The breadth and ambition of "The Wire" are unrivaled and that taken cumulatively over the course of a season -- any season -- it's an astonishing display of writing, acting and storytelling that must be considered alongside the best literature and filmmaking in the modern era.

Sunday's season premiere sustains the quality of the first season, continues the story line in a completely credible way, and then opens up even more possibilities for future plot developments.

It's the best series on television, end of story.

Self-delusion can grow fairly tiresome, in life and on TV, but what makes Amy sympathetic is that even though she almost convinces us at times that her personal fairy tale actually makes sense, we are always aware of her basic decency and, more important, her vulnerability.

"Battlestar Galactica" not only lives up to its sci-fi gold-standard reputation but also should be considered straight up as one of television's most appealing dramas, no matter the genre.

Louie is the gold standard of contemporary TV comedy.

A stunning piece of television about a rogue cop and that dangerous line between effective police work and ethical transgressions. This series is brutal and frank, with little wasted energy or misdirection.

What is not surprising at all about the fourth season of one of television's elite series is that Weiner continues to explore what it means to be human.

Fellowes does know how to write some tasty dialogue, especially for Maggie Smith....The other performances are equally winning, but beyond that, you can't help feeling these actors are having a jolly good time with all this overblown fluff. And so will you.

There are a couple of bush-league moments in the show....[But]those are minor quibbles, made even more insignificant by the extraordinary performances of Danes, Lewis, Patinkin and Baccarin.

The ensemble cast is terrific and the direction lean and perfectly pitched at every turn.

Sherlock is an electric marriage of great writing with great performances.

The dialogue in the first two episodes of the new season crackles with brilliance.

The series is so good that it isn't seriously harmed by its few minor flaws. Much of the dialogue is brilliantly written, revelatory and credible.

A gorgeous new documentary series on the Discovery Channel.

Graham Yost, who wrote HBO's "Band of Brothers," creates deeply drawn characters who are revealed slowly over the course of an episode (and season). He's the kind of writer whose vision and touch you can trust over the long haul.

It's as great as ever.

Soak in the visuals, listen to the mesmerizing use of sound. The writing and acting will lure you in, but have appreciation for all the details that go into making this series so great.

Having seen the first four episodes, you need to be a part of this. You need to doff the skepticism and get on the ride.

In the end, there will likely be a lot of unhappiness, dead bodies, same-as-it-ever-was institutional failure, lack of responsibility and the triumph of self-interest over the greater good. Not exactly a Hallmark card, but one hell of an artistic achievement.

There's a vibrancy to the stories in each Boardwalk Empire episode. With echoes of the gangland mentality of "The Sopranos" and the frontier recklessness of "Deadwood," HBO seems to have found in Boardwalk Empire a fertile, sprawling new franchise series.

With elements of "Wonder Years," "Cosby" and the "The Jeffersons," but also a spirit all its own, "Chris" is a sitcom that finally makes the family funny again.

The characters bring us into the action and, once there, we want to follow every development.

Based on the premiere, the season may wind up being the show's best so far, but even if it doesn't, Mad Men beats almost everything else on TV.

The trick to Archer is that you have to listen--and watch--carefully. What can be seen and heard on the surface is outlandish, but the real genius of the show is to be found in its seemingly offhand sight gags and throwaway lines.

The writing is a real thing of beauty - from the aforementioned nuance to searing workplace witticisms and pitch-perfect tone from a multitude of characters.

New characters, new rivalry, same old high quality.

Like "Justified," it's impossible to point to one element as the primary reason it works so well.

Don Draper's journey has been and remains maddening, in a very good way as far as what makes a great TV show.

Just like "The Wire," Simon has again delivered a series unlike anything you've seen on television before.

Girls represents an exciting moment in television history because, like a handful of other shows (MTV's "Awkward," most notably) it not only makes great use of the medium but has the creative guts to realign it for a new century and a new generation.

All the elements Mad Men does well - the humor, the note-perfect clothing and sets, the creeping cultural change - are still there to be savored.

Three more words: Oh. My. God.

Lost has a stellar, varied cast, it is shot beautifully and it surprises more often than it makes you wince or wheeze, which, in the math of action-adventure-sci-fi-thrillers, is a good thing. [22 Sept 2004, p.E1]

"City of Men" pulses with the kind of energy you don't get often on American television, and the realness of the shot-on-location scene really makes each episode feel like a minimovie.

In a fall season surprisingly flush with good sitcoms, the best new comedy by far--and it's not that close of a race - is Modern Family on ABC.

The Pacific is a superb, viscerally moving and harrowing depiction of World War II and a worthy complement to "Band of Brothers" (2001).

Top of the Lake is Jane Campion and her cast at the top of their game.

Great historical documentaries not only enlighten us about the past, but tell us things about our own times as well, either directly or implicitly. Prohibition, the latest project by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, states the implicit links between the passage of the 18th Amendment and contemporary politics so loudly, you'd have to be drunk on bathtub gin not to get the message.

It's a gloriously visual fairy tale full of saturated colors and whimsical stories, the kind of romantic comedy/whodunit that should, by rights, captivate a nation starved for quirkiness and delight.

There isn't a better cop show on TV right now than Southland.

The portrait of Belafonte that emerges from the film is also the portrait of the times of his life, the times of the nation's life in the past 60 years.

The reason the show feels so real at every turn is that it is a perfect balance of dramatic realism and gentle humor.

As Sutter proved in the intriguing and original first season, there's plenty more riveting storytelling to tap into as Sons of Anarchy boldly comes of age.

It's a strong cast, and Byrne and Wiest continue to deliver incredibly mannered and minutely shaded performances.

This series has always handled the duality of his character with masterful strokes. And it has done viewers a favor by quickly setting up the seasonlong scenario.

There have been many great "Masterpiece" offerings over the decades, but I can't think of a single one that is as much out-and-out fun as Sherlock, a modern-dress Conan Doyle that crackles with superb writing, brilliant performances and snappy direction, and does it all while somehow managing to be oddly faithful to the original source material.

What remains compelling about The Shield as it heads into its last hurrah are the gray areas and ethical gradations of the characters that have defined it.

This series is one of a kind.

In the case of Sunny, it comes out of the gate as brilliantly twisted as ever.

There are many small and wonderful dramatic accomplishments in the underappreciated gem that is Battlestar Galactica, but perhaps the most enduring is that what was conceived of as an epic space adventure has turned into a finely detailed, intimate drama.

The first three episodes of Season 2 that AMC sent out continue that level of achievement with no evident missteps.

They [Rayna and Juliette], and the other characters, are anything but [one-dimensional cliches], thanks not only to the writing but also to the performances of the colorful and capable cast.

The entire constellation of impetuous, ambitious, determined and insecure young urbanites in Girls is realigning in the new season, but at no point in the four episodes sent to critics for review do you feel that any of it is artificial.

The emotional authenticity of Downton Abbey continues to make it a classic.

It means there's finally something good (and funny) on Tuesday nights.

Sons of Anarchy remains as bare-knuckled and, almost inconceivably, as funny and crass as ever. And it doesn't take Season 3 very long to ratchet up the twists

State of Play is one of those series where a moment's brilliance is rivaled by the very next scene, a careening thriller that gives credence to the idea that there may not be any better format for telling an impact story than over the course of four or six hours. [16 Apr 2004, p.E1]

Rescue Me races out of the gate as confidently brilliant as ever before, wildly mixing emotions along the way.

On the one hand, our love of the characters makes it more than possible to overlook the sloppiness of the scripts. On the other, though, it's because we do know these characters so well that we notice the inconsistencies in the first place. Again, none of this detracts significantly from our enjoyment of the series.

Again, it's back to the writing and the look. Both are superb.

Friday Night Lights, like "Battlestar Galactica," also proved initial assumptions wildly wrong and deserves credit for being vastly better than either a show about high school football or an irksome teen drama.

It's in dire need of tighter editing, most of all. Yes, the images from the '30s are powerful, but after a while, their power is diminished by repetition.

Directed by Jon Alpert and Ellen Goosenberg Kent, Wartorn is convincing on a number of levels.

Despite what we know about his troubled childhood, Fischer remains enigmatic.

Little Dorrit is anchored by an extraordinary performance by one of England's best actors. And like "Twist," that central performance is only one of many elements that make Dorrit not only terrific entertainment, but, in some ways, perhaps even better than its source material.

The first two episodes of Dallas 2.0, the TNT reboot of the classic nighttime soap, have all the fixin's for a juicy second season.

The writing and acting are hit out of the ballpark on this one, and that's not a vibe you pick up out of nowhere.

What helps separate "The Nine" from others in this season's crowded field are stellar performances throughout and a steady, sure hand in the pilot.

Weight pulls no punches, spares neither the multibillion-dollar food and advertising industries nor public officials for not only failing to fix the problem but actually making it worse, and essentially writes a prescription for the nation's health and economic future that we ignore to our peril.

The best news of all is that Olyphant backs it up with an incredibly riveting performance. Better yet, Justified as a whole really delivers, from the explosive pilot to a couple of other, less adrenaline-filled but no less superb episodes that add humor and nuanced storytelling to the mix.

Save for one far-fetched incident, the two hours provided enough clues as to where the season will head--and how much conflict from secrets and lies will be coming down the pike - to hook fans of the show who might have been waffling on the commitment.

One of the many virtues of Buirski's film is that it doesn't hit viewers over the head with the parallel between the Lovings' case and the debate over same-sex marriage. The parallel is simply there, to be identified and considered by the viewer.

The characterizations are carefully nuanced in Southland, and the performances are equal to the quality of writing.

Schwartz's workmanlike film nonetheless gives us a detailed portrait of the man as well as the activist.

With a cast this big, though, and plots this complicated, it can be a challenge to keep up. Then again, if you're willing to do the work, it more than pays off.

The Hour stands perfectly well on its own merits. It's so good that other shows should start looking to it as something to emulate.

Generation Kill is rewarding in its complexity. It feels real - and that realness is bracing, sad and funny in equal measures.

Loss is the birthright of every life, and no one can refuse it. Yet we go on, buoyed by hope and love. Not exactly an original message, but it is one that Midwife delivers convincingly.

He holds forth telling wonderful stories about his childhood, about working as a "tummler" at Grossinger's, what it was like working with Sid Caesar and his enduring love for Gene Wilder, whose role in "Blazing Saddles" initially went to Gig Young, in between clips from too few of his many great films and TV work.

If Kirkman, writer/show runner Glen Mazzara ("The Shield") and the rest of the team continue doing what they're doing--and following the template Darabont created--The Walking Dead can have a bloody long life.

It's a serialized mystery that pays off your devotion.

The level of cleverness of Flight of the Conchords is off the charts.

The art of war takes on new meaning in Rick Beyer's mesmerizing documentary.

By making us wonder what Steinem doesn't declare, we can come to a greater understanding of the complexities of the woman herself, but only if we are willing to venture beneath the surface.

As promising as the early episodes in Season 2 are, the over-the-top nature of "Tara" remains.

Season 6 proves that the best part of "24" is its ability to make your pulse race as you sit slack jawed in front of the bastard machine mumbling, "They didn't just do that, did they?"

The television version of "This American Life" does not ruin the fragile, hip beauty of the radio version. Glass and the team responsible for adding pictures to words have created a compelling television series.

At every turn in this heart-wrenching series of films, we are reminded that these men and women are human, no matter how robotic they may seem as they rapidly snap off shots of death and tears.

Lights Out may not reach the level of "The Sopranos," but it has enough going for it to at least earn a shot at the title.

There's some spot-on and sharp humor throughout, but it never gets too light and breezy.

Big Love just doesn't induce love. And yet, the series crafts compelling stories.

It's helpful to remember that Life on Mars is less about said realism and more about Sam's twisted journey. Enjoying that retro-cool ride is the essence of the series.

Project Runway is entertaining and likable on so many levels that it's hard to resist.

All your favorites are back in force, with a few twists, but the allure of the series always has been and always will be Hall, who manages to make a killer (who kills only people who deserve it, mostly) likable, believable, engaging and funny, as he works his job as a blood splatter expert at Miami Metro Homicide.

[It's so] good you can't help wondering why no one thought of it before, a compelling mix of credible real-life melodrama with a fictionalized approximation of what it takes to get a Broadway show from the idea stage to opening night.

The performances, the writing, the intelligence that goes into the script and the characters--all reasons for welcoming the start of a new season of The Hour.

But this is an epic drama on HBO, correct? So is it Giamatti or Adams himself who will make viewers wish for a swifter and less pedantic version on the History Channel?