It's the suspense these two leads endure--a suspense Homeland dramatizes in a swift, sure manner and then transfers to the viewer--that makes this show so unnervingly terrific.

Giancarlo Esposito's Gus will prove once again that he is the most shockingly unknowable of villains. Yes, Breaking Bad is back, and bent on upending every expectation you bring to it.

Laura Dern and Mike White continue their bold, hilarious, tremendously moving exploration of Amy Jellicoe's ongoing attempt to give meaning to her life. [18 Jan 2013, p.74]

It has the best tough-guy dialogue around and an acting ensemble that's ferociously effective. Face it: Homicide is a killer.

How pleasurable it is to really care about a TV series, to the point of (national) obsession.

C.K. is writing, directing, and starring up a storm here, and his usual opening-segment stand-up routine, involving nearsightedness, is funnier than most sitcoms are in an entire season.

It's the fall season's most intriguing, tense puzzler.

Most TV series feel the need to up the ante in their second season, to prove the first one wasn't a fluke. Justified proceeds with such assurance, however, that it can maintain a cool, witty serenity that only enhances its tough-guy drama.

The new season pops with all the visual energy of the first. [4 May 2012, p.67]

The fourth season of Justified gives us exactly what we want: much laconic tough-guy humor from Timothy Olyphant's U.S. marshal Raylan Givens, much grandiloquent nastiness from Walton Goggins' drug dealer Boyd Crowder, and much swift violence.

The new Justified is so tightly plotted that it finds room for all these characters, as well as episodes shinning a spotlight on the series sterling supporting players. [27 Jan 2012, p.63]

This portrait of a profane, low-down egomaniac--excuse me, he prefers "Christ figure"--continues to amaze. McBride's willingness to play depression, amorality, and selfishness for laughs is awesome.

What Buscemi brings to this production is his great gift for channeling neurotic self-consciousness into a man of action. He may fret about retaining his empire, but you believe Nucky Thompson is a lord of venality, right down to his immaculate spats.

It's another level of pop culture wizardry to make such storytelling seem so vivid, so vital, and just plain fun.

Although its style is novel, 24 hews to traditional crime-story conventions; you could plop this plot into a two-hour TV movie and be done with it. The advantage of the real-time hour becomes apparent, however, in the depth of characterization achieved by stretching things out.

Mad Men offers a two-hour season premiere that commences with a muted tone and then explodes in different directions. [23 Mar 2012, p.62]

The series is full of surprises ... And as Tony, Gandolfini gives a magnificently shrewd, wary performance. If, like me, you thought you never wanted to watch another Mob story, be sure to check this out.

This may be the first TV show since Pee-wee's Playhouse to treasure youth even as it embodies all of its contradictions, craziness, hopes, and fears (and I'd like to point out that Freaks is the only hour-long sitcom I've ever seen that sustains funniness for its full 60 minutes).

If Felicity doesn't quite live up to its hype as the season's niftiest new show, it's on its way to being a solid weekly soap opera.

More and more, this series is looking like a minor classic, which I mean as a major complement. [20 Jan 2012, p.70]

Abrams and Lindelof have created one of only two new shows this season at the end of which I was yearning to see a second hour right away. (The other is ABC's "Desperate Housewives": It could be hoot heaven, could be labored camp.) I was tempted to hedge on my final grade, because Lost is the kind of show that could go anywhere. Then I realized that's exactly why I should commit to the ride.

It possesses a different rhythm from any other show on TV. [13 Apr 2012, p.73]

There are many ways in which Ed, the best new show of the season, could have been perfectly awful.

Talking heads such as Daniel Okrent are eloquently pithy. And narrator Peter Coyote is as soothing as a tumbler of fine Scotch.

A prime example of SNL's conservative approach is Darrell Hammond's Bill Clinton impersonation: technically impeccable, right down to the contrite lower-lip bite, yet lacking any sharp satirical interpretation.

This dark-tinged show is frequently very funny, never more so than when the pals gather for a diner meal, to whine and tease one another. The dialogue has a cutting crispness; the hour zips along, no matter how logy its antiheroes may become.

Against all odds, Sports Night is a home run, a hole in one, a touchdown — at once the most consistently funny, intelligent, and emotional of any new-season series.

Tremendously clever fun, Masterpiece Mystery! presents the first of three modernizations of the Sherlock Holmes tales.