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Justina Mintz/AMC Mad Men: Is That All There Is?
The midseason premiere dwelled on the disillusionment that comes with facing reality.
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PBS With Wolf Hall, PBS Finds a Drama Worthy of the Word Masterpiece
The adaptation of Hilary Mantel's 2009 novel is a tour de force, from its magnificent cast to its fascinating analysis of politics and power.
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Wikimedia The Unsung Legacy of Black Characters on Soap Operas
Well before primetime shows like Empire, daytime TV was the place where diversity and complexity learned to coexist.
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PBS Downton Abbey, Casualty of a Changing World
The aristo-soap, which won an immense following in the aftermath of the financial crisis, is ending before the appeal of its upstairs-downstairs dynamic wears off.
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Gene Page / AMC The Walking Dead's Understated End to an Epic Season
The show's fifth-season finale wisely chose story over the typical explosion of violence.
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Gene Page/AMC The Walking Dead: A Clash of Troublemakers
Crisis erupts at Alexandria after long-simmering distrust drives wedges between its inhabitants.
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Texas Monthly/Time/Mad/The Atlantic From Dallas to Spoiler Alerts, the Rise and Fall of the Cliffhanger
35 years ago, the question of who shot J.R. Ewing was national news, but the decline of typical network scheduling makes dramatic plot devices less effective.
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Yahoo Does Community Really Need to Exist Anymore?
Formerly of NBC, the long-running cult comedy has become the flagship show for Yahoo, where it’s cleverly rebelling against its own perceived irrelevance.
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Gene Page/AMC The Walking Dead Knows How to Rip Hearts Out
Things turned gory for a team on a dangerous resupply mission, and someone betrayed Rick and the group back in Alexandria.
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E! Don't Watch the Throne: The Royals Is Too Dumb to Be Fun
E!'s new show demonstrates how to make soapy drama boring.
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Sony Pictures Television With Powers, PlayStation Flops on Its First Original Series
This meager adaptation fails to do justice to a solid comic book—and raises doubts about the brand's ability to compete with the likes of Amazon and Netflix.
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Frazier Moore/AP How Sam Simon Helped Make The Simpsons What It Is Today
The beloved animated sitcom's co-creator steered the show toward the kind of artistry it later became known for.
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The WB/Netflix At 18, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Is Still Revolutionary
No show since has empowered its teenage heroine in such a subversive, engaging way.
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Gene Page / AMC On The Walking Dead, the Past Is Never Totally Past
Rick and company adjust, with varying degrees of success, to life behind tall walls in Alexandria.
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FX The Americans Waxes Nostalgic for the 80s
Despite the authentic use of Pink Floyd, the latest episode strained to draw parallels between Soviet recruitment and the civil-rights struggle.
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Fox/HBO/ABC Television Loves Female Presidents, as Long as They're Republican
Americans have yet to elect a woman as commander in chief, but the small screen has played with the idea for almost a decade.
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Popcorn Time Why Popcorn Time Scares Netflix
The free video-streaming upstart is starting to rival the larger site for traffic in some countries, but it isn't necessarily doing anything illegal.
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Gaganjit Singh/UN Women/The Atlantic Closing the TV-Guest Gender Gap
A host reflects on the many challenges of trying to make half of his interview subjects women.
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PBS/The Atlantic Downton Abbey Ends With Good Cheer
The fifth season finale successfully warmed hearts, despite another Bates tragedy, a very nasty butler, and some inedible broth.
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Gene Page/AM The Walking Dead: Home Sweet Home at Last?
The survivors get their bearings in a strange, but seemingly safe, new community.
