Rob van der Zee

I'm in -- totally hooked after just 1 episode. I knew very little about the series going in, something about a preacher, supernatural stuff, AMC Network... that's about it. Sounded like a maybe, turns out it's a home-run :-)

The first episode hits the ground running with a dizzying array of plot twists and characters, then quickly turns into a category F-5 tornado.

Blockbuster production quality, inventive storytelling, good acting, action-packed, top-shelf effects -- there hasn't been anything like it before, and while other networks will undoubtedly try, I can't see anyone being able to duplicate "Preacher".

If you're looking for a roller-coaster ride of a TV series, one that you'll hate waiting a week until the next installment, "Preacher" is it.

SUITS is smart, sassy, clever, sophisticated, timely and immensely entertaining! The new series debuted with a full 60 minute story that establishes the characters very solidly, opens pathways for many story lines, and boasts an exceptional cast of fine actors. Here is hoping it makes it as an ongoing series, especially since it is not yet another crime drama! Not that Criminal Mains, The Mentalist, Without A Trace will lose their place among the best show on television, but with all the spinoffs on the crime shows, the available choices have been dwindling lately.

SUITS is a lawyer show. Set in New York (captured, by the way, in beautiful cinematic vistas) it focuses on a very successful law firm, managed by Jessica Pearson (Gina Torres) who balances the talents of her two top lawyers, the smarmy Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman) who is a control freak, and the very brilliant but egotistical Harvey Spector (Gabriel Macht). There is a particularly appealing and very bright secretary Donna (Sarah Rafferty) and a beautiful paralegal Rachel (Meghan Markel) and last but certainly not least by any means there is Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) - a young lad who is extremely bright, has a photographic memory, dropped out of college because he took tests for fellow students and got caught, fell into marketing drugs by default for need of money so that he could pursue his dream of being a lawyer, and falls quite by accident into the role of being selected as associate to the brilliant but self absorbed Harvey Spector. This is the team of characters who are destined to provide fascinating substories as they interact.

The dialogue (Aaron Korsh and Sean Jablonski) is clever, bright, snappy, unclichéd, witty, and helps define the complexities of the characters. The pacing is exceptional (directors Kevin Bray and John Scott) and the series has the appearance of a high-end movie - excellent cinematography, expansive development of story in well-selected locations - but most of all this is a cast that is worthy of attention every moment they are on camera. It will be interesting to watch how Patrick J. Adams and Gabriel Macht grow into our psyches: both are exceptionally fine and provide a spectrum of the lawyer personality we haven't seen on a series before. This should be a major hit!

Stranger Things is the newest foray into Netflix's original programming, of which brings us their most impressive- and strange- production to date. When a young boy named Will Byers goes missing, his friends, mother and the town are thrust into a conspiracy involving a mysterious girl named Eleven and something even more sinister hiding in the woods of Hawkins, Indiana.

From the get-go, you can tell this is an homage to classic '80s Spielberg, drawing on E.T. and Close Encounters, as well as JJ Abrams' Super 8. But, as the show progresses, it becomes more and more like a twisted Stephen King story set in a Spielberg movie. It becomes a dark and twisted ride into an even darker and more disturbing world where the stakes feel higher than anything before it.

I can't go into great detail because spoiling even just a bit of the story takes away from the greater mystery, but I can say, it's one of the most thrilling and intense series to be on TV, without being on TV. If it were to continue, they have to pull the same punches they did with the first season, because they took a great many clichés, and somehow made them fresh and surprising, save for just a couple that they purposefully left cliché.