The episode, written by series creator Matthew Weiner, is a model of efficiency and nuance.

Dunham manages to ties the grimaces and grins together with a comedic sensibility that allows you to see these characters as they are with all their irritating and contradictory behavior, but still root for them as they feel their way into adulthood.

Rarely do they strain the credulity of real situations or the constraints of the time.

Fellowes does a good job of keeping all of his players engaged while introducing fresh faces and bringing back old friends.

As far as revisiting a tearjerker goes, Steel Magnolias reliably hits the funny bone and will assuredly send you to the tissue box

While the premise sounds confusing, and sometimes is when it comes to the details of the dueling crimes-of-the-week, the producers and writers do a good job of keeping the worlds distinct and vivid, including some neat visual flourishes and subtle color coding.

The ratio of hit-to-miss is much better in season two, however, as musician-comedians Armisen and Brownstein have more clearly found their groove.

Like all comedy, whether the duo always sticks the landing will depend on the viewer.

Plenty of ground goes unplowed, both personal (there is almost no discussion of wives or family), and business (including the era of exorbitant ticket pricing they helped to usher in), but there’s enough here to give Eagles fans a captivating History lesson.

Game Change is a compelling, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant dramatization of the behind-the-scenes machinations of the Republican side of the 2008 presidential campaign.

Jonny Lee Miller does a fine job in his iteration. One series being brilliant does not preclude the next from being enjoyable.

Arrow isn't quite a bullseye on its first shot, but it hits the target.

Iannucci and his cast are as deft with a wonky policy joke as they are with good old-fashioned bathroom humor and Louis-Dreyfus shines, throwing herself, as she so often did on "Seinfeld" and "The New Adventures of Old Christine," physically into the role.

Unlike some of the more uneven odd-couple series that have premiered in recent years, Apartment 23 could turn into a trustworthy address for laughs.

Winfrey had said that she wanted O'Donnell to be herself, and her new hire lived up to that expectation with perfectly familiar results.

The mix of the familiar and the frantic creates an intriguingly creepy effect.

While there are bouts of facile speechifying, some of the twists are predictable, and the plot gears are greased a little too easily in the pilot--the various OPA employees know, and have dirt on, everyone from cops and mobsters to politicians and reporters--it's a satisfying, fast-paced, well-acted hour with flashes of humor.

It helps that Cheadle is surrounded by characters, and actors, who seem like they will go interesting places.

There is a sense of adventure and uplift in Touch that is rare in current procedurals. It might just be enough to connect it to an audience thirsty to see Sutherland save the world in quieter, smaller increments--and with the occasional smile.

The J.R. one-liners tend to satisfy, but everything else is boilerplate, which hampers the younger cast.

I want 666 Park Avenue to be scarier and more interesting.

Fans of quirky procedurals will likely find The Finder a dependable way to lose an hour.

Fans of Sorkin's work, especially his previous shows "Sports Night," "The West Wing," and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," will be pleased to see The Newsroom has all the hallmarks of its predecessors.

The performances and the writing in the pilot don't quite reach the bar set by those predecessors [Mad Men and The Sopranos], but Glazer stakes his claim to his own little corner of the beach, and we're hopeful the series will eventually produce similar magic.

It may not be groundbreaking, but for Judd fans, Missing isn't the worst way to lose an hour.

It doesn't add up to the most entertaining result, given the promise of the cast and creative minds involved.

While little about The Cape could be deemed fresh - from its noir-ish "Dark Knight"-esque color palette to the sometimes boilerplate dialogue - the show has several elements going for it.

Somewhere in this big pile of plot is a potentially enjoyable series, if the producers can figure out how to balance the week-to-week procedural elements of McDeere's court cases with the overarching mystery of his new associates' sinister secrets.

The mixing of those elements--crassness, poignancy, social commentary--is a hard one to master, and Lilley doesn't always succeed in tying them together in a way that is funny beyond the amusing cringe of recognition.

As is, The Bible sometimes feels too facile, like a colorful Sunday school pop-up book come to life, albeit one with much more graphic violence (which some parents might want to preview before sharing with their kids).

If the series was actually a disaster, that might at least be captivating, but as is, Anger Management is just an average sitcom with a few good laugh lines here and there that could star any middle-age actor

At its heart, The Mob Doctor feels more like a by-the-numbers CBS procedural than an "edgy" Fox drama.

Prepon manages to give Chelsea's raunchy lines and irritating actions--including the brush-off of that opening DUI--more zing and charm than the material merits.

Some of it was compelling and some of it tedious.