These shows prove the marathon-watching juggernaut’s concern for both quantity and quality.
It defers to a familiar, nondescript urgency to work through its particular depiction of a troubled but no less honorable civil institution.
“The Time of the Doctor” is the third in a loose trilogy of Doctor Who episodes focused explicitly on the title character.
It’s the more mundane, increasingly transient plotlines that come to define the latest installment of Downton Abbey.
One’s enjoyment of “The Star” and, really, the entire third season of Homeland boils down to whether one is a fan of redemption stories.
This week’s episode of Coven steers the series into unexpected and retrospectively logical narrative and thematic directions.
The year’s best TV offerings were either enlivened by the medium’s possibilities or lovingly defied them.
For three seasons, Homeland has been having it both ways with the exceedingly charismatic Damian Lewis.
“The Sacred Taking” finds the show’s variables nearly, but not quite, cohering into a grand narrative arc.
Its emotional payoff materializes before the shower of gunfire and explosions that pervade the final act of the episode.
Ultimately, it isn’t luck or faith that Homeland is interested in, but humanity.
Life pours out of Treme and, like all good things, the series ends with equal parts rage and love in its bombastic heart.
It’s driven by Frank Darabont’s desire to lavish a generous production budget on recreating his favorite bits from better, more vital crime films.
An episode made to commemorate a series reaching its golden anniversary could be forgiven for merely being an excuse for a party.
More a matter of what Homeland needs to move forward than what viewers might actually want, but it’s a necessary evil.
This time, the portrait of the Governor’s inner torment and unrest is more nuanced.
The show’s setting is such an overwhelmingly depressing environment that much of the offbeat humor ends up flatlining.
Straight males may have found themselves in the position of actively envying two dead men while watching this week’s episode.
It’s simply a failed experiment in branching out, or to be kind, an oddball attempt at art-house pacing and repetition.
It displays a scattershot sense of narrative abandon that suggests a child playing in the backyard after a day of learning about Greek mythology.
“Live Bait” develops into one of The Walking Dead’s most quietly refreshing entries.