David Bianculli

Fresh Air's TV critic reviews the fall season. New shows include the sitcom Aliens in America, premiering Oct. 1 on the CW Network, and ABC's comedy drama Pushing Daisies, making its debut Wednesday, Oct. 3.

Actor Ray Wise (Good Night, and Good Luck) portrays the devil in Reaper, a new series from Clerks writer-director Kevin Smith.

The show centers on a 21-year-old slacker, Sam, who discovers that his parents sold his soul to the devil when he was born. Sam must now serve as the devil's bounty hunter, helping return evildoers to hell.

Reaper premieres on the CW network on Sept. 25.

Fresh Air's TV critic previews The War, the new documentary series about World War II from filmmaker Ken Burns (The Civil War). It premieres Sept. 23 on PBS.

Fresh Air's TV critic previews a new series, a new special and a season premiere — all on HBO this weekend. They are, respectively:

Tell Me You Love Me, about a therapist and the couples she counsels
Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq, in which Sopranos star James Gandolfini (the special's executive producer) interviews 10 injured war vets
Curb Your Enthusiasm, which begins its sixth season.

With the rise of the TV-series box set, more shows are earning fans who devour episodes one after another. Fresh Air TV critic David Bianculli reviews two newly released sets: the debut seasons of Heroes and Friday Night Lights. The former is a seven-disc set packed with deleted scenes and the unaired original pilot; the Friday Night Lights set includes deleted episodes and a making-of featurette.

Our TV critic reviews High School Musical 2, the sequel to the wildly popular teen musical. It stars Zac Efron and premieres on the Disney Channel tonight.

Fresh Air's TV critic reviews the new Showtime dramedy Californication. The show stars X-Files veteran David Duchovny as a charming, jaded rogue of a writer trapped in a Hollywood identity crisis. The studios have turned his dark novel into a romantic comedy, but that's hardly the worst of it. He's still hung up on his ex — so much so that he's sleeping with every woman who'll let him.

ABC is preparing to launch a four-week anthology series called Masters of Science Fiction; it's scheduled to air on Saturdays at 10 p.m. Fresh Air's TV critic says it's a modern-day Outer Limits.

Fresh Air's TV critic reviews two new cable shows featuring strong female leads: TNT's Saving Grace, starring Holly Hunter as a troubled detective, and the FX channel's Damages, starring Glenn Close as a powerful and ruthless attorney.

The Sopranos' final episode aired last night on HBO. Spoiler alert: Critic David Bianculli's review tells us how the episode, and the series, concludes.