While some of their "family values" are perverse and illegal, most are rooted in the same principles embraced by the straightest arrows in town. That's what makes them more than motorcycle thugs and makes their show worth the discomfort it sometimes takes to ride with it.

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

A few things in the first episodes of season five, which kicks off Tuesday night, feel a little disjointed. Denis Leary remains a magnetic lead as New York firefighter Tommy Gavin, and the show still has inspired moments.

A strong documentary that examines a sympathetic yet imperfect character while admitting it's impossible to pin down his precise impact on history.

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

[Creator Julian Fellowes] never been afraid to have characters we like do things we don't like. That continues in season three, which finds plenty of new ground even as it inevitably begins treading back over some old.

It still has the same problem, which is exactly where it can take itself, but the ride remains as delightful as the bright shiny colors with which the show lavishly decorates itself.

Despite soapy moments, it offers a more honest portrayal of contemporary high school life than a "90210."

The new guest cast is uniformly solid....The whole show is now on its own for the first time, since the previous two seasons were adapted from an Israeli series. That series ran for only two years, so this new In Treatment will have to work from scratch. What it has scratched out so far is impressive.

The Dust Bowl sounds like a dry subject, no cheap pun intended, and Burns works hard to humanize it by talking with some of the now-elderly people who made it through.

Poehler has great skill at delivering outrageous lines in a droll deadpan. That sets the tone for a cast, including Lowe and Scott, with similar abilities. Too many of the sketches, though, cross that fine but visible line between bemused absurdity and slapstick.

Bell's acting, very real and often very raw, is this show's not- so-secret weapon. [22 Sept 2004, p.94]

Doubtless there always will be some of the Gen. Patton mentality, that a soldier with no physical wounds must be "yellow" if he or she can't just shake it off. Wartorn argues, powerfully, that blaming the victim is not our finest hour.

Fans of the comic book and first-rate psycho-horror may form a large enough audience to make this a hit. Those not in those groups may want to start by taking a deep breath.

The women are the more critical characters, in any case, and Rashad, McDonald and Lathan give the show all the power it needs for its uncomfortable and frustrating yet in some ways hopeful ride through the life of a black family in 1950s Chicago.

As in past seasons, a few moments this year may seem made for TV. But this is a show that's scored way more than it has faltered, and the opening episode suggests that streak will continue.

[Garbus] captures the epic, almost mythical scope of his talent and thus the tragic height of his fall.

Add strong performances by a dozen major characters, starting with Claire Foy as Little Dorrit, and you've got the kind of production television is often accused of having abandoned.

Just the beginning scene, which lasts almost six minutes before anyone says a word, will plunge everyone right back into a world where there may be no way out.

If you loved "The Office" you may have grave doubts that any followup comedy could be as good and as quote-the-dialogue funny. "Extras" is that - another triumph, and a perfect Sunday-night companion piece for "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

If I sound too enthusiastic about a series that ends up, in the pilot, being a bit too obsessed with special effects, I apologize. The Devil made me do it. Or at least Ray Wise did

"The Nine," starting tomorrow, is the show most people will want to discuss at the office water cooler.

There are a lot of good laughs here, and they are not the result of Larry David changing anything about the show or his character, who is the show. He'd still trip his mother to get the last seat on the bus.

Justified doesn't have the bite of "Fire in the Hole," from which the first episode was adapted, but it gets much of the tone--droll, a little weary, frequently tense, sometimes conflicted--never forgetting that at the core, good is challenging evil.

Damages is a show that has always required a viewer's full attention, and the rewards are there for those who do.

Elizabeth is mercurial, powerful, unpredictable - qualities made real, and a bit frightening, because of the intensity with which Mirren commits to the role.

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

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