John Adams is the kind of classily intelligent production that can be happily recommended to everybody. The filmmakers, including executive producer Tom Hanks, have attempted to re-create and enliven history--and they succeed grandly.

Although Recount is a smashing success on almost every level, it's also a brutally disheartening experience for the story it tells.

Working something of a miracle, Danny McBride, who plays Kenny and is one of the creative talents behind the show premiering tomorrow on HBO--the most recklessly funny comedy of the year--makes us kind of like Kenny Powers.

You know you will laugh, but you know you will cringe. You know you will guffaw, but you'll also likely wince. It's hard to imagine comedy that's any edgier, without being topical, than this.

Lie to Me seems an unusually meaty, thoughtful and thought-provoking crime drama--another police procedural, yes, but one with a dramatic and mesmerizing difference. The strength of the premise combined with first-class production make this easily one of the season's best new shows.

Southland is a show of high caliber and riveting brilliance, instantly one of the finest hours of TiVo-worthy drama anywhere on the tube.

Yes, it's quite good. Sunday's episode is nearly flawless and a textbook example of how to launch an ensemble saga that may eventually embroider itself into a haunting tapestry.

Great Migrations lets us be amazed rather than telling us to be, and the amazement quotient is, yes, amazingly high.

Boardwalk Empire is doing what I wish Prohibition had done--it's tempting me to stick around for one more.

Community stands on its own intangible excellence.

As television, Girls is disturbing, sharply honed and even wickedly funny.

Thanks to Louis-Dreyfus, and the show's remarkable knack for dialogue and timing, Veep is instantly engaging and outrageously fun.

Take a look at the second season's first episodes, and you'll see it in a nervy concoction of writing and acting.

Enlightened comes through with a triumphant eight-episode arc that broadens its characters, quickens the pace and finishes strong.

Lost actually gives every sign of knowing where it's going and what it's doing. It's solid, suspenseful and fraught with frights. The Big Scary Monster may be a corny touch, but who's to say what does and doesn't exist on those mysterious uncharted islands where, for example, King Kong once holed up. Lost has the capacity to bring out the kid in adults and the adult in kids. [22 Sept 2004, p.C.01]

So much in the Freaks and Geeks premiere is shrewdly, tenderly and sagaciously observed that one wonders whether there'll be enough material left for additional episodes. Probably. [25 Sept 1999, p.C01]

The reason it works so well is that performers and script are ideally matched; they join forces to obliterate resistance. [14 Sept 1985, p.C1]

It's to the network's credit that it undertakes projects that aren't necessarily big crowd-pleasers but have a palpable artistic integrity and social significance. [1 June 2002, p.C01]

It's a beautiful downer of a show that becomes more revealing and absorbing as it moves along.

Overdoing things is one of Murphy's trademark flaws, but this show has a captivating style and giddy gross-outs.

Bartha and Rannells's characters display yin/yang neuroses that keep their characters interesting, but as Goldie, the would-be surrogate, Georgia King is unfortunately bland.

Elementary exhibits enough stylish wit in its mood and look to quickly distinguish itself from the latest British "Sherlock" series.

Stylish, intricate and entertaining.

Smart, sassy and delightful.

No matter how opulent this production, Mirren is never upstaged, and she is the best reason to keep watching.

"Entourage" returns with feathers fully unfurled, zooming and soaring across the Sunday-night sky and elevating escapism to dizzy new altitudes and basically untroubled new attitudes.

"Shark" is one of the season's best and fastest-moving new dramas.

It's sweet, touching and deliriously cheerful -- the best new show of the year and a great big blast of happiness.