This is TV as great modern literature, a shattering and heartbreaking urban epic about a city (Baltimore) rotting from within.

One of TV's boldest and best dramas.

Moving the story ahead five years didn't so much reinvent the show as it recharged and refreshed the scintillating mix of domestic comedy and sudsy intrigue that we've always enjoyed.

Torchwood: Children of Earth is one of the TV events of the year, and anyone with a taste for serious dark fantasy is encouraged to strap in for the thrilling, chilling and unnerving ride.

Easily the best and most original entertainment too few are watching, Daisies dazzles and delights with a sensory overload of perfectly surreal whimsy that juggles screwball fairy tale, romantic comedy and mystery.

The Pacific is magnificent in its visual and graphically visceral scope and shattering in its emotional, deeply personal impact.

The return of the two-time Emmy winning best drama instantly eclipses the rest of summer TV with its dazzling wit, its posh mid-'60s style and its timelessly provocative substance.

A feast for the senses and a gritty tribute to the soul and irresistible culture of a mighty city, this series is a pungent slice of New Orleans life, set in the aftermath of Katrina. This show sings, and it cooks with all creative burners firing on high.

This bold British import is among the best TV I've seen in a mediocre (on network TV, anyway) fall season. Fast-paced, constantly surprising and darkly entertaining, Luther is about as far as you can get from a cookie-cutter procedural.

This is the best new series, network or cable, of the midseason. An immediately addictive brew of action, suspense and wry humor, the show is grounded in Olyphant's low-key but high-impact star-making performance, the work of a confident and cunning leading man who's always good company.

This instantly captivating period piece feels thrillingly modern as it captures with remarkable detail a chaotic time of invention and re-invention, of social progress and prosperity upstaged by the gaudy corruption and jazzy debauchery of the Prohibition era.

We actually root for many of the people we find living among The Walking Dead, which packs a raw, emotional punch while delivering the creepy and queasy thrills all genre fans truly crave.

Watching Downton Abbey is like curling up with a really satisfying book, and I can't think of a better way to get through one of the crueler months of winter. This is one of those shows that after finishing it, I immediately began to envy those who had yet to experience the pleasure.

What's not to love in Friday Night Lights? This is a place, and a show, I will never want to leave. It feels like family. But we're lucky to have been given this much of their story. Underdogs to the end, these are my TV heroes.

For those who prefer a more riveting, nail-biting variety of TV, one of cable's darkest masterpieces of mayhem is back after a long absence, having lost none of its sinister allure in its fourth season.

This dwarf [Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage)] has game--and so does this fabulous dark fable. Dig in.

Buoyed by the effortless charisma of Timothy Olyphant's star turn as the laconic but lethal Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, this series is a twisted triumph.

Will Antoine achieve his musical dream? How long can Ladonna hold onto her business when her husband and sons (and now mother) live long distance in Baton Rouge? Theirs are among the myriad stories swirling in the funky gumbo of this one-of-a-kind drama.

For those of us who hungered for a year to witness these new chapters, the appetite is insatiable.

Once you get back in the rhythm of this enthrallingly sprawling, lusty and brutal saga, flaunting enough sex and violence to make a Hobbit faint, it's impossible not to succumb to Thrones' visceral, dark magic.

Three scintillating new Sherlock brain-teasers.

Shows like Homeland have a way of keeping us deliciously off balance. Can't think of a place I'd rather be or a show I'd more highly recommend.

That's Mad Men in a woozy nutshell: intoxicating, sophisticated, demanding, uncompromising and always seductively satisfying. Even after a stupefying 17-month absence that somehow hasn't dampened our ardor for this one-of-a-kind series.

Lena Dunham's brilliantly raw and raunchy Girls [is] a true breakthrough series.

As leaps of faith go, yes. And faith--in visions both magical and musical--has everything to do with Eli Stone's divine appeal.

AMC's dazzling Mad Men, returning this weekend for a third season of rich and provocative drama poised at the brink of cataclysmic cultural change.

I can attest there's no such thing as too much Larry. Or, more to the point, too much Curb. Weak with laughter, I couldn't be happier to welcome it back.

I didn't know how 24 could top last season, but so far it's working. And the edge of my seat is already frayed.