The season gets off to a slow start, with perhaps a bit more relationship angst than even diehard fans would prefer. Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Derek "McDreamy" (Patrick Dempsey) start out with the familiar push-pull of their love affair--but a resolution, at last, is in their future. Callie (the excellent, and newly glamorous, Sara Ramirez) wrestles with her sexual orientation. Cristina (Sandra Oh, never better) is still picking up the pieces from her ruined engagement to the departed Burke (Isaiah Washington). To help her, or maybe to throw her for another loop, the series introduces the gruff, macho military doc, Owen (one of TV's sexiest hunks, Kevin McKidd).

Yet series creator and still active writer Shonda Rhimes unveils story arcs about midway through the season which have the surgeons' operating room dramas intersecting with the characters' private lives--with waves of heartbreaking results. Fans may take issue with "Dead Denny" (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his endless visitations--complete with sex--with Izzie (Katherine Heigl)--but as the season builds, Izzie's mystery illness, and her deep love for Alex (Justin Chambers) are treated with delicacy and respect, and Denny's character both reacts and ultimately supports. There's a wedding--a fairy-tale one--celebrating the show's 100th episode, and the love of the characters, and the pain they've overcome to get there--are equal parts of the very human, very lovely, result. The season finale is among the show's best ever, with the fate of two beloved characters, George (T.R. Knight) and Izzie, left unknown and laden with sorrow. --A.T. Hurley

In terms of quality, the show has been on an upward curve since the end date of the programme was announced, and season six arguably finds Lost at its most confident to date. Never mind the fact that it’s juggling lots of proverbial balls: there’s a very clear end point here, and the show benefits enormously from it.

Naturally, Lost naysayers will probably find themselves more alienated than ever here. But this boxset nonetheless marks the passing of a major television show, one that has cleverly managed to reinvent itself on more than one occasion, and keep audiences across the world gripped as a result. There’s going to be nothing quite like it for a long time to come… --Jon Foster

Yet Dexter is soon back to his compulsion for seeking out criminals who've somehow escaped traditional justice. Hall, one of TV's most talented actors, manages to make Dexter's off-kilter moral compass totally believable, if not quite sympathetic. The rest of the cast is stellar, including Dex's sister, Debra, played by Jennifer Carpenter as the seemingly more combustible Morgan--a hot-tempered Miami detective in the same division where Dexter toils in the background as a blood-spatter specialist. Deb wears her heart on her sleeve, as a cop and a sister, and her deep love for her brother is a key part of what makes Dexter so human. (And Carpenter's chemistry with Hall is amped by the fact that in real life, the actors are married.)

Season 3's breakout guest star is the amazing Jimmy Smits, who plays District Attorney Miguel Prado, a polished pillar of the community, an ambitious politician--and a guy with a secret every bit as dark as Dexter's. As Miguel and Dexter peel away each other's unsavoury layers, Dexter tries to tamp down Miguel's blistering desire for revenge, and Miguel begins leading a double life--one that could threaten Dexter's life and family as much as the growing list of bad guys in Miguel's crosshairs. The other main star of Dexter is the city of Miami, its teeming beauty and corruption celebrated in equal measure, and its blistering sun shot without tempering. The city is so integral, visually and viscerally, that it's impossible to think of Dexter being shot anywhere else. It's a killer season. --A.T. Hurley