Telling its story from the perspectives of the police and the narcotraffickers, The Wire unfolds slowly, like an evil flower; more cerebral than slam-bang. At times it resembles a chess match as the adversaries plot moves and countermoves; at other times, a jigsaw puzzle, as the cops assemble a portrait of the gang from scraps of information. [1 June 2002, p.E1]

Ellis has used Adams' works to create a wondrously full and nuanced portrait of the man, which is brought fully to life by Paul Giamatti.

Archer is a millennial (and very much R-rated) "Get Smart" that acerbically and hilariously plays on our post-9/ll fears that "U.S. government intelligence" might be a grim oxymoron.

Elfman establishes herself as one of the major female comic presences on television.

No fictional conceit can possibly match the darkness of the Manson family. But Durham County, a series about a cop's growing realization that his bland suburban neighborhood may house a serial killer, is genuinely creepy.

Starz' new eight-episode drama is at once the most cynical and most captivating portrayal of American politics ever presented on television.

Half a century and half a dozen wars later, it may seem that there's nothing left to say about Vietnam. But Vietnam in HD proves that there is, and says it dazzlingly, horrifyingly well.

Damages returns to spiteful, vindictive and wildly entertaining life Wednesday night after resuscitation by satellite-television provider DirecTV.

You've seen it all before, but Berg's sharp powers of observation and a talented and very pretty young cast... keep it fresh.

Cynical, sweet and inestimably funny, Glee--which debuted with a single sneak-preview episode last spring, but joins Fox's regular weekly lineup for the first time Wednesday--is by far the best show of the fall TV season that began rolling out this week.

My Name Is Earl rampages like a bull in a politically correct china shop.

The show is not without the occasional car chase, but its real strength is in its evocation of the schizoid paranoia of the double life of intelligence.

The show's intricate plotting and finely rendered characters will engage your brain, but there's plenty of below-the-shoulders action, too.

A perverse pleasure to watch.

I'll give the show credit; it did make me think what I would ask if granted three wishes. Interestingly, all three involved the flesh of Amy Grant being devoured by rabid weasels.

Testees probably shouldn't be considered part of the fall season, but let's be fair--it's as lousy as anything the broadcast nets have come up with.

Mad Men is a captivating experience.

Innovative, daring and--most importantly--funny, Aliens in America is a fresh take on an old problem, the loneliness of being different.

Grimly funny, streaked with sentimentality and malice, Nurse Jackie is the medical miracle of television's summer season, a blue-collar hospital show without a McDreamy in sight.

Far from a complete accounting of how the United States government tracked down and killed its Public Enemy No. 1--even the SEAL raid that ended with his death is hardly mentioned, much less described--this film might be better titled The Spooks Strike Back.

Carpoolers, are at least amusing even if equally socially maladroit. Carpoolers is a genially oddball comedy.

Sheen and Cryer breathe some life into this thing, but a mercy killing might have been simpler. [22 Sept 2003, p.4E]

It may not be entirely fair to call a show as complexly layered as The Good Wife a crime drama, though at some basic level it is, with a bleakly luminous Juliana Margulies playing a novice criminal defense attorney who's painfully learning the sport of judicial hardball.

The Alzheimer's Project, a four-part series that began with two episodes focused on harrowing descriptions of the disease, concludes on a hopeful note with two more outlining research advances.

It's an interesting approach, but despite well-drawn characters and the strong cast, there's a sense that the show is trapped in amber, a perfectly preserved relic from another age.

Calling it ''good'' might be a bit of a stretch, but Ugly Betty's comic-melodrama formula is so cannily executed that audiences may find it irresistible.

Terriers, FX's comedy-drama about a pair of bargain-basement private eyes, is a piquantly funny sojourn among lovable losers.

Raising Hope is low in concept, lower in class and lowest of all in shame--but relatively high in laughs, so long as you keep your living room curtains closed so no one can see you watching.