If the first two episodes are any indication, this season of Homeland will be about Carrie not only recovering her balance but finding a measure of redemption. That's a trip worth taking.

Mad Men is off to one crazy-good start.

What seems like a straightforward question--Is Nick a traitor to his country?--might be the most devilishly complicated thing to answer, and definitely worth pursuing in this complex show.

Ultimately, Sherlock doesn't play fair, but the game is so enjoyable, you'll be happy you joined in.

Game of Thrones plays by its own rules--and remains irresistible.

Buscemi is the only big-name actor associated with this cast, and though he seems to be having a great time strutting onscreen, most of the others aren't up to sharing the screen with him.

Game of Thrones starts less like an epic and more like a session of "Medieval Sims."

The womanizing, booze-guzzling, chain-smoking ad exec (played brilliantly by Jon Hamm) at the heart of AMC's Emmy Award-winning drama Mad Men has found a curvy sliver of joy in his life.

The characters carry themselves with the kind of decency, maturity and occasional playfulness that is virtually unseen on prime time.

It's a bloody good, gory hour, and I don't know how Southland will top this. But I can't wait to see what's around the corner.

Mad Men is back with another ridiculously addictive season.

Unlike "The Wire," the pacing is lazy. Many of the moments seem authentic, but to paraphrase director Alfred Hitchcock: A good show is life minus the boring parts.

Many young women, if they're being honest, will see themselves here. And many parents will see their daughters.

If you don't tear up at least once during each episode, you've already coded. "Boston Med" is the cure for summertime TV blues.

By dramatizing the true stories of the men who fought there, Spielberg and Hanks craft perhaps their most psychologically grounded work.

Rest easy: The premiere is good; next week’s episode is flat-out superb.

Party Down, about a group of aspiring Hollywood types working as caterers, returns for a second season of stale jokes.

Nashville is the snarky showbiz drama NBC's "Smash" can only dream of becoming.

It's wonderful HBO is willing to subsidize so many artists, but Treme feels more like a tax write-off than an actual series.

There hasn't been a show since "The Sopranos" so concerned with bodily functions, and it makes its oft-compared predecessor "Sex and the City" look like a TeenNick production. But it's also fresh, bracing and original.

This is no CBS crime procedural, and viewers deserve the chance to delve into this smart mystery for themselves.

Series creator and writer Julian Fellowes has a habit of using dialogue to telegraph the obvious.

Arnold's Beyond Scared Straight hews to the premise of the original and proves to be just as gripping.

The discussion of vampire politics seems toothless at times, but True excels at setting up episode-ending cliffhangers. The episode pacing is superb.

Plotting is not Fellowes' strength, but Downton's appeal is visual.

Of the cast, Winger seems to be the weakest link, brittle and uncertain, but it's too soon in her arc to write her off. The series is like a mystery novel, but the crimes of the heart here are ones the patients unwittingly inflict upon themselves and the lengths they'll go to hide from the truth. Watching Byrne's sullen shrink match wits with Ryan's cool therapist is the best reason to book an appointment with In Treatment.

On Veterans Day, Wartorn is a somber reminder of the price that many pay when they serve their country and a wake-up call to the rest of us about the debt we owe them.

Friday Night Lights used high school football as a vehicle to explore plainly and authentically the way in which people live, struggle and thrive in small towns. It just might be the finest scripted series on prime time.

If there's a nighttime soap any better, I haven't seen it.

Dead is always at its most unsettling--and poignant--when its characters have a moment to breathe and to address their dark, nightmarish world.

In its personal vignettes, Weight illuminates, but too often the segments are a numbing array of statistics from well-meaning talking heads.

There are too many instances of people conveniently running into each other. In short, common sense is missing from Justified.

This is the best ensemble of any show anywhere, and watching these gifted actors bounce off each other is a joy. Damages proves capable hands can craft a thriller for TV.

Even at approximately 80 minutes, director/producer Nancy Buirski's work could be tighter, but it's hard to imagine a more appropriate documentary for Valentine's Day.

Rest assured: The Borgias are still bad to the bone.

The most endearing, functional dysfunctional family in all of TV gets off to multiple good starts in the new season of Showtime's The United States of Tara.

Southland's cast remains one of its best selling points.

For those impatient for the return of "Mad Men," The Hour fills that void and then some.

The three-week, six-hour miniseries introduces a colorful, international cast of characters who live and breathe to create one moment of perfection under the limelight.

Web Therapy is far more entertaining [than Episodes], but, alas, wildly uneven, probably in part due to the need to weave new material around the Internet series of the same name that spawned it.

In its second season, The Walking Dead remains the most suspenseful show on any TV network.

Those who love the books will probably geek out on the series. The rest of us may have a harder time sitting through Game of Thrones.

What separates “Tara” from “Jackie,” of course, is that Tara’s family is aware of Tara’s problems and supports her. In creator/writer Diablo Cody’s world, even the most damaged among us can lead healthy lives if they are loved for themselves. That’s a comforting message.

Is the show still funny? Sure. But it now seems about as cutting edge and relevant as "Alf" or "Suddenly Susan."

You've been three rounds with this story before. Lights Out sets you up for a sucker punch.

You'll be left tapping your feet all right--wondering impatiently if there's any sparkle under this drudgery.

The players seem to spend much of their time entering and exiting the same drab offices while shoveling exposition at one other.

When Jackie snaps over one patient's plight, she could be speaking for impatient viewers: "People gotta stop trying to save people who don't want to be saved." Same goes for TV characters stuck in the same shtick.

Her Patty knows how to spread the hurt. Get in on Damages' final round.

This spy spoof hits a bull’s-eye with risque snark and one of the best vocal casts assembled for any animated series.

The triangle--quadrangle?--becomes more twisted by episode's end. It leads to shocking violence against outsiders that deepens the tragedy and the mythology at the core of the show. "Game on" just might be the two most chilling words uttered this season.

Series creator/writer Neil Cross continues to spin dark strands that stray unexpectedly into unsettling territory.

Becoming Chaz never really gets under its subject's skin.

It's hard to imagine viewers voting with their clickers for this pretentious political soap.

The first two hours are marked by surprising twists and betrayals. TV's most cunning series is back in session.

After watching the first four episodes of the sixth season back-to-back--an endurance test I don’t recommend--it’s apparent Rescue Me is recycling plots.

Russell and Rhys seem adept at the disguises and stunts. But their characters are practically flipped from pilot to second episode, and some of the black humor here is awkwardly executed.

King, Cudlitz and McKenzie carry this drama, in note-perfect peformances. They make Southland a worthy part of your Tuesday night stakeout.

This is a packed episode that sets up the dynamic for a season long rivalry that New Directions will be hard-pressed to overcome.

It's never a good sign when the main character is the least interesting player on the block. Fortunately, Empire's cast is rich enough for you to overlook that flaw.

The series gets off to a strong start as a black satire of not only D.C. but how politicians and journalists can leech off one another.

Of the two series [Web Therapy and Episodes], Episodes is the most consistent and polished. It's also the one show that finds a groove and is happy to patter around its middling course.

There's pleasure in seeing such talented actresses bounce off each other. Woodard could probably recite Google search links and would still turn in an Emmy-caliber performance. But these flowers never fully bloom.

Every character has a voice-over, info dumps for back story that are either irksome or unnecessary.

The premise is nonsensical, the characters little more substantial than fog and the central season long mystery is less a whodunit and more a why-bother.

A serial killer, a state execution, slapstick involving a baby--Fox's new Raising Hope is deliciously demented and easily the funniest new show of fall.

While Boss has delusions of Shakespeare, it's not even in the same league as the TNT revival of "Dallas."

The show’s formula--particularly the ease in which the villains track down Chuck--is getting creaky.

A series with substance and heart that doesn’t insult the city or pander to stereotypes.

With Milch holding the reins, Luck seems a lock for the winner's circle.

NBC's newest drama Awake adds a drop of fantasy to its crime procedural formula and then practically buries it in musings about the mysteries of the subconscious.

It’s a treat being able to enjoy their black comedies back-to-back Monday nights, but “Nurse” shows symptoms of a serious malady: serial recidivism. We’ve seen all this before. It’s time for Jackie’s world to come crashing down, the sooner, the bigger the laughs.

Awkward is adept in some quick cutaways, as in a classroom scene that echoes "Ferris Bueller." Rickards works so hard to emulate "Easy A" star Emma Stone, she just might end up in a full body cast by the end of the season. But with the tide going out on such reality drivel as "Jersey Shore," Awkward is a cagey move for MTV.

The background music works muscularly to pump up interest, but the story's pacing is ponderous.

To be fair, Last Resort does not insult ideology--it merely knocks your intelligence.

HBO's True Blood rises from the grave of last year's uneven season, smarter, spookier and sexier than before.

Bunheads has the potential to have that cross-generational appeal. To thrive, the series must find its own tune to dance to.

Moore's impersonation of Sarah Palin is the hook to reel you into HBO'S latest truelife political thriller.

Additional time would have made Verite more convincing. At 90 minutes, it runs short, especially as the family copes with its newfound notoriety

Episodes has funny moments, [but] like "Curb Your Enthusiasm," the satire is an acquired taste and seems to be too inside showbiz to find a mass audience.

There were moments during the first two episodes in which I wondered if the series was doddering along like a blindfolded Miss Marple. Have faith. Each episode swings in unexpected directions.

On its last call, Rescue Me has saved a few treats in its fire truck.

Elementary turns the myth into CBS' answer to "Castle," with a shade more intelligence.

You've seen this game before, but not played with this level of desperation. There are moments when the boardroom feeding frenzies might cause you to step away from the table. There's something to be said for escapist TV after all.

[The] premiere serves as a rocky reboot to the once robust hit.

The settings never seem authentic for the Big Apple, and accents veer like partygoers after last call.... Still, Maslany shows skill in her many alternate guises, and the show has a dark sense of humor.

This admittedly over-produced series has one of the toughest elimination rituals to watch: Each of the three finalists walks to check out a callback list to discover if they are still wanted.

Arrow has so much going for it, it doesn't need to linger on the past.

Lone Star, created and written by Kyle Killen, centers on a con man who lives a double life--with two beautiful women--and is so full of plot holes you could drive a motorcade through it with a parade of elephants behind.

The Big C doesn’t traffic in miracles, but it does deliver small pleasures worth pondering and savoring.

The overarching premise of the 15-episode season cracks and crumbles under the slightest scrutiny.

Photographer and filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders accessorizes his picture with some vintage clips, but his Face could do with fewer mouths.

"In this job, there’s no such thing as no such thing," Pete says. Exactly. Warehouse 13 is truly the show where anything can happen.

Count on Hit & Miss to find its targets.

Louis-Dreyfus won Emmys for both "Seinfeld" and "The New Adventures of Old Chrstine," and seems the best candidate to win another for her work here.

Now this show plays like a cross between any generic CBS crime procedural and the network's "Bones." Human Target needs a course correction.

CBS' new island series Survivor is populated with rats...Most of them walk on two legs. [1 June 2000, p.47]

Don't look now, but Falling Skies could be a summer obsession.