Lifetime's new Against the Wall turns out to be first-rate drama. In fact, it's one of the best new shows of the year.

If something has been missing from your TV screen since "24" went off the air, like an unapologetic, fist-pumping, nonstop action thriller with compelling good guys and loathsome bad guys, Cinemax's new Strike Back needs to be your appointment television for the next 10 weeks.

No, The Hour is unlikely to remind anyone of "Mad Men." Except that it's superior period drama with a deliberate pace.

Sons has hit the ground roaring.

Like many sitcoms, 2 Broke Girls stretches a little to set up the premise, but once it gets there we're sold, mainly because the two lead actresses are funny and endearing with great chemistry.

Montgomery's last gig on CBS, "Without a Trace," lasted seven years. Unforgettable has a ways to go, but it's got a lot of the right stuff.

One of the new season's potentially best sitcoms is born.

Some viewers won't buy the premise of the Social Security numbers. Its beauty, though, is that you don't have to.

Boardwalk Empire loses sight of neither the large nor the small pictures as it moves into season two.

These four hours pack as much intensity and darkness as 22 episodes of many other police shows.

What the show doesn't say, but wouldn't mind our noticing, is that even today we should be very careful about giving up some part of our freedom because someone tells us it will "solve" some other problem.

Despite living on pay-cable, Homeland also doesn't feel obliged to create explicit moments just because it can. But it's also possible it's just keeping something in reserve--a lot like its compelling characters.

Boss makes the stories compelling and chilling all over again.

Where it diverges [from many trappings of a Western] is the lack of white hats and black hats. The axis of good and bad is constantly shifting, which is part of what makes the story intriguing.

If these all sound like the same kinds of dramas that would go on in any American community anywhere, they are. That's the point.

It's nasty, hard-core stuff--a tale well told.

State of Play is one of the best dramas about a newspaper since "All the President's Men." [16 Apr 2004, p.131]

Method to the Madness leaves no doubt, in any case, about the appreciation he has inspired in others over the years, and not just the French.

The Loving Story is a different kind of 1960s civil rights tale, one that in many ways has a deeper level of warmth.

It's not that we haven't seen the polar regions before. But this special, narrated by Alec Baldwin, puts it all together in a way that makes it feel consistently more intriguing than the nature films you remember from school.

It remains a show to which the viewer must pay close attention.

Once you sort out all the teams and players, Game of Thrones falls together like a good Western. But you may need all 167 hours, at least at first, to do the sorting.

Season four continues the good work of past seasons by building on all the trouble Jackie has heaped upon herself.

After an episode or two, when you sort out the characters and how their lives bang together in the dark, elegant shadows of late-1950s Miami Beach, you'll find rich drama, well written and beautifully styled.

This year, once again, Benedict Cumberbatch's modern-day Holmes and his intrepid sidekick Dr. John Watson (Martin Freeman) provide breathtaking non-stop exhilaration.

Hatfields & McCoys doesn't just explain a feud, it humanizes the people on both sides and reminds us how differently some of our ancestors lived just a few generations back.

Watching this show feels like walking around Manhattan, and you don't have to be a dog person to think that's fun.

It's nicely crafted with a slower pace than the average police "procedural," but more than enough character intrigue to compensate.