of the fall.

Bornheimer absorbs every setback with such a beaten-puppy air that each fresh misery feels ludicrous, rather than merely annoying. Will it work, (worst) week after (worst) week? With Bornheimer, it's strangely possible. His is a feathery touch on wrecking-ball comedy.

24's best seasons have always hinged on a central, tantalizing character... This year could finally be Jack's turn to fascinate.... Otherwise, this round of mayhem has little to differentiate itself. [19 Jan 2007, p.67]

When gunplay, kickboxing, and throat slitting actually feel like breaks in the action, you've got a series with brains as well as teeth. [28 Jul 2006, p.55]

Brian's writing, while witty, tends to be oversize. [21 Apr 2006, p.64]

The series could move more quickly... Still, creator Shaun Cassidy has plenty of enticing layers at work.

So, yeah, Three Wishes will leave your heartstrings over-fondled. But if you can get past that... it's also one of the most interactive TV shows around. [4 Nov 2005, p.63]

This isn't much different from Season 1--confusion, frustration, bell-bottoms--but it's still a good, uneasy time. [14 Dec 2007, p.62]

Jericho works when it sticks to the eerie surreality of a nuclear attack... The show, unfortunately, flops about in its first two episodes, leaning too heavily on the action-adventure stuff.

All the bases are covered, and if that doesn't make for the most inventive show, it makes for a quite watchable one. [1 Sep 2006, p.61]

Standoff doesn't recreate the genre, but it certainly refreshes it. [15 Sep 2006, p.64]

Underbelly eschews cliche and makes pregnancy surprisingly laughable.

As much fun as the adventure is, the central mystery — what happened in that motel on that May date that created such cosmic blowback — is never truly explained.

Neither self-serious nor campy, the new ABC police drama is just what I've been craving amid all the businesslike "Law & Orders" and "CSIs."

The show remains a game mix of satire and sweetness--although Chuck still has better chemistry with his sister Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) than Sarah.

A standard detective story that's brightened by unusual characters and snazzy dialogue.

Based on a popular BBC series, Life on Mars, like Mad Men, makes a long-ago era feel both alien and nostalgic, like in the sweet moment where Sam wanders into a record store and just beams.

Too much? Yes, too much! And yet, it's one of those moments you just have to shrug at and enjoy.

The tricks he performs are overshadowed by the glee with which Baker performs them. Like any good grifter, he gets a genuine thrill out of entertaining, manipulating, or confusing people.

If Bones holds up, it'll be because that old Sam-and-Diane, Maddie-and-David, Mulder-and-Scully opposites-attract stuff never feels standard when it's done right.

For all the amiability of the cast, few of their interactions feel natural. [27 Jan 2006, p.73]

Only a few scenes capture the swagger and passion that made Bourdain's memoir so enthralling.

Saved's ADD pace prevents any true emotion. [23 Jun 2006, p.61]

At its best, Day Break has a Choose Your Own Adventure feel... [It] just needs to get those pages flying a little faster.

While [Lizzy Caplan's] pretty great, the show remains merely somewhere on the edge of good. [3 Nov 2006, p.67]

Just two episodes in, and this series threatens to rattle down the wrong track. [6 Oct 2006, p.60]

State of Mind is filled with grand, unearned speeches. But they are so nicely written - about the camaraderie of a good marriage or the bitterness of a bad one - it's difficult to begrudge them.

My interest ebbs and flows depending not on the plot but on which character is in the action.

Right now, it's relying too much on Michael's chainsmoking mom as hammy comic relief. [11 July 2008, p.65]

Greek lacks the acidic one-liners that mark great satires like Heathers, but it strains against its conventional boundaries just enough to be enticing.

All of Sleeper Cell's didacticism would be forgiven if it were more entertaining. [2 Dec 2005, p.67]

This clever idea mostly bombs. [7 Oct 2005, p.61]

A not unwelcome addition to the genre, but not that essential, either. [27 Jan 2006, p.74]

With all of its bad-guy chases, Threshold feels like a fantasy series that's been focus-grouped into a cop show.

With wannabe sensational plotlines and not-at-all-sensational dialogue, Inconceivable feels duly artificial. [23 Sep 2005, p.83]

Sometimes what should be dark comedy is just plain depressing. [8 Sep 2006, p.156]

The frustrating thing about Eureka is it doesn't know how seriously to take itself. [11 Apr 2006, p.59]

Gary's uneven because it doesn't feel like a sitcom working for Mohr, but Mohr working for a sitcom.

Despite its wish to be incendiary, Boondocks seems hesitant. [11 Nov 2005, p.60]

It hardly enlightens, and it never feels urgent. It feels like a decent cop drama pretending to be something more important.

[A] House wannabe.

An uneven fantasy series that's not eerie enough to be a culty favorite or goofy enough to be a guilty pleasure.

It becomes a bit tedious, which is something this story never should be. [14 Apr 2006, p.71]

The pilot was reshot, and it shows--the timing lurches and scenes grind into each other. [22 Sep 2006, p.90]

So far, Vanished seems more interested in keeping us spinning than pulling us in. [25 Aug 2006, p.75]

When they're genuinely goofy, they make you grin--but too much of it feels forced.

[Meadowlands] adds so many bizarro details that it starts to feel quite unoriginal in its weirdness.

The whole ''mystical universe'' business worked for Steve Martin in "L.A. Story," but Coughlan is too perky and lite to seem a believable target for such ''live, love!'' magical messaging.

Camp Rock is so rigidly formulaic, so unremarkable, that by the time the cast sings its finale, ''We Rock,'' it's hard to agree.

Romijn can't be blamed for the misfire... No, one must blame the rush this unimaginative series is in. [7 Apr 2006, p.52]

Of course, it's near impossible to break new ground in legal dramas at this point. But Shark doesn't even try to hide its weariness.

Rules is similar to Fox's grimly unamusing comedy 'Til Death, but it has one major advantage: deadpan, rubbery Patrick Warburton.

Patty's suppose to be a manipulative liar, but that's too much to believe. Like pretty much everything about this show. [03 Aug 2007, p.61]

Even the dialogue is mediocre, a surprise coming from Williamson.

It should be fun, and it isn't.

This milquetoast cable movie doesn't even have the guts to make its protagonist dislikable enough to deserve a lesson. [22 Dec 2006, p.71]

Henry and Anne nag and harp and tongue each other. It's like asking us to root for a particularly vapid reality TV couple.

It's trying to be juicy, stupid fun, but it isn't smart enough.

It's a procedural procedural.

Andromeda is a two-night extravaganza that could have been one if its characters didn't speak in massive, clunky chunks of technojargon. [30 May 2008, p.80]

Accidentally ridiculous. [4 Nov 2005, p.69]

I'd describe it as ludicrous, but that might give the impression that it's remotely entertaining.

Astoundingly boring and uninspired. [3 Mar 2006, p.91]

It's one limp comedy that pretends to be frank and daring about race, gender, and sexual orientation--and instead is glib, tired, and slippery. [11 Nov 2005, p.59]

Big Day has no likable characters. [1 Dec 2006, p.72]

Everything about the [miniseries] is so lousy, it's difficult to pick just one failure. [19 May 2006, p.65]