James Poniewozik

“The Great American Road Trip” sends the transportation secretary and his family on a wholesome, dull tour, with a lot of help from their sponsors.

Steven Conrad (“Patriot”) brings his oddball sensibility to the limited-crime-series genre for HBO.

“The Shards” and “Sterling Point” offer different angles on that most status-conscious of genres, the teen drama.

The pleasures of watching the TV show of the summer as a bandwagon fan.

The classic story (and recent culture-war object) remains wholesome but makes room for people who called the prairie home before the Ingalls family.

After a run of dazzling and frustrating ambition, the series closes with a pared-down menu and a touch of sweetness.

On the one hand, the 250th anniversary has given us presidential blood sport. On the other comes a show about star-spangled nothing.

The season’s best new show is a horror-comedy rooted in a timely idea: Is the past a treasure to preserve or a monster to escape?

In its finale, this comedy about comedy circled back to the romance of creative partnership and the saving power of laughs.

The “Late Show” cancellation was a disappointment. But a surreally lovely final episode turned it into a cancellebration.