What begins as the usual artistic season premiere shivers and sways with unexpected jolts, one of which irrevocably changes the course and feel of the series. Everything blurs, and nothing, and no one, seems true.

More relevant and biting than it has ever been.

To call "Deadwood" great television doesn't begin to do it justice.

"24" roars back brilliantly.

No series following an easy delight like "Grey's Anatomy" should be this much of a downer.

The fans, no doubt, will be content with the conclusion of the brutal street politics--usually the best aspect of each season--as we witness a brilliantly stormy resolution of the unrest between Proposition Joe (Robert F. Chew), Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector), who continues to expand his power, and the charismatic, elegant brute Omar Little (Michael K. Williams), a murderous thief worth cherishing.

Plain wonderful.

Real and relatable, "Chris" may be the best new comedy of a season filled with sitcoms worth viewing.

Few stars can write and play a kicked-in-the-mouth underdog as smartly as Gervais does here.

[A] laugh-free comedy.

I'm not sure which is worse, that tired back story or Martin Landau besmirching his career by appearing in this as a wizened forensics guy.

All the praise heaped on Pushing Daisies, and every declaration about the dramedy's originality, is merited.

One magnificently chilling shot near the end of the season two's first episode shows us just how busy Dexter's been all these years. Rarely has an image of evil looked so delectably good.

So what we have here is "Miami Vice" minus the palm trees and sports cars, and plus a sliver of an earnest message.

True, it's not quite "Tales From the Crypt" but is better than "Tales From the Darkside."

"Masterpiece" isn't too strong a word to describe this series.

Very British, coasting on quiet pauses, subtle digs and ironic discomfort -- a bonus for some, a strong negative for many.

Besides being the funniest pilot, it has the best cast.

In a fall season full of lofty recommendations and solid, well-made pilots, it's the only series truly worth getting excited about.

The agile humor and light, sharp intelligence permeating the script make "Studio 60" far and away one of the season's best new dramas, if not the top entry.

Severe as the new situation may sound, the show initially explores this idea with humor--starting with a studio executive (played by Craig Bierko) coming in for a little touch-up to hide the scars of his, shall we say, therapy delivered by his mistress.

In spite of [Scott's] fine performance, though, nothing elevates this drama about people on the verge of death and disaster into something other than ordinary.

So just put your intelligence on hold for an hour or four, and you'll be ecstatic at Day 6's beginning.

"This American Life" lost none of its authenticity in transition from radio to Showtime.

The premiere showed a few early signs of greatness from a handful of the designers; you'll have to watch to find out to whom I'm referring.

"Weeds' " executive producers, headed by creator Jenji Kohan, get kudos for keeping the show's balance of heartfelt drama and screwy comedy intact.

"Standoff" fails to connect on almost every level.

More than simply being outstanding, "Friday Night Lights" is an important series because of the way it takes family-friendly television seriously.

An immensely enjoyable premiere.

Cute and smart, "Earl's" pilot pulled a coup unheard of in recent network comedy memory, juggling un-P.C. humor with a winning sweetness.

You'd expect Cane to follow in the tradition of "Dallas" by giving viewers a potboiler to look forward to each week, but there are too many subplots knotted together in the opening episode, and none of them is particularly interesting.

The series quickly establishes itself as an elegant study in horror.

This show may cause diabetes.

It is something rare and wonderful, a remarkable, original vision.

You won't be quoting lines from it over Friday morning coffee, but it is, if not good, then good enough.

The show comes with a built-in demographic: viewers who enjoy sweaty, scantily clad women waging war on roller skates. "Rollergirls" just needs to lure them back from the Internet.

A catastrophic nuclear crisis never looked as boring and convoluted as it does here.

"Ugly Betty" may be the fall's best new series.

It demands commitment and a willingness to pay attention to the smallest bits of information, but it's also riveting. Once you decide to go take this case, you won't want to turn back.

Around 11 p.m. on Wednesday, you'll be asking yourself what the hell happened.

This show has no illusions of being anything more than a solidly made and terrifically entertaining TV distraction, neat and crisp as citrus soda.

"Knights" is without question the funniest comedy ABC has on its roster. But look at the network's other options, and you'll understand that's not what you'd call a hard-won honor.

Next week's episode comes across a lot like the part of the porn script that begs for the fast-forward button. Seriously, it's all there -- beautiful women in tight outfits, thick innuendo, weak setups and thin plot progression.

This is comedian Louis C.K.'s attempt to lampoon the classic half-hour sitcom, if by lampoon you mean drown it in toxic failure.

For a show like Women's Murder Club to hit its target, viewers need to feel the desire to know these people--either because their jobs are exciting or their personal lives are spicy. But with this show, there's not enough spark to their jobs or lives to keep you on the couch on a Friday night.

Chuck is, at its best, cute--and that's not enough to keep up with the big dogs.

While it's hard to predict how this new chapter will play among deeper fans of the "Terminator" mythology, the rest of us have to ask ourselves if watching reboots of robot battles once a week is worth our time.

There's a lot to love about Torchwood, especially for fans of the early days of "The X-Files," when it was more of a clever horror anthology series and the alien conspiracy had yet to take over the plot.

Breaking Bad is a show constructed around a self-conscious edginess. You have to push past this edge and be willing to step inside before discovering any depth.

The show could be almost too funny to be appreciated on normal television, in the same way "Arrested [Development]" was.

As enjoyable as it is to keep up with Vince (Adrian Grenier) on the eve of attaining superstardom in "Aquaman," "Entourage" has yet to display much substance.

In essence, you're watching the parts of life we're never supposed to see play out before our eyes, and the effect can be either uncomfortable but fascinating or whiny and dull.

Absolutely nothing about it is original or seeks to transform the half-hour genre. Still, the fact that it is executed by sure-footed comedy veterans more than makes up for the sin of familiarity.

A significant improvement in the sequel is its keener sense of urgency and alarm, achieved by down-scaling the exposition and character development that bogged down the first hours of the original.

This is a comedy that does what it's supposed to do, which is to make you smile and giggle at the appropriate points. Be that as it may, the pilot never ascends beyond the level of being cute and nice.

Its impressive cast can't beef up the show's predictable conflicts and pedestrian secrets.

It sounds like the kind of "keeping up with HBO" series Showtime would do, except the premium cable channel already aired an Irish mobster series, "Brotherhood." And it had richer characters and superior plotting.

As hilariously scalding onscreen as it is on the daily comics pages.

The pilot is enough to make you curious -- if it holds your attention to the end, that is.

The storytelling and performances are peerless in their intensity.... At the same time, there may be too much going on here for six episodes to do this show justice.

Its hipster appeal feels a bit too calculated for my tastes, even though the cast, headed be Robert Vaughn, is undeniably appealing.

"Free Ride," though improvised, feels like every other Fox comedy that has come and gone: It has generic young stars stuck in a stale boy-pines-for-girl story line.

You don't usually encounter the words "smart" and "soap" in close proximity, but this is one of those exceptions.

The script is laden with corny dialogue, and the plot is predicated upon ridiculous strains in credulity -- to say nothing of the acting.

This is the skin of a David E. Kelley show with none of the usual muscle, brains, spirit or cheek behind it.

This is TV sugar with an IQ and a pulse -- clever, revved-up, often funny, sometimes devastating.

In taking an illuminative approach, HBO gives audiences a comprehensive series that covers an impressive amount of ground.

[It] vacillates between riveting and middling.

OK, it could be better. A lot better.

Although it feigns to focus on Eric's struggle to rein in this herd of licentious Peter Pans, Entourage lacks a believably strong central character and fails to lay out any plot direction or coming tension. Connolly has potential, but the best you can say about his and every other Entourage character is that they're tolerable. [17 July 2004, p.E6]

"How I Met Your Mother" may not break any comedic ground, but it's the sort of comfortable, reliable hitter CBS needs on Monday nights.

Turns like this take the series further into Aaron Spelling territory than it ever was, an idea that may offend those who can't let go of the notion that HBO is supposed to be better than regular TV.

"Kidnapped," which gives us a frequently riveting story populated by intriguing, complex characters, is regular-grade TV trying too hard to be gourmet.

The imaginations behind "Painkiller Jane" are so thin, and each hour's progression so randomly executed, that one imagines the scripts were written using the Mad Libs method.

"The State Within" is what we'd get if the producers of "24" wanted to make us think instead of accept ever-widening leaps of logic.

This is awful.

It's not a terrible show; if you don't have anything else to watch, well, it won't kill you.

"Sons & Daughters" is supposed to feel like a heightened version of your own family, and in many ways it succeeds.

The jokes that hit their target almost make up for the wide misses.

Largely worthless.

"Top Design"... comes closer to capturing "Runway's" singular appeal than "Top Chef" ever did... Yet with each scan of the "Project Runway" blueprint, a little more of the original's crispness and clarity gets lost.

If you don't take it too seriously, it can be tremendous fun in a Saturday matinee kind of way.

You'll see nothing that hasn't been done on other networks and with higher skill, energy and imagination.

With the unvarnished truth dangling like a carrot before a carthorse, there's ample reason for crime-show junkies to cling to "Justice," although some mysteries will be more worth seeing through to the end than others.

"Army Wives" is a series that sucks you in on the strength of its characters.

A fat snooze.

A few kinks are painfully apparent. Foremost among them is the blowhard persona Colbert forces on us for half an hour. It feels like a weaker extension of "The Daily Show."

Fehr's performance is worth noting, if only because his cool demeanor is frighteningly at odds with the insane rhetoric pouring out of his mouth. His portrayal may be the show's greatest point of interest -- that is, if you aren't annoyed by Shields, or hypnotized into a slumber by Ealy's never-ending "haunted past" routine.

In the way of so many television series inspired by comedians, "The Sarah Silverman Program" fails to directly translate the insanity of Silverman's stand-up.

While one can never count out a decent cop show, Life's main character is so weird he either fascinates you immediately or turns you off.

Considering all that it has going for it, "Threshold" has a more formidable foe in Friday night apathy. Out of all the shows that could possibly conquer that, though, you couldn't place your faith in a better choice than this excellent proof of intelligent TV life.

File this under "We'll See."

Unless you're a cold, cynical, seen-it-all kind of guy (or chick), odds are you'll find a lot to like about the first episode.

It isn't a laugh-a-minute free-for-all.

This is not a shoot-the-moon, wholly unique story, but it's comforting and thoughtful.

Worst of all is the writing's low-bar comedy; it's so weak that the laugh track doesn't just sound forced, it sounds as if the audience has a gun to its head.

It's unfair to lay every fault on the actors when the dialogue is so insubstantial, verging on sophomoric and mawkish in a few exchanges

Guide to Style is smart, fun and instructive, emphasizing enlightenment over shame and choice over following orders.

Interesting, but the sprawling pilot doesn't do "Surface" any favors.

"Hex" may not be stupendous TV, but for a decent summer thrill, nothing on broadcast holds a candle to it.

A classy, stimulating look at six true mavericks through the eyes of six people in various stages of iconoclastic development.

"Bones" probably will remind more viewers of a cross between "CSI" and "The X-Files," except with more humorous banter than the first, and more romantic heat than the latter.

It's all very quirky. Too quirky, maybe, for an audience that is used to spaceships, robots and explosions.

A promising cast and respected executive producers conspire to give "The Unit" a shot at being this spring's breakout hit. But the real proof's in the pilot, a thrilling balance between the action of this sharpshooting brotherhood and the schemes of their secretive, slightly overbearing wives.

Borders on terrific at times and falters in others.

Relentlessly odd as "Meadowlands" can be, don't be surprised if it seduces you.

Just when you think The Office is working, it starts to crumble. You reach a point of giving up on it, and then suddenly it pulls you back. The thing defies concrete evaluation because it could go either way. [24 Mar 2005, p.D1]

If you don't like Woods' frantic, frequent speeches, and you can't get out of the "Without a Trace" Thursday habit, best to steer clear.

"Day Break" is an intricate, imaginative series designed to make you ask questions at every turn, but the killer will be, "What else is on?"

There comes a point at which sisterhood becomes powerfully irritating, and "Related" finds it within the first 40 minutes of its existence.

This vampire detective show (sorry, can't resist this) is one that first bites, then sucks. Hard.

The premiere breathe[s] like a moody, dark theatrical release -- one that tastes like Quentin Tarantino muddled with Michael Mann -- as opposed to a pilot from executive producer John Wells.

The only person with untainted clues as to the person Samantha really was is the doorman to her apartment building, Frank (Tim Russ), and the combination of all these factors creates a premiere that is as pathetic as it is occasionally funny.

"My Boys"... has development potential if you can get past the notion that it's been done to death.

Hang out for a while... and you may quickly realize why you didn't stay in touch with most of your fellow third-graders. People like these suck the life out of you.

"Supernatural" plays like a high-octane B-flick. You could be mildly ashamed at how much you like it.

"Psych" is one of those happy collisions of an intelligent script and an appealing cast.

The tale's beyond complicated, to be sure. But it also may be the most watchable six hours of strangeness you'll see this season.

Besides making every aspect of dating and mating look depressing, it's hard to come up with a reason to spend time with any of these characters.

Rote as this seems, it's difficult to judge the series too harshly. It has the barest basics in its favor -- the cast works and the writing is acceptable.

Now we're back to Bionic Woman and Jaime Sommers--only under the surgical knife of executive producer David Eick, who had a hand in reshaping "Battlestar Galactica" to suit modern sensibilities, the rebuilt is wussier and darker than Wagner ever was.

An absolute mess.

Davis fills the "leader of the free world" shoes admirably, quickly demonstrating herself to be a formidable presence when she tangles with Sutherland.

It isn't as funny as it should be.

Gossip Girl lacks the heart, humor and sweetness that balanced out the soapy happenings on "The O.C."

The miniseries' trite finish falls short of capturing the amazement we felt the first time we saw Judy Garland bring Dorothy to life.

Those still smarting over [Judging Amy's] cancellation may take a while to warm up to the way "Close to Home" wraps justice in a small fuzzy blanket.

There's something weirdly charming about the pair's chemistry.

"Runaway" is decent, the kind of show some might acknowledge as pretty good while saying, in the next breath, that it probably wouldn't make it.

Against everything else available to viewers, "Huff" is premium cable-grade content without the "wows" that justify the extra expense.

The only thing dull, disappointing Journeyman can do is lower our pulse rates to ready us for beddy-bye.

One could never call "The Path to 9/11 " poorly filmed and amateurishly acted. Just questionably written.

All the clever, sexy banter in this thing cannot cover up its utter lack of believability, from the casting to the excessively hip repartee.

The only thing a person can be certain of after watching "John From Cincinnati" is this: Any die-hard "Deadwood" fan interested in keeping the veins in his forehead intact should not bother with it.

It looks a lot less like "Kolchak" than like a cup of weakly brewed "X-Files" -- minus the spice and clever humor.

Line by line, scene by scene, we're given improbable scenarios played out by a pinched and robotic character.

It seems Darren Star has moved away from the fantasy of the upwardly mobile professional woman who seizes life's pleasures for everything they're worth; his ABC dramedy proves, time and again, that every treasure we hunt for comes with a higher price not listed on any receipt.

"Windfall's" concept becomes increasingly muddled. Is it a bad soap opera, or a sluggish thriller?

Private Practice manages to turn the viewer off in an entirely different way from the moment it starts.

"Hidden Palms"... starts out feeling like it could be a guilty pleasure but ends up being something you want to hold face down in a full kiddie pool.

You probably can tell that this thing isn't bound for the sitcom hall of fame, but it's a good time.

"Crumbs" is hideously overscored.... That's unfortunate, because the sappy swells detract from the series' wicked dialogue, and scenes oozing with the brand of dark, twisted humor only family can inflict upon one another.

Whether audiences will find the show's consumerism-as-reward message interesting enough to keep coming back is tough to predict.

Had "Boston Legal" not perfected the art of office insanity, "Head Cases" ... actually, nope, can't even say it would have a shot in that circumstance.

"Criminal Minds" doesn't present any spin on the crime TV genre you haven't seen before, save for taking savagery against female victims to new heights.

There's no reason to sugarcoat this: Watching Williams made me want to nod off.

Beautiful people, perky and unrealistic dialogue and male characters who have all dropped their huevos in jars of vinegar.

[A] stupid, stupid nighttime soap.

A touch of "Friends" with "Odd Couple" undertones.

More proof that even Jerry Bruckheimer can spit out barely watchable productions.

Forget the epidural, you'll need laughing gas, stat.

It takes a while to connect to these characters, and those who show up might not be willing to stick around until the melodrama kicks in.

Awful doesn't begin to accurately describe this sitcom.

We're all for handsome guys exploring their feminine side, but we want posters of them holding babies, not being them.

This baby doesn't look like it'll make it full term.

This "Sex and the City" wannabe contains neither heat nor giggles.

"Twenty Good Years" is not flat-out awful. It's nowhere close to great, either.

"South Beach" could fall into guilty pleasure territory, but it really is as corny as it sounds.

The joke goes from bad to grim within minutes.

The problem is a lack of depth; "Joan of Arcadia," the series this is replacing, had heartfelt moments and significant emotion behind its storylines. Whereas this has Love telling ghosties to head for the light.

We wonder whether the problem isn't in the casting but the paper-thin punch lines. No, wait, we don't wonder... we know that's the problem.

"The Class," not a terrific sitcom by any stretch of the imagination, trades in this quarterlife crisis nonsense each week far better than "Emergency" does.

"Dynasty" plays like Tennessee Williams in comparison.

This is merely another dead-on-arrival series to add to the mountain of failures Fox has hurled our way over the past few seasons.

To put it mildly, and succinctly, it's appalling.