All the new characters are wonderfully drawn, including FBI agent Walker (Annie Wersching); bad, bad guy Jonas Hodges (Jon Voight); a new Chloe-type nerd (Janeane Garofalo). Especially good are Jones and her husband (Colm Feore), who is more consumed with solving his son's death than in being First Man. Whew! Thank God there is Jack Bauer--unchanging, unflinching.

A very funny, very hip, very terrific sci-fi show.

What would you get if you combined the brains behind "The Usual Suspects" and "The X-Men" with the writer of "Quiz Show" and "Homicide: Life On the Streets"? Aside from a lotta smarts, you'd get House, the best new show since "Lost." [16 Nov 2004, p.91]

This new phase takes the show from sometimes cartoonish to serious, punctuated with belly-laugh dialogue. This is thanks, in no small part, to Michael J. Fox, who is in six episodes this year.

So what is there to like about this show? The same thing there was to like about "The Sopranos" and "The Shield" - great writing, insanely good acting, deeply troubled and deeply layered characters and a plot that will keep you glued to your seat.

If you love a big, seriously politically incorrect, brilliantly funny show that delivers belly laughs of the "South Park" quantity, then this one's for you.

Happily, "Weeds" hasn't dropped a petal or missed even a beat this season.

A show so unusual in its format and plot that it will rival both "Lost" and "24" in creativity and "The O.C." in its character development.

Maddening and exciting.

As good and as riveting as the high school football-as-soap-opera show has been in the past, this season is even better.

Fey's back to her day job tonight and 30 Rock is as funny as ever, as cynical as we hoped, and as fresh as if it were a freshman show.

Not only the funniest new show this season, but the strangest one since "Get A Life."

"Elizabeth I" soars on every level from the writing, to the directing to the acting.

It's not only laugh-out-loud-until-soda-squirts-out-of-your-nose funny, but it's also perfectly cast.

As profane as "Deadwood" and as profound as "The Sopranos," the series strikes every right chord.

Everyone is spectacular, even the secondary players like Leonard Armond Robinson as Mickey Rivers, who steals more scenes than bases, and Erik Jensen, who so underplays Munson that he's mesmerizing - and, most especially, Michael Rispoli, who plays Jimmy Breslin - or should I say becomes Breslin? Don't miss it. Just great.

The Tudors, Showtime's all-of-the-above series, comes roaring back Sunday night as fresh as its first season.

Showtime's glorious, gorgeous "The Tudors" is the best series since "The Sopranos." Period.

The dialog is crisply Pileggi, natch, but it's the flavor of South Beach, the most exciting American city in the 1990's (before the tourists realized that it was safe to go back in the water) that's captured precisely.

Disturbing, sober and flawless.

If the "opening statements" don't have you on the floor calling for a back brace--because you've thrown your spine out from laughing--then you are either in a coma or watching a different channel.

Was it worth the wait? Are you kidding me? Does London Fog make raincoats?

Combs does a great, great job--especially for someone who isn't known as an actor. And the rest of this cast glows. Don't miss it--and don't let your kids miss it either.

I just finished watching screener episodes of Romano's new show, Men Of A Certain Age, which he created with "Everybody Loves Raymond" writer Mike Royce, and I'm blown away.

As important as those set battles scenes are to the series, they are blended beautifully with the bravery, frailties, strength and weaknesses of the actual people involved.

I will tell you that Lange and Barrymore deserve Emmys as does the production, which is so authentic you can see the real silk char meuse oozing off socialite shoulders.

To paraphrase one of the great ads from the glory days: Between love and Mad Men lies obsession.

These killers are more fun than a cemetery full of psycho zombie killers on Halloween.