One of TV's few rock-solid sitcoms. ... The paradox of W&G -- its marvel and its trap -- is that it revolves endlessly around the same four people (Eric McCormack's Will, Messing's Grace, Hayes' Jack, and Megan Mullally's swizzle-stick-sarcastic Karen) in essentially the same locale: Will and Grace's apartment, with occasional visits to Grace's interior-design office.

The show's energetic fearlessness in depicting someone who is fearful in her loneliness gives Ally McBeal an overriding purpose. The result is irresistible television, whether you experience it as a sexual-differences safari or as a blueprint for your own life.

It not only has all the classic sitcom ingredients but also adds a new, more refined aggression to the mix.

[Its] quality has, if anything, improved in its second season.

It's as fine a crime show as any that television has produced.

L&O's been having a sleek, swift season.

While pop-culture touchstones from Dallas to Twin Peaks shrivel up and die, L.A. Law just keeps getting juicier.

Sex and violence certainly have their place here, but they're placed in the context of a vivid city that, as dangerous, seamy, and profane as it can be, is a place you want to revisit every week.

The Practice remains engrossing because it focuses on the theme that has most interested its creator since he quit being a lawyer to begin writing L.A. Law episodes: ethics.

There are times when you wish the jokes in this series were a little funnier, but right now its unique situations — there's comedy gold being mined from Malcolm's gifted-child class of awkward brainiacs — make it distinctive.

This isn't your little sister's Felicity — it's a crackling comedy-drama, a caffeinated soap, and Russell is just one now-sleekly shorn member of a vivid, quick-witted ensemble.

Keri Russell's title character is one of the few interesting characters on television who's also purely good ... It is one of the great strengths of this series that sap and sentiment are explored with varying degrees of realism, humor, and seriousness that lesser shows shrink from even attempting.

I find myself thinking, Oh, if only these Felicity kids could all go on to grad school together. They are the ensemble you never want to see break up.

An immensely enjoyable, carefully crafted, well-performed creation. Take it from a viewer who has given every Trek incarnation a try and always come away admiring the concept but disappointed with the execution: Voyager hits pay dirt.

Smart, fast, and confident, Moesha sets a new standard for kid-friendly family entertainment.

There's a sense in which the lag in time between the third and fourth seasons has resulted in scripts that have been too carefully crafted; the ironies and parallelisms are sometimes overworked, excessively neat. ... Still, 'The Sopranos' -- bursting with livid energy and daringly rotten at its core -- is full of scenes that'll leave you breathless in their audacity, goofball non sequiturs, and profound cynicism.

In its pilot episode, Chicago Hope looked smart but trite — Trapper John, M.D. with book-learnin'. ... [But David E.] Kelley's writing in [the second] episode is worth any number of Picket Fences.

Ellen, now in its fifth season, keeps getting funnier.

Brooklyn Bridge is beguiling, simultaneously the warmest and most intelligent new show of the season. It's also a vindication of artistic control in the TV industry.

If the joke is that these guys are deluded hacks, what makes the joke work is that Black (Mars Attacks!) and Gass (The Cable Guy) commit to their material with the demented vigor of true artistes, and they also write and perform really terrific 'bad' songs.

As always, Saunders is heroic in her slapstick self-abasement, and Lumley is extraordinary as a pained, haughty beauty gone to glorious seed.

A mighty sitcom bursting with juicy ideas and energy.

'Scrubs' is a TV rarity: a new sitcom with an original look and point of view, and the merciful absence of a familiar star attempting a comeback.

Last season, it took me a while to get used to the shambling pace imposed by the show's improv strategy, but by now, Curb's inventive riffing is like good jazz music.

[Helen] Mirren is terrific — hard-boiled but never macho; always suggesting a sort of bitter humor. Some of the scenes between Mirren and her enlightened teddy bear of a boyfriend (Tom Wilkinson) are soggy, but most of the time, Prime Suspect ... is wonderfully tense entertainment.

PS3, better than Prime Suspect 2 and just a cut below the superlative original, is the foreign import that gives our cop-show bests-NYPD Blue and Homicide—a lesson in toughness.

Sure, the new Real World is beating the dead horse of the old one, but its derivativeness carries a fresh sting.

The first season of Real World had a lot of momentum just because of its sheer novelty. The second season began to drag because the El Lay crew proved generally to be self-absorbed bores. But the current Real World benefits enormously from two ticking time bombs: Puck's outrageously boorish behavior, which is destined to set off explosive fights with his roommates; and, more profoundly, Pedro's HIV-positive status, which adds another layer of self-consciousness to this TV project.