Entertainment Weekly's Scores

For 918 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 75% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 20% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 7.9 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average TV Show review score: 71
Highest review score:
Critic Score 100
Lowest review score:
Score distribution:
  1. Mixed: 0 out of 678
  2. Negative: 0 out of 678
678 tv reviews
  1. The arc of this character--series creator Vince Gilligan's invention of Walter White as a sick soul--is, it's clear now. one of the great narratives in Television histpory. [13 Jul 2012, p.62]
  2. The best series on TV, period. [15 Sep 2006, p.63]
  3. It's the suspense these two leads endure--a suspense Homeland dramatizes in a swift, sure manner and then transfers to the viewer--that makes this show so unnervingly terrific.
  4. Giancarlo Esposito's Gus will prove once again that he is the most shockingly unknowable of villains. Yes, Breaking Bad is back, and bent on upending every expectation you bring to it.
  5. The more leisurely pace allows for some singular moments. [17 Mar 2006, p.101]
  6. Laura Dern and Mike White continue their bold, hilarious, tremendously moving exploration of Amy Jellicoe's ongoing attempt to give meaning to her life. [18 Jan 2013, p.74]
  7. Any show that can accommodate decadent cruelty, tragic bravery, and political divisiveness is one you ought to be watching, frakkin' spaceships or not.
  8. C.K. is writing, directing, and starring up a storm here, and his usual opening-segment stand-up routine, involving nearsightedness, is funnier than most sitcoms are in an entire season.
  9. Dark, textured, and lively--this is how Dickens is done. [20 Jan 2006, p.66]
  10. I can assert that the series has benefited artistically from the business decision that concluded last season. In shuttering Sterling Cooper and launching SCDP, the show is immediately jazzed by the renewed energy and willfulness that often accompanies a start-up.
  11. It's the fall season's most intriguing, tense puzzler.
  12. Most TV series feel the need to up the ante in their second season, to prove the first one wasn't a fluke. Justified proceeds with such assurance, however, that it can maintain a cool, witty serenity that only enhances its tough-guy drama.
  13. It's a testament to Curb's cleverness that what's now rote--Larry offends, we cringe--can still be so surprising.
  14. The new season pops with all the visual energy of the first. [4 May 2012, p.67]
  15. The fourth season of Justified gives us exactly what we want: much laconic tough-guy humor from Timothy Olyphant's U.S. marshal Raylan Givens, much grandiloquent nastiness from Walton Goggins' drug dealer Boyd Crowder, and much swift violence.
  16. The most compelling characters in season 3 are the gentleladies.
  17. It is possible to argue that, although Louis C.K. has created a work of genius with the FX show Louie, what he's really good at is stand-up. Oh My God offers further evidence for the thesis.
  18. The stunningly shot result will make you wonder at the cruel beauty of nature. [16 Mar 2012, p.67]
  19. This sly Britcom is like a C-SPAN spin-off of... The Office. [12 May 2006, p.75]
  20. The new Justified is so tightly plotted that it finds room for all these characters, as well as episodes shinning a spotlight on the series sterling supporting players. [27 Jan 2012, p.63]
  21. Breaking Bad has, in short, everything you could want from an hour-long show: suspense, laughs, danger, and poignance.
  22. This portrait of a profane, low-down egomaniac--excuse me, he prefers "Christ figure"--continues to amaze. McBride's willingness to play depression, amorality, and selfishness for laughs is awesome.
  23. [The first episodes are] four of 24's best hours to date. [20 Jan 2006, p.59]
  24. It's getting difficult to keep coming up with superlatives for this sophomore-season drama, especially with a thrilling and tantalizing episode like tonight's.
  25. The fifth and final season of David Simon's peerlessly acted, stunningly scripted, revolutionary drama of 1,000 moving parts kicks off Jan. 6.
  26. What Buscemi brings to this production is his great gift for channeling neurotic self-consciousness into a man of action. He may fret about retaining his empire, but you believe Nucky Thompson is a lord of venality, right down to his immaculate spats.
  27. It's another level of pop culture wizardry to make such storytelling seem so vivid, so vital, and just plain fun.
  28. Mad Men offers a two-hour season premiere that commences with a muted tone and then explodes in different directions. [23 Mar 2012, p.62]
  29. Congrats to Bob's Burgers star H. Jon Benjamin, who is now voicing the lead on two of TV's funniest shows. [28 Jan 2011, p.68]
    • Metascore: 88
    • Critic Score 100
    The yuk-filled second ep of the sophomore season rectifies this neglect with a plot that tempts Jeff to return to his soul-corrupting old firm, much to the dismay of his community-college study buddies.