A really extraordinary new drama.

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

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

It has become a powerful, promotional machine, long on hype and short on the human feeling--the glee--that once made it so addictive.

Based on the first five new episodes, I'd say Boardwalk Empire does recover, mostly if not completely, but only after a period of creeping aimlessness.

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

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]

If there's a glaring flaw, it's in the character of Dr. Eleanor O'Hara (Eve Best). As comic relief, she's far too thin. Nurse Jackie has much richer, darker comedy to offer.

Margulies and Noth--both of whom have a similarly dark appeal--are well-matched onscreen. Alas, if you feel a “but’’ or two coming, you would be correct. The problem I have with The Good Wife is something that mars too much TV: telegraphing.

Burns and Novick know that what happens on the field makes baseball interesting--and what happens in the hearts and minds of its followers is what makes it great. That mingling of action and ardor (technical expertise, too) is what makes The Tenth Inning such fine viewing.

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.

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

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.

America Ferrera is instantly and consistently likable as Betty.

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.

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.

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.

So far, at least, this season promises to be less about plot than personality. That doesn't mean the show is perfect - it never was--but it's better, and that's a big relief.

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

"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.

Without any framing background information, this affectionate documentary and its continual monologues can feel a little too insidery and indulgent.

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

Boston’s Finest is refreshingly free of reality TV’s more insipid and manipulative dramatic tricks.... [But] It can be a little dull over the long haul, perhaps because the action we see isn’t particularly interesting and the family lives of the cops are relatively incident-free.

An informative and haunting new Showtime documentary about the legendary comedian-actor-writer

"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.

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.

Ever respectful of its source, the miniseries doesn't add on sexuality so much as it seeks and finds character depth and dimensionality.

Proof that the profane can be very, very funny, Arli$$ is not only a tour de force for star/writer/coproducer Robert Wuhl, but a reality-bending kindred spirit to HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show," whose star, Garry Shandling, lurks in the opening-credits cameo. [9 Aug 1996, p.C1]