The future of TV comedy is a sick one, my friends. A gloriously, brilliantly, deliriously sick one, where a desperate housewife wears a "SLUT" T-shirt on a prison visit, a businessman sells prefab homes to Saddam Hussein, and a pudgy teen lusts after his first cousin. It's a ferociously Freudian future, replete with a pent-up mama's boy, a family-run banana stand, and a disbarred psychiatrist who wears cutoffs beneath his underwear because he's a "Never-nude." That's a phobia about nakedness he's trying to make into a nationally recognized condition...In short, it's Arrested Development. [7 Nov 2004, p.N4]

It's hard to know where to aim the praise first.

This is a great piece of TV work... Right from its opening minutes, after a flight to Australia has crashed on the shores of nowhere, ABC's Lost simulates the kind of dread we don't expect to find on the small screen. [22 Sept 2004, p.E1]

The NBC series certainly has been one of TV’s most emotionally honest and stirring works, and it remains so as it enters its fourth season.

This extraordinary upstairs-downstairs drama, written by Oscar-winning "Gosford Park" screenwriter Julian Fellowes, is a dramatic, intelligent, soapy, comic, and wise piece of work, one that explores social shifts on the eve of World War I while delivering a remarkably engaging cast of characters.

Gabriel Byrne is in every minute of the show, delivering one of TV's most faceted and intriguing performances....All of the new characters promise to engage as their stories and backstories begin to unfold.

It offers a great cast, and some very tight, tart scripting. Each of the season's seven half-hours is a little sliver of pleasure.

A taut exercise in withheld disaster, Breaking Bad is riveting.

Ultimately, though, even with the fantasy, Game of Thrones feels like a historical medieval saga. It's a royal, and royally good, round of musical chairs.

Of all the drama pilots I watched, this was my favorite.

The show doesn't seem to have lost any ballast moving forward from the intensity of season one.

The show beautifully depicts a massive game of musical chairs, a world at war with doom ever present just across the border.

AMC’s Mad Men returns for season 6 with two hours that are as rich and as deftly literary as anything in the history of the show. The premiere operates like a series of exquisitely written theatrical set pieces, one after another that add up to a moving, ironic, and often comic group portrait.

Beautifully written (by Richard LaGravenese) and directed (by Steven Soderbergh), Behind the Candelabra doesn’t quite fit into the biopic genre--simply because it is so good.

I love the suburban satire, which is old territory made fresh again. [Jane] Levy, from "Shameless," is tart and sympathetic, and [Cheryl] Hines is a revelation as a rabidly superficial mom.

The script is tight and ambitious, as it attempts to anatomize corruption in the big city.

Dern is fantastic as Amy--you cringe as her histrionics drive people away, and cringe again as she tries to suppress her feelings behind a veneer of New Age peacefulness.

I don't know if it will catch on - westerns can be a hard sell - but it's another fine AMC choice.

Ed has enough potential to qualify as scary. Scary in a "Freaks & Geeks" maybe-I-shouldn't-get-too-attached kind of way. What I mean is that one of this fall's more promising new series is a romantic comedy that NBC seems ready to chuck to the wolves, as it did so tragically to "F&G" last year. [6 Oct 2000, p.D1]

A smart, exhilarating, well-written hour that, if anything, is a little naive about the folks who run our nation's most important office. [22 Sept 1999, p.E1]

Along with its refreshing cast, led by Keri Russell, the WB's Felicity is blessed with a sweet realism that captures the emotional roller coaster that is freshman year in college. It also offers an appealingly non-gritty look at New York City, as seen through the eyes of optimism and innocence...The show transcends formula by staying steadily focused on its characters' shifting emotional realities, and by avoiding the issue-of-the-week plot twists of a series like "Beverly Hills 90210." [29 Sept 1998, p.C1]

No, The Sopranos is not the equal of Scorsese's masterpiece ["Goodfellas"], but it manages to bring a new spin to the words "dysfunctional" and "family," and it deserves its place alongside other HBO gems like "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Sex and the City." [9 Jan 1999, p.C1]

In its own affectionate way, Freaks and Geeks puts a pimple into the TV-ized approach to adolescence. This delightfully observed 1980s-set dramedy is high school as many of us remember it, with Twinkie-pounding bullies and Army-jacket wearing druggies and pale nerds with speech impediments and "Star Trek" fixations. It's high school unplugged, a sort of "Dazed and Confused" for the small screen, and it is one of the fall season's most likable new shows. That NBC has thrown "Freaks and Geeks" into the wilds of Saturday night - it premieres tonight at 8 on Ch. 7 - is only further evidence of network nitwitness. [25 Sept 1999, p.C1]

Can Alias work on a weekly basis? While the Alias pilot plunges forward effortlessly, it also leads to some fairly complicated twists involving Sydney's father (Victor Garber) and the nature of her agency. These twists could make future episodes overly layered, or too dependent on backstory. Also, any CIA suspense series, with or without a flashy pilot, faces the challenge of coming up with 20 or so fresh espionage plots each season - no easy task.

A wonderful, imaginative mess brimming with possibility. About a dysfunctional family of space cowboys, the sci-fi series arrives not fully formed, like an elaborate photo that's still clarifying in developing fluid. While many shows burst onto the scene with slick pilots and quickly deteriorate into mediocrity, I'm thinking Firefly is on the opposite creative journey.

It's an extraordinarily appealing series, one that's so much more than its easy label as a teen private-eye series. [22 Sept 2004, p.D12]

The NBC sitcom is so unpretentious and original, it will probably win you over on its own sweet merits.

'Extras" is far less terminally existential than ''The Office," less depressing to watch.

Fiendishly excellent.

From the brilliant performance by Michael C. Hall to the dryly witty scripting, Dexter secures a position near the top of another year's best list.

Dexter is a masterfully creepy-funny serial-killer series, and it continues to both frighten and amuse as it enters its fifth season.

This season as much as last, In Treatment brings us into more intimacy with its characters than almost any other series on TV.

A really extraordinary new drama.

Mad Men returns for season 2 in excellent form: There's a rich and active subtext in this series, you just have to discover it.

Mad Men remains TV at its most artful. Like Don Draper, it's beautiful, stealthy, troubling, and, above all, addictive.

When people ask me to recommend good TV, they never seem to have heard about it. Yup, Breaking Bad is that series.

This knockout adaptation of the Lorraine Hansberry play is a model of both the pure power of stage acting and TV’s potential to bring us up close to that acting without deadening it.

HBO's Generation Kill is remarkable.

The writing remains remarkable, as it toggles between the rhythms and cliches of 1950s movies and the timeless resonance of mid-20th-century theater. You rarely find such economical and evocative scripting on TV.

Beyond the formulaic outline, White Collar, is actually one of the best new shows of the season.

This is the kind of TV that viewers ask for but rarely get, driven by characters who are more than the sum of one or two qualities and who harbor depths that are revealed slowly, subtly, and authentically.

The show isn't easy to warm up to, to be honest; it's draped in--and at times stifled by--meticulous period detail and too-perfect lighting, especially in Scorsese's premiere. But in episode two, the characters and the script begin to prevail, and the drama becomes more emotionally distinct and fascinating.

There may be a smaller number of top-notch newbies this season, but Raising Hope, a celebration of parenthood and childhood, of small joys and big struggles, is certainly one of them.

[The] sentimental streak in the show is compensated by Frank's coldness and the scrappy urban realism, translated so effectively from the British original.

Based on the first three episodes, I'm thinking season 2 is going to be even better and certainly more consistent.

The Killing quickly hooks you with its steadily unfolding story line. Created by Veena Sud, based on a Danish TV hit named "Forbrydelsen," the show draws you into the tragedy of the crime, and then makes you crave its solution.

With none of the conventional plot techniques TV viewers are accustomed to, it is a collection of rich moments and poignant characters that loosely adds up to something quite powerful.

With season two, the drama has fully come to life, with moments of savagery, hypocrisy, and bittersweet loyalty that make it a must-see show.

The Hour is not "Breaking Bad" good, or "Mad Men" good, but it's close.

The unfolding of the Parade’s End narrative has been directed (by Susanna White) and written to challenge--sometimes too much so. While you always understand the connections among the characters on “Downton,” you have to piece them together yourself in Parade’s End.... It’s the kind of demanding storytelling that differentiates “The Wire” from most other crime series.

As a weekly series, the effects need to remain impressive and the writers need to avoid falling into "Lost" and "Walking Dead" band-of-survivors rehash.

This is a classic guilty pleasure, with campy twists and a fabulously diva-esque performance by Stowe.

After the forced opening minutes, it's the best multi-cam-com of the season.

The tone tips awkwardly between crude and romantic, and a little of Azaria goes a long way. But I'm game for episode 2.

Angel the WB's new child of "Buffy," is no ordinary spinoff, and it has the potential to become a witty hour of unearthly allegory in its own right. If it can maintain a sense of humor about itself, Angel, which stars David Boreanaz as Buffy's brooding former beau, may become one of those rare spinoffs that isn't merely a flat-out cash-in. [5 Oct 1999, p.D1]

''24" is still an addictive amusement park ride of a show.

The Wire is a cop drama from top to bottom. It does take a systemic view of the issue, like "Traffic," Steven Soderbergh's drug-trade saga. But it never sacrifices drama and character for lecture. [31 May 2002, p.E14]

Why watch The Wire if it's such tough-going--so difficult to follow and then, once followed, so pessimistic? Because it offers the kind of earned understanding that leads to progress.

The shamelessness of Nip/Tuck returns intact, which is a good thing.

Like "Lost," it has the potential to grow into a cross-genre drama that reaches beyond cultiness to all kinds of TV viewers.

What a treat it is to find a medical show that doesn't turn its talented MDs into bedside saints in order to calm viewers' fears about mechanical HMO factories.

So much of the pleasure of Lost is in the way surprise twists arrive completely out of the blue.

The feverish action is as tantalizing as ever, and so is the script.

The FX drama returns for its fifth season tonight at 10, after a 19-month absence, and it returns to its former glory after an unfortunate fourth-season slump.

''Big Love,"... is layered enough to do what HBO's ''The Sopranos" and ''Six Feet Under" have done so well: make atypical heroes knowable and universal. It pulls us into its parallel moral universe, rather than keep us standing outside in judgment.

"The Boondocks" takes on racism the way ''All in the Family" did, by sending up ignorance and extremism rather than moralizing about them.

An eerie -- and excellent -- new series that makes ''24" look more than ever like a broadly drawn comic strip.

The action is intense in "Sleeper Cell," and each episode includes at least one stunning moment of violence or betrayal. But character depth isn't sacrificed to keep the pace moving, and there are valuable calms between the storms.

If the show can stay as gripping as its premiere... it will be a welcome new prime-time puzzle.

Like ''Lost"... the mystery is provocatively open-ended and, assuming the writing continues to be good, absorbing.

The nonfictional veneer feels authentic, and so does Lilley's talent.

[It] passes quickly but gleefully.

Like ''Friends," this is not a big-themed series so much as a bunch of little character jokes and relationship confusions getting batted around by an able cast.

If Rock and co-creator Ali LeRoi can continue to bring depth to the characters without succumbing to cliche or sentiment, they will be on a promising path.

One of Colbert's strengths has always been wordplay, which is in full force on ''The Colbert Report" and gives the show an added level of wit.

The best of a recent group of heist dramas, including NBC's "Heist" and FX's "Thief."

Berg has done a fine job of lifting his series above familiar teen melodrama and making it into a group portrait of a town.

"Studio 60" is one of the best new dramas of the season, assuming you aren't Sorkin-phobic, and with some tweaking it could be the very best.

Tonight's premiere isn't one of the series' most cleverly wrought scripts; it's more of a welcome-back party than a gem.

30 Rock returns tonight with its best foot forward.

When you watch the show, which returns for season two tonight at 10, you'll find a legal thriller that's trashier and more fun than you might have expected.

The ABC show... is one of the pleasures of the new season, although it may strike some viewers as too conceptually loose to love.

To embrace "Knights," you have to have a taste for the kind of comedy that teases because it loves.

Based on the pilot, [the] mystery promises to be surprising, psychological, and addictive.

Dexter enters season 3 on Sunday at 9 p.m. with an increasing--and pleasing--urge to make us like the curious man-child at its center.

Thankfully, this season Dexter continues to play with our moral bearings, which is the show’s best quality.

You'll love "The Sarah Silverman Program," but only if, like me, you have a healthy appetite for sick comedy.

Izzard is a great surprise in FX's "The Riches," and just one of this fascinating new series' unexpectedly soulful pleasures.

Dirty Sexy is right on the money.

Tonally, "Private Practice" has not found its sweet spot. Dirty Sexy Money, on the other hand, has. The soap opera fully owns its soapiness.

Pushing Daisies is good, as well as distinctive.

British actress Lena Headey makes Sarah into the heart and soul of this series. Without Headey and her maternal magnetism, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles would probably deteriorate into a nonstop series of effects-laden fight scenes that's as cold and grim as NBC's "Bionic Woman" remake.

If you've been wondering about the art of series-TV writing, and how potent and resonant it truly can be, you need look no further than HBO's extraordinary new In Treatment.

The actor [Lewis], who uses a flawless American accent, makes Life worth a gander. And he is surrounded by a distinctive cast.

This melodrama isn't high TV art, or even middling; but it's dishy, farcical, and funny, as the willowy Serena (Blake Lively) and her circle prey on one another.

All the details have color, and so do the characters, right down to Sam's guilt-ridden parents, with whom he still lives. And there are fleeting hints of drama in the scenario that will surely gain momentum and weight.

Never mind the clichés, because Duchovny makes his character worth watching, as he swaggers from bad predicament to bad predicament, pretending not to care about his life anymore.

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.

Your feelings about Gossip Girl will depend on just how guilty you are willing to feel about your guilty pleasures. It can be entertaining to watch adults throw around money, attitude, and alcohol on soap operas; it can be grotesque to see teenagers doing the same things.

You feel as if you're right there in the room with the characters for a time, during which their true selves emerge slowly but surely.

A sleekly engaging pilot that, with the right character development, could turn into a sleekly engaging series.

It's a welcome addition to nonfiction television and a loyal friend to the radio show.

On The Singing Bee, it's impossible to rally for or against the many folks who hurry on and off stage, and rallying is a critical part of the fun of these mindless game shows.

Coughlan smartly underplays Jenny's reaction to the thought of losing her friend. But Nagle and her writers plug a farcical charge into the show that is quickly annoying.

I'm on board with Tara, but so far mostly for the supporting characters, whose number expands in the coming weeks to include a self-empowered "Vita-self" saleswoman who is overly curious about Tara's disorder.

It's a likable one, marred only by some awkward abridgement.

The CBS show has very little dramatic heft or distinction, but it's wily and brisk enough to engage you for an hour.

The show has the makings of a more sincere, "Gilmore Girls"-like take on female bonding.

I can't say you'll want to follow The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency religiously, like so many other HBO efforts, but it is an easy-to-like distraction.

Kings does dip in and out of predictability, when familiar Spelling soap operatics and political machinations break through the show's unique surface. But it still is a fascinating effort.

No, it's not "quality cable TV" or Top 10 list material, and it's marred by lapses into character cutesiness. But still, I liked it. It's likable.

It’s a coming of age comedy that’s raunchy and sophomoric, but, as is typical with Apatow products, it’s also character-based and at times kind of touching.

This promising series is really about a failed optimist, driven by the recession and his own midlife depression to sell his body to rich ladies.

Little Dorrit has so many virtues--indelible performances, stirring pathos, and an emotional and psychological heft unusual for Dickens--that you can forgive its one significant flaw.

The pieces don't tend to add up to much; the suspects and victims often slip out of custody too easily; and each episode's crimes dovetail with some predictability. These aren't brain teasers. Still, the series has great hypnotic allure, as the murders and deaths drive Wallander further into himself.

It's a generally pleasing but flawed production.

The one-liners are broad, the plots preposterous. And yet it all works in a lighthearted-summer-fare kind of way, helped along with almost pornographic images of Hamptons wealth.

Lie to Me, based on the real-life lie-detection work of Dr. Paul Ekman, doesn't extend much beyond its genre's borders. But if you're fascinated by the poker-game elements of crime-solving and a man obsessed with "tells," you may connect with this show.

The show is what it is--no surprises, no disappointments.

Parks and Recreation has many distinctions, not least of all the hugely talented Poehler from "Saturday Night Live," who promises to develop Leslie slowly, without the haste required in sketch comedy. And the show has the potential to become a flip, witty political allegory.

I think How to Make It in America has a lot going for it, if show creator Ian Edelman can keep from indulging in New York hipster cliches.

It’s all about the crimes, the technology, the guns, and, mostly about not having--or wanting--to think too much.

This farcical new sitcom won’t blow you away so much as keep you lightly amused.

Even as you may be tempted on occasion to roll (or close) your eyes, it’s hard not to be drawn in at least partway.

The show is overstuffed with political and pop culture jokes about everything from 9/11 to “The Breakfast Club,’’ but they’re always secondary to the warm ensemble character comedy. The free-floating irony isn’t terminal.

So I "like" the new Melrose Place, in that I think it has the potential to be as addictive, and phony, as a can of Pringles potato crisps.

The new ABC show is significantly better than its corny title promises.

The mood is bright and whimsical--easy to take and just as easy to forget.

Louie isn't a learning-and-hugging show by any means; but amid all of C.K.'s cocky bluster and politically incorrect language, there are plenty of rich moments of respite, when people with polarized world views actually hear and like one another.

Ultimately, though, your feelings about Passmore will determine whether or not you cotton to The Glades. The show rides on his personality, which I found likable enough.

A week between each episode is highly recommended. But in small doses, his shamelessness, persistence, and humor are remarkable.

The pilot is entertainingly lighthearted, but in a twist that I won't spoil here, a serialized back story begins to surface that could push the show down a more convoluted path.

For the most part, the procedural material is boilerplate stuff we've seen zillions of times already on "Law & Order," with right turns and smoking guns and unexpected witnesses. The pleasure to be found on the show is in watching Tierney and Morrow riff off each other like very competitive tennis players.

If not for the narrative clunkiness, Blue Bloods has the potential to be a juicy multigenerational family drama set in a moodily evoked New York, with Selleck's furrier-than-ever mustache as a bonus.

Ultimately, Detroit 1-8-7, ABC's new cop series just may have enough forward thrust and raw emotion to take off.

The cinematography is beautiful, and there seems to be nowhere around the Big Apple's tents and trailers that the camera won't go. There's just not much in the way of drama here.

Tyler, Lopez, and Randy Jackson showed some promise last night, for a few reasons. First of all, Idol works better with three judges than four. You could already feel a warm triangular bond developing between Jackson, Tyler, and Lopez.

And even though the potential for irritation feels high--everyone but Gene is a smidge too sad-sacky and whiny--there's something about Bob's that feels fresh, sweet even.

It's a happy mix, a breezy, playful half-hour that has the potential to open up into something special. Only time will tell if Breaking In can break out.

If you're a committed Riversian, and I am, Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? is an enjoyably lighthearted hour of prime Joan shtick.

It has a set of distinctive actors, a minimum of punch-line mania, and a script that is occasionally charming. The characters actually have the potential to become three-dimensional.

Haynes takes a few melodramatic moments too many feet over the top--the injuring of Veda's throat, for example, which rises into an almost laughable delirium. But those excesses are forgivable in this otherwise masterful, faithful, and deluxe adaptation.

With only three one-hour episodes, screenwriter Heidi Thomas needed more time to do full justice to the large cast of characters and the many historical and melodramatic story lines she set up.

Turns out Happy Endings is one of those rare TV cases of rising above, as the writing and the ensemble energy trump the stale premise.

If you're an avid fan of any of them, there's probably something here for you, especially if you like to monitor subtext.