The impulse to protect his family comes much less naturally to David Duchovny's Hank Moody, the hero of Californication, which returns in top form for its second season.

They've pulled together a vivid cast and evoked the ideal tone - not comedy, not psychodrama, not sci fi, but an intriguingly evasive blend of them all.

Sookie remains a compelling plucky heroine, undaunted by the violent strangeness of Bill's nighttime world but still holding fast to her moral center.

The show, as fast-paced as ever, is crammed with subplots this season, some of which will be more engaging than others.

Breaking Bad works as an unabashedly bold story about a man in extremis, told with the iconographic and ironic sensibility of Quentin Tarantino.

The emotional strains of keeping her secret from Ben (Iddo Goldberg) grow across the eight episodes and lend the season an unexpected poignancy.

The beautifully filmed half-hour comedy, lets Ullman clown around with her face and her voices and her wigs without confining her to too much story line.

It is reverent enough, and profoundly heroic; and yet it is a living, breathing piece of work that brings American history down to earth.

I do think it has real potential to become a solid dramatic addition to the FX slate, as The Shield enters its final season.

Even when Leverage flirts with serious issues, including the mistreatment of an Army reservist who is shot in Iraq by a private contractor, the dramatic tone is whimsical and tongue in cheek. This motley crew is a kind of guerilla comedy troupe that can pick pockets and empty bank accounts, too.

You don't like comedy that pushes the boundaries of good taste, you have no business here. But the material is presented with enough comic skill, cultural resonance, and clever mockery to rise above.

I was surprised at how much adrenalized horror there is to be found in the story, as it races forward into bloody human-zombie battles and scary entrapments. This isn't a wink-winkfest so much as a sly screamfest, with lots of post-apocalyptic misery and carnage afoot.

Mazzello and Dale both add to the humanity of The Pacific with their committed performances, even when the disorienting narrative seems to be working against them.

All the performances are rough and under-rehearsed, which makes them appealing. Costello also keeps the atmosphere relaxed during the interviews, never seeming too eager to interject his own commentary or jokes.

Collision is a satisfying emotional journey through the twists, turns, and overpasses of a dozen or so lives.

The filmmakers deliver a fine balance of both elated big-gun worship and humiliated bathroom cleaning, melting-pot team-making and the cliquishness of ethnic groups.

HBO sent out three advance episodes of Bored to Death, and by the third one (also the best one) I felt confident that Schwartzman was exactly where he belongs--in Brooklyn, in a cafe, watching, and worrying.

It’s a remarkable performance in its straightforward simplicity; she’s like a feral animal ferociously protecting her secrets.

No gold mine of symbolism is worth a damn when the show itself doesn’t have good old storytelling mojo behind it. And, based on the premiere, V has enough narrative drive and character definition to pull viewers into the creepy suspense of its dystopian world.

All of the characters are misfits, and the pleasure of Party Down is watching the actors riff off one another as they go to extremes.

Truly there can be something rich and lovely about hospitals, and there is something rich and lovely about Boston Med.

The abundance of material plays out naturally, in a nicely arranged script by John Pielmeier that leans heavily on the R-rated soap side of things. You'll probably get lost in the high melodrama while watching this massive chess game, where the pawns are as prominent as the bishops, the king, and the queen.

They make an appealing team, and it doesn't hurt that they're chasing bad guys through the breathtaking--and HDTV-ready--beauty of Hawaii. There's nothing groundbreaking going on here, just old-fashioned action-adventure fun. New old-fashioned fun, that is.

A strange, fascinating, and sometimes brilliant contemporary take on the father of forensic crime-solving.

It's not too early, however, to heap praise onto this astute, well-written show and its many specific wonders.

The show works, in its own hokey, feel-good, alt-soundtrack way.

I like Archer because it succeeds where so many of the snarky animated series tend to fail. Reed and his writers and voice actors balance all the pop satire and raunch with a strong sense of the characters.

Olyphant creates a sense of suspended time whenever Raylan comes into contact with thugs--as if a gun standoff isn't so far from standing at a bar with a drink in hand. His Raylan is the kind of guy who doesn't say much, but gives us plenty to talk about.

If you enjoy slowly piecing together a puzzle without having first seen the final image, Rubicon is right up your alley; if not, the brainteasing will likely unnerve you.

The plots are really secondary to the show's winning, easy-going style and its bittersweet tone. This isn't John Cassavetes, but there's something of the director's spaciously paced, slightly improvised technique about the way the men on the show interact as they take their regular hikes and breakfast at the diner.

Every so often, a show arrives and instantly feels lived-in, like a comfortable old couch with slight depressions in all the right places. FX's Terriers is one of those shows, beautifully torn and frayed from the get-go.

What I like about Lone Star, what could make it the strongest TV newcomer of the season, is the ways in which it differs from classic nighttime melodramas. The show is as much a bittersweet character study of con man Bob Allen as it is a new spin on the Ewings.

The Walking Dead may depend more on suspense, desolate atmosphere, and creative storytelling than fine acting. The show takes a nightmare generally told in movies and opens it up for the medium of TV. I'm optimistic that Darabont & Co. will continue to find ways to make the characters interestingly human as they dodge death's slow, ruthless pursuit.

Linney and this role were made for each other. There are a few problems with The Big C. Occasionally, the tone veers off course into forced comic absurdity. But my cavils are irrelevant in the face of Linney's extraordinary work.

The series is animated mostly by the perfectly legitimate reason of invoking sheer wonder, but the scientific episode gives a fascinating glimpse of what scientists still have to learn from these creatures.

While it's not the triumph that "Downton" was, it's a special, lovely miniseries that lingers in your imagination like a richly drawn memoir.

The show is an intelligent addition to the Fox lineup, with both the broad canvas of "The Wire" and the street procedural of "NYPD Blue" in its DNA.

The story of Patrick "Lights" Leary is engrossing from the first bell, with nicely developed plots and psychological twists that transcend the genre cliches of the boxing drama. And the acting is strong where it matters.

Too often, TV's sci-fi creators fail to give us characters to identify with, focusing instead on special effects and plot manipulations. But the father-son-bond material in Falling Skies brings humanity to the story and grounds it in emotion rather than spectacle.

With this bracing and comic new set of 12 episodes, Nurse Jackie has evolved into a rigorous, fascinating portrait of denial, of how it works when someone deceives herself and everyone around her

It's witty, irreverent, and joyously juvenile.

There are a few revelations in this rich adaptation, concisely written for the screen by Lucinda Coxon.

A finely constructed docu-dramatic piece, Cinema Verite folds together the stories of the Louds of Santa Barbara and the PBS filmmakers who took over their home, and it adds in both real and expertly re-created footage from the 12 episodes of "An American Family."

It's both dramatic and unique, from the sometimes graphic material about his double mastectomy to his self-revelation in the media limelight.

I promise you will roll your eyes at least once. And yet, each hour is so spellbinding, you may not realize you're leaving grip marks on your couch.

The story line is expertly structured, especially after the first hour's exposition, as potential explanations emerge and the pieces begin to fit together. And the writers maintain an all-important sense of humor, not just with the one-liners among the team members but with shrewd social satire.

Still, even if Curb has lost some of its original wallop, it remains a great comedy of manners.

It offers amusement and a tad of suspense, but little to ponder over the long run.

There's no false modesty here, just a level-headed look back as Belafonte recalls decades of music, family, and activism, but mostly activism.

Despite the blood and the labor, Call the Midwife is filled with heart.

Nashville falls somewhere in between the two extremes, a story that thrives on heightened melodrama and big twists but gives its characters more depth than you generally find in network lather-fests.

For a new series, Sports Night already has a nicely developed sense of ensemble and texture. Charles and Krause show a natural chemistry as anchors and friends, and Robert Guillaume has strong presence as the imposing executive producer. The most appealing actor, though, is Huffman, who is dynamic as the committed producer who lives only for airtime. She's got caffeine running through her veins. [22 Sept 1998, p.C1]

It's a nicely assembled, topical film that gives us both a sweeping view of gay rights across almost 30 years, as well as an intimate look at an extraordinary person swept up in those times.

In the first four new episodes, her characters remain in their self-contained cultural warp, still only just beginning to mingle with hipsters and hard drugs and cold, careering artists, and, yes, black people.

All of the material crammed into tonight's episode is both intriguing and tensely directed (by Martin Campbell, "Casino Royale"), raising a host of strong possibilities for the show's future.

Those [dialogue] imperfections never jolted me out of the spell Copper casts.

Despite the occasional artificial reality flourish, Catfish: The TV Show is a timely, engaging, and often poignant addition to MTV's lineup.

It's a more visceral impression of a band on fire, and as such it offers plenty of satisfaction.

It's beautifully filmed in and around Washington, D.C., it's well-acted, and it's cleverly written by Beau Willimon.

By episode 2, though, after the crammed (and super-sized) premiere, [creator] Weisberg reveals a sure sense of detail that bodes well for the future of the series.

The series is gripping, nicely styled, and smartly written, with a solid leading performance by Matthew Macfadyen as Inspector Edmund Reid, the head of H Division.

The show has a scruffy, adolescent sweetness with a seeming insensitivity to people with physical disabilities that ultimately feels quite sensitive.

After the forced setup, evolves into a rich portrait of hard lives and the possibility of healing. By episode 3, the miniseries feels like a smart crime novel, steeped in very specific locales and individuals.

Orphan Black has the potential to be memorable entertainment, if they [creators Graeme Manson and John Fawcett] can continue to deliver each and every plot development with a human touch.

It’s a bit of a rarity, an intimate, sprawling, and at times touching procedural that makes the networks’ versions of the genre look like simple board games.

It’s honest, credible, trustworthy storytelling.

It’s thoroughly transporting.

It’s such a lovely thing--Cher helping her mother realize her dream after all these years--that I was able to let go of the special’s ulterior motive.

As with a number of moments in the completely enjoyable Family Tree, I’m not sure how the actors kept themselves from laughing.

The romance and the attractively stylized innocence of the era is addictive, but the espionage plot, with its link to political history, is absurd.

This is a million miles from PBS and Mirren, but it works because of Bello's visceral energy.

I want to be [hooked], because the actors are so charismatic. Remember Ehle with Colin Firth in PBS's 1995 "Pride & Prejudice"? But the New Agey ghost-as-conscience thing--done better with so much crazy verve in the hallucinatory "Eli Stone"--is strained by the end of the first episode

Almost none of the characters is particularly likable - unless he or she is angling for something. What's refreshing about Sex and the City is that it pushes to a darkly comic extreme the situations that already fuel the many urban-singles sitcoms on network TV, particularly those with female leads like "Suddenly Susan" and "Caroline in the City." More social satire than sitcom, it looks openly at relationships steeped in ambivalence, fear, and the games people play. [6 Jun 1998, p.C6]

It never quite dazzles, even as it impresses, and it misses some of Austen's ironic turns. But this is certainly a worthy adaptation, summoning all that is enduring about Austen.

It's a competent clone, one that features a promising ensemble cast led by Mark Harmon and David McCallum - that's right folks, Illya Kuryakin from "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." If you have a taste for procedurals and a liking for Harmon's quiet charm, you'll find the show engaging enough. [23 Sept 2003, p.D14]

It's a fluffy hour of flimflam, spun with silk and told with a wink.

The Office is less breezy and more warped than almost any sitcom on the American networks. For viewers accustomed to shiny, happy escapism, NBC's The Office speaks a new comic language of glum realism. Like the original, which was co-created by Stephen Merchant and the show's star, Ricky Gervais, it is a queasy portrait of corporate depression, characters who rarely smile, and bleak irony. It is funny, but slowly and painfully so.

By the way, I don't mean the word "trash" as an insult. I enjoy well-made, quick-witted trash, and if you do, too, then you will find "Rome" as irresistible as ever.

The gang of five -- star Vince, brother Johnny Drama, dude-in-waiting Turtle, manager Eric, and agent Ari -- has jelled into a dynamic unit.

An engaging crime show that borrows plenty from the ''CSI" franchise but adds a layer of light character drama.

If the writers can keep avoiding pitfalls, this surprisingly pleasing show just may signify the end of the ''Seinfeld" curse.

"Sons & Daughters" is a sitcom whose method -- a script embellished by actors at play -- celebrates the unexpected comedy that can emerge among talented people.

''Rollergirls" is a colorful piece of reality TV.

A fine way to pass a half hour.

There's a lot to enjoy... But "30 Rock" is more sitcommy than most of the single-camera sitcoms on the air now, and it has none of the sharp bite of "The Larry Sanders Show."

Fox's strongest newcomer this season.

This New York legal drama doesn't have the living, breathing dimensionality and character depth of FX's finest, including "Rescue Me" and "The Shield," on which Close guest starred in 2005. But it's a tense fun ride like the better John Grisham movies.

America Ferrera is instantly and consistently likable as Betty.

"Brotherhood" ... may not be one of the all-time great crime shows, but it's certainly a very good one that improves with each episode.

''Sit Down Comedy" is really about the amiable chatter, with only a passing nod at insight.

Written by Gwyneth Hughes, the script perhaps reaches too far and falls short. The whole is somehow less than the sum of its parts. And yet Five Days rewards with enough gripping moments to make it worth investigating.

It's a light half-hour of adults acting like teens, and teens acting like teens, that won't trick you into thinking or rethinking much of anything important.

I admire this show--it's so original, and sequences such as the "Sound of Music" goof are right on. But I admire it more than I enjoy it.

Canterbury has promise but her law needs a lot of work.

Coster-Waldau makes John so alien and distant as to be annoyingly inscrutable. But in Thursday's episode, we begin to learn more particulars about John's history, and how he maintains his secret. And that's when Coster-Waldau becomes more vivid and the show begins to rise above its silly murder-of-the-week plots

"Flight of the Conchords" is one of the few TV comedies that truly can be called unique.

It's good, not great, and tonight's strong pilot gives way next week to a noticeably less stellar hour.

Aliens in America is decent, and quiet, and genuinely sweet.