What could have been a disaster or an insult—bringing Kevin Whately’s Robbie Lewis back to Oxford after the death of John Thaw’s Inspector Morse—turns out instead to be one of the most satisfying two-hour Mystery!s in years.

Manchester police detective Sam Tyler (John Simm) is in hot pursuit of a serial killer who’s kidnapped Tyler’s girlfriend when he’s hit by a car and knocked all the way back into 1973, where the cops are innocent of cell phones, DNA profiles, and scruples about roughing up suspects and planting evidence.

Eureka’s cast works overtime to charm its materials—characters, ideas, and paranormalities left over from Northern Exposure, Twin Peaks, and Picket Fences—into whimsical sentience.

A reality show colonizes the Daily News, where—surprise—hard reporting, not gossip, makes for the best TV.

Still looking for a summer book that isn’t 100 percent trashy? Perhaps even one that’s 100 percent non-trashy (say, on Spinoza)? Here are five new(ish) titles that we’re particularly enthused about.

An oasis in the summer TV wasteland.

Showtime’s Cain-and-Abel crime drama Brotherhood sings a familiar tune, but with an Irish lilt.

An actual conversation between intelligent adults, about serious subjects, in which viewers are assumed to be interested parties to the proceedings instead of morons needing to be pandered to.

The punk-vampire splatterfest Blade comes to the small screen, retaining everything but its wayward star.

What makes Deadwood so fascinating is not the action we put up with; it’s the language we listen to.