CSI is not looking for a facsimile, so fans can rest assured that Fishburne will evolve into a unique and valued lead on his own.

Maybe this episode really is about repression, erotica and split personalities. Or maybe it's just a good excuse for the show to shake the dust out, ditch the inferno of summertime New York and wander amid the glories of Paris while exploring the discreet bourgeois charms of Blair and Serena. Either way, it's a lot of fun.

Not consistently funny, perhaps, but when Best and/or Falco are on screen, the angels sing. Both are remarkable.

This is pure kiddie fare; no big deal--Chuck's back; TV's a better place.

With a visual sensibility that mimics a video game, Web browser and iPhone, as well as a hearty online presence with a social-networking bent, the new Electric Company seems to deliver.

Good performances, good period details, good payoff. But Restless would've worked better as a two-hour film.

Veep is the single most improved series on television.

Silly, gross, soapy, mysterious, intriguing, exotic, erotic True Blood is fun. Even more fun this season.

The show is scattered, slight and abominably self-promotional. But Michaels is so full of abundant - and infectious - good cheer that you tend to overlook these many faults. Fans will eat it up.

In Vogue doesn't get quite as far "in" as one might hope, but the mag and its polished crew never fail to intrigue.

Alias suffers from a split personality. It's half John LeCarre, half comic book. In the field, Sydney, who looks about as formidable as your average Vogue cover girl, becomes a spike-heeled super-spy who shoots and karate-kicks her way through a horde of terrorist storm troopers as if they were targets in a video game. She's preposterous, and so is half the show. But viewers who just want to see bad guys die may not mind.

Maybe just crazy enough to be engaging in the early going. It's the long run that looks questionable.

The 10 hours of PBS' immersive miniseries Carrier are frank and intimate, hard-hitting and heart-rending, rocking (with hit songs) and rolling (when the ship pitches so sharply, planes can't land).

This was the best comedy on TV last season.

Producer Beers' team is the gold standard in male-aimed reality, and these guys have grit to burn.

The producers ("Alias" alums Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec) have created a Dickensian (with a nod to L. Frank Baum) universe, draped in shadows, pastels and mystery, while aurally wrapped in chestnuts from the Sweet, Five Man Electrical Band and the Ramones. This new series has enormous promise.

The real-world intrigue is matched in dramatic flair by Chuck-world jeopardy. His store's fierce assistant-manager competition resounds as fatefully as saving the universe from evil. Which makes the dark light enough and the light dark enough to meld into a tasty escapist treat.

You'll be happy to know that every second -- particularly every second with Sedgwick onscreen -- is pretty much a joy.

Humans vs. cyborgs in a movie spin-off that's surprisingly effective for fans of both action and character drama.

Bunheads seems to know exactly what it's doing.

A luminous and fully alive portrait by a first-rate actress.

Any doubts the tube can get graphic enough for today's gore-heads disappear almost instantly with tonight's premiere installment.

Not a dull or wasted moment, and Lane may have just turned in the one of the best performances of her career.

Creator Vince Gilligan ("The X-Files") never loses touch with the mundane reality that so brilliantly magnifies its absurd horrors.

He's rude, sarcastic, bitter, brilliant and, delightfully, the most compelling character of the fall TV season. [14 Nov 2004, p.11]

Episodes is flawless and hilarious. What a pity it lasts only seven episodes.

ABC's new computer animated Shrek half-hour seems to disqualify itself from the timeless category almost immediately by insisting on being "hip" (which means anti-hip), usually at the expense of feeling real.