Author Archive
 

 

AFI FEST Film Review: “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”

  THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY:  Buy A Ticket – Ben Stiller’s Imaginative, Flawed Reboot Of The Classic Tale The movies Ben Stiller directs for himself (Reality Bites, Zoolander, Tropic Thunder) are nearly ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED PILOT REVIEW: FOX’s “Almost Human”

  ALMOST HUMAN:  Monday 8PM on FOX (after a Sunday Nov 17 preview) – Worth A Look The ALMOST HUMAN pilot has a whole lot of concept.  The show was created by J. H. Wyman, a senior writer/producer on Fringe (the pil...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Season Finale Review: “Hello Ladies”

  The formulaic TV sitcom plot can be summed up like this:  the protagonist has some understandable goal, but says or does the worst possible thing to achieve it, causing chaos–yet things work out OK in the end, and...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Series Finale Review: “Eastbound & Down”

  Television is a little less berserk and interesting tonight with the departure (although not the death) of Kenny Powers (Danny McBride), the unstoppable id of EASTBOUND & DOWN.  The series finale, written by series ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED NETWORK SCORECARD – 11/17/13

  Football gave Almost Human a strong start last night. FOX:  The network carefully set its preview of ALMOST HUMAN for a Sunday night where FOX had the late NFL game, and the result was a solid 3.1 for the pilot.  Of course...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

NIELSENWAR: What Is CW Doing Right?

  NOTE:  Season-To-Date and Weekly Network Ratings Charts Are Below Something remarkable happened last Thursday night:  with a 1.3 rating, CW’s THE VAMPIRE DIARIES outrated the entire NBC line-up.  The reason that...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Sunday Cable Scorecard – 11/17/13

  AMC:  THE WALKING DEAD, of course, chomped on everything but Sunday Night Football, with a 6.0 in 18-49s rating that was down 0.2 from last week.  (The 11PM re-airing added another 1.0.)  TALKING DEAD remained steady ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED: ABC Midseason Schedule

  Today ABC announced its midseason schedule.  Mostly, the network did the necessary work of filling in the gaps where shows have been canceled (or run out of episodes, like Super Fun Night and Once Upon A Time in Wonder...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

UPDATED: THE SKED NETWORK/CABLE SCORECARD – 11/19/13

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  Little change from this morning’s numbers, with 0.1 increases for AGENTS OF SHIELD, THE VOICE, THE BIGGEST LOSER and DAVID BLAINE: REAL OR MAGIC.  ABC will hope the boost for SHIELD means that the ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY FILM REVIEW: “Delivery Man”

  DELIVERY MAN:  Not Even For Free – Vince Vaughn Tries Wholesomeness DELIVERY MAN, alas, is Vince Vaughn’s Patch Adams.  Vaughn’s desire to try something new is understandable:  he’s in his mid-...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Midseason Finale Review: “Revolution”

  With the addition of Rockne S. O’Bannon to the REVOLUTION writing/producing team as co-showrunner, alongside series creator Eric Kripke, the first half (actually 9/22nds) of its second season has been more tightly ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Season Finale Review: “The League”

  Incivility, narcissism, oafishness, insensitivity and general offensiveness is rarely as breezily funny as it regularly is on THE LEAGUE, which finished its fifth season on the new FXX network tonight.  The semi-improvi...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

UPDATED: THE SKED NETWORK/CABLE SCORECARD – 11/20/13

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  Little change from this morning, with 0.1 rises for THE X FACTOR, MODERN FAMILY (still down 0.4 for the night), SURVIVOR, THE MIDDLE and ARROW (still down 0.2).  There was no gain for REVOLUTION.  SUPER...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Weekend Box Office: “Catching Fire” Strikes Tinder Tonight

  THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE, the 600-pound gorilla of the holiday movie box office season (The Hobbit 2 is by comparison a smaller simian, at least in the US) opens tonight, and the question is just how big it will b...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED: FOX Midseason Changes

  FOX has announced some changes to its midseason line-up, mostly affecting Tuesdays. GLEE returns to Tuesdays 8PM on February 25, after airing its last Thursday episode sometime before January 16.  It leads into a single...
by Mitch Salem