The quietly disturbing drama, based on a novel by "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling, shows the telltale signs of its authorship, even with no boy wizards about. Rowling's reliable go-to types are in place: Bumbling do-gooders. Abusive 1-percenters. Formidable old biddies.
Read MoreThe delicious Cookie recipe of 'Empire': Mix business savvy, fashion flash and fearlessness to get TV's most delicious heroine.
"Empire" is a glorious, over-the-top mess, a "King Lear" soap opera with silly dialogue, pretty people, backstabbing galore and a soundtrack by Timbaland. It would be a tedious exercise instead of a guilty pleasure without Taraji P. Henson as Cookie, equal parts everywoman and Mama Bear in a mink coat, greeting rivals with a "Hey, Boo Boo Kitty!"
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Cheat wave: Frustration, sorrow and sex simmer in 'The Affair," Showtime's drama about two sides of a summer fling gone wrong.
"The Affair" begs to be compared to Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon," that Japanese cinematic classic told from four conflicting viewpoints. But it's more fun to think of Showtime's new drama as a 10-hour rendition of "Summer Lovin' " from "Grease."
Read MoreSoderbergh's surgical strike: Oscar-winning director serves up 'The Knick,' a period drama about surgeons unafraid to play God.
New York's Knickerbocker Hospital offers the most advanced medical care 1900 has to offer.
As soon as the doctor emerges from the opium den, catches a horse-drawn cab and finds the last usable vein in his toe for his cocaine injection, surgery can begin.
"The Knick," a 10-part TV drama from Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh, inverts the formula that has served most feel-good medical shows so well. Patients at the Knick, especially those who go under the knife, die as a rule and survive as surprise.
"The Strain": How FX's latest drama gets mired in its own gore.
As its evil creatures take form in the first four episodes, "The Strain" starts to resemble a regrettable late-night trip to Taco Bell. The show has slightly rearranged most of pop culture's vampire, zombie and bio-disaster tropes, sprinkled the creation with pico de gallo and called it something new. Would you like a side order of swarming rats with your Quesarito?
Read MoreBack behind bars: Netflix's 'Orange Is the New Black' digs deeper into its varied array of female prisoners in Season 2.
Sometime during her month in solitary confinement, Piper Chapman crosses over.
In the second season of "Orange Is the New Black," the bisexual blond Brooklynite becomes more like her fellow inmates than the people she left behind.
Teenage Wasteland: Why Arya Stark and Sally Draper rule Sunday night TV
One girl came of age in a mystical, surreal time that never really happened, the other in a decade that feels that way now. To the young and female, even those born into privilege, injustice waits behind every door, and the adults are always putting their hypocrisy on display.
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'True Detective' season finale: We may never know why Rust never sleeps.
The show, set to end its story after eight hourlong segments, has been analyzed at "Breaking Bad" levels of delightful, annoying geekdom, making it the latest frustrating, intricate TV drama turned social experiment.
Sunday nights have a lot of shows like that, because Monday mornings go down easier with a round of "Did you watch? Are you caught up?" My work friends, bless their hearts, maintain a spoiler-free zone - within reason. Don't be saving the "Game of Thrones" finale for four days, that's just rude.
A new player at the 'Cards' table: The actress behind Iraq veteran Jacqueline Sharp relished the chance to explore women in politics.
Before Frank Underwood can start haunting the West Wing on this season of "House of Cards," he needs to fill his old job as House majority whip. Preferably with someone useful.
Frank's choice - though he won't be publicly backing her - is Jacqueline Sharp, a third-termer from California with a military background and a spine of steel. She's photogenic, popular, way too green and she knows it.
"You chose me for a reason," she tells him after he suggests she take on the job of keeping House Democrats in line. "I'd like to know what it is."
A vote for vice: In its new season, 'House of Cards' and its compelling villain are still powerful, and a bit too smug.
Netflix drops an entire season of its acclaimed political drama on Friday, another 13 hours of "Mr. Macbeth Goes to Washington." Spacey has lost none of his smarmy magnetism as the cartoonish villain of David Fincher's fun house version of present-day Washington, D.C.
Read More'Masters of Sex": New Showtime series is a funny, heartbreaking look at Masters and Johnson's revolutionary work.
Welsh actor Michael Sheen specializes in conveying lust, rage and grief through a veil of restraint, and the scripts let him reveal Masters' secrets slowly and deliberately. After his daily discussions of arousal and orgasms, he goes home to a house straight out of a vintage Ajax commercial.
Read MoreCriminal Element: The end is near for 'Breaking Bad,' and it all boils down to not-so-basic chemistry.
Walter White treats the world like his personal chemistry set, but when he needed a street name for his criminal alter ego, he turned to physics.
He has relished his menacing nickname. During one of "Breaking Bad's" spaghetti Western-style desert showdowns, he made sure his reputation had preceded him.
"Say my name," he commanded his new business partner, who wearily replied, "Heisenberg."
A dying man of a dying breed: The final eight episodes of 'Breaking Bad' mark the end of an era of great bad guys.
Because the shows built around them usually win over critics, large audiences or both, sympathetic sinners are approaching maximum saturation. Even for repeat visitors to pop culture's darkest corners, somewhere between the pervasive misogyny on "House of Cards" and the Southie rage-aholics on "Ray Donovan," enough sociopaths in silk shirts already.
Under siege on TV: Women face a barrage of sexual violence
The sheer number of rape tropes clogging the TV listings begs for scrutiny. Are these stories just honest attempts to depict a harsh reality, a result of lazy showrunners pushing the "edgy" button, or cynical pandering to a misogynistic audience?
Read MoreDaydream believers: 'Mad Men' lets its women change their worlds
When AMC's acclaimed advertising drama "Mad Men" returns for its sixth season tonight, Megan Draper will still be competing with her husband's black moods, whiskey habit and wandering eye - if she hasn't lost already. Jessica Pare, who plays Megan, is fine with that.
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Bloody Sunday: HBO's fantasy series 'Game of Thrones' resumes with Season 3 of its harsh saga of tribalism and revenge, leading up to what could be some of the most violent television ever.
Watching "Game of Thrones" is an act of courage.
Not just because of the level of commitment it takes to grasp the implications of every scene in this ornate, medieval fantasy world, but because of the base emotions that its countless souls, sprawling realms and ruthless politics can stir.
Runway train: Tyra Banks' nemesis, British supermodel Naomi Campbell, brings her brand of reality to TV.
"Top Model," especially in its saturated, syndicated marathon form, is a haven to gaze upon and critique other women, especially those who haven't perfected walking on spikes without crying. It's a zoo-like, oddly validating experience for the woman who once spent her adolescent allowance on a strawberry-flavored lip gloss, trying to reconcile what she saw in Vogue, Elle and Harpers with her own closet, mirror and scale.
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'The Following' is brooding and bloody: Tormented Kevin Bacon is awash in gore as he hunts a Poe-obsessed serial killer and his cult.
It's fun to see Bacon on television, especially as former FBI agent Ryan Hardy, who breaks into private homes and breaks fingers in the interview room like a gaunt Harry Callahan. He's the classic damaged ex-cop haunted by one horrific case, and his first day back on the job is just going to get worse.
Read MoreRise of an entertainment titan: PBS' 'American Masters' highlights David Geffen's influence but only hints at a dark side.
David Geffen has made so many people rich and famous that everyone from Tom Hanks to Joni Mitchell lines up to sit on a couch and talk about his roller-coaster career in music, movies and theater. If there are pop culture consumers out there who have never heard of Geffen, they should recognize the Eagles, "Saving Private Ryan" and "Cats." Not bad for a guy who started out by lying his way into a mailroom job at William Morris Agency.
Read MoreMeth's dark mourning: The fifth season of 'Breaking Bad' and the five stages of grief
Tweakers still can't get enough of Walter White's blue-tinted "glass," and as the smoke from Season 4 settles, the players in Walt's slapdash inner circle are dealing with the murder of kingpin Gus Fring in their own ways.
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