Alessandra Stanley

Its plot unfolds disjointedly and without enough suspense. And that leaves viewers with plenty of time to decide that life is too short to heed the interior monologues of four-footed creatures, even if they are hallucinations.

It’s a little like “The Shield,” the FX show that starred Michael Chiklis as a corrupt cop, but it’s a lot more like “Spiral,” the sleek French crime series on Netflix that has a cult following in Britain and the United States. So basically, “Line of Duty” is the opposite of “Downton Abbey,” except in certain elemental ways: an excellent cast, skillful writing and a knack for making an exotic, unfamiliar world seem like the viewer’s second home.

Hawaii is not a great cop show and does not break any ground in the well-trod field of buddy shows. But it has well-choreographed action and an amusingly campy feel.

Zoo is expertly made and fits the current fascination with dystopian what-if scenarios, but it’s basic.

An intriguing new series.... a cyber-age thriller infused with a dark, almost nihilistic pessimism about the Internet, capitalism and income inequality. And that makes it kind of fun.

The series finds its comic stride in the fifth episode and becomes kind of fun. But that’s a long wait, and it’s easy to be discouraged by the way it starts.

True Detective is monochromatic and self-serious, but it builds suspense with finesse and has a keen appreciation for the poetry of political corruption and urban decay. That makes it intriguing, just not enthralling.

The characters are likable but surprisingly flimsy.

Odd Mom Out, is entertaining, even if many of the jokes are familiar.

Beautifully shot and sublimely silly, Sense8 is slower than “The Matrix” and not nearly as thrilling.

Mr. Oyelowo gives a riveting, disorienting and suspenseful tour of an unraveling mind. The music and cinematography are artful, but the props are mundane.

Unusual choices can be found throughout Aquarius, and they are part of what makes this drama so good.

This is a star-studded, lavishly made drama that falls into that special niche: If it were any better, it would be worse.

It’s a 10-episode thriller based on a series of novels by Blake Crouch that feels plodding. A small town can be sleepy, but the mystery that binds its residents shouldn’t also be soporific.

Grace and Frankie is funny and even touching.

The Casual Vacancy is more interesting than it is enjoyable, an unsparing look at the reality of English country life, not the reverie.

Happyish is clever, but it’s so enamored of its own cleverness that it forgets to be funny.

It’s an exhilarating thriller that pits a disparate group of people against an insidious military-industrial conspiracy. But it’s the unlikely affinity between a stern, pious Muslim teenager and the captive female American soldier he is instructed to guard that gives this high-octane action-adventure drama a special charm.

There are a lot of jokes about Brooklyn, sex and millennial entitlement, but the underlying sensibility echoes that of “Sex and the City.” It’s a lighthearted but wistfully knowing look at the gender imbalances and generational rifts that make life hard for even fabulous women.

Mr. Corden, a portly British performer, was energetic, amiable and cheerfully self-assured, but not particularly special.

The documentary is a loving tribute to his personal charm and other talents.

At the outset, Bloodline doesn’t even make clear if anyone has been murdered, let alone who might be missing. But it does establish that it may be well worth waiting to find out.

It should be a hoot, but it actually gets old, and dull, very quickly.

Possibly because it works so hard to mimic the original’s gloomy restraint, The Returned feels strained.

The series leavens wacky absurdity with acid wit and is very funny.

This is an ABC drama that is not just good, it’s startlingly good, as bracing in its own way as "True Detective" was on HBO last year.

It helps that Mr. Winters and Mr. Duhamel give performances that add some glints of complexity to their surface charm, and that the writers avoid many of the usual clichés. This is an engaging series about a likable bunch of co-workers that isn’t too sweet or predictable.

Without Zoe Barnes, prostitutes, corrupt lobbyists and dissipated members of Congress to perk up the landscape as in seasons past, the show feels monotonous. It certainly looks it.