There’s no half-hour on network television more consistently accomplished than MODERN FAMILY.  The show may not reach for the demented highs of a Community (at least, you know, the old Community), 30 Rock or Happy Endings–it traffics instead in a heightened but very relatable emotional reality, and does so, virtually every week, with […]

  LUCIFER:  Monday 9PM on FOX – Change the Channel It’s fun to imagine the development meetings that preceded FOX’s order of the new procedural LUCIFER: Series Creator Tom Kapinos:  The Devil, Satan himself, is the show’s main character. FOX Executive:  Wow!  So what does he do? Kapinos:  He runs a nightclub, and he consults […]

  1600 PENN:  Thursday 9:30PM on NBC A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and the production of episodes for the regular season: a writing/producing team is hired, audience focus groups weigh in, networks and studios (which may have had their own turnover) give plenty of notes, helpful […]

  BURN NOTICE:  Thursday 9PM on USA USA Network is beginning to clean its programming house, with tonight marking the beginning of the 7th and final season of BURN NOTICE (the exit of veteran Psych is expected not to be far behind), and the arrival of the new Graceland.  Burn Notice has been a stalwart […]

  UNDER THE DOME:  Monday 10PM on CBS Previously… on UNDER THE DOME:  Well, there’s a giant freaking dome.  One peaceful Sunday afternoon, it suddenly came down over Chester’s Mill, Maine, enveloping the town and imprisoning all who dwell within as though inside an inverted fishbowl.  They include hero-with-secrets Dale Barbara nee “Barbie” (Mike Vogel), […]

    MELANCHOLIA – Watch It At Home – The Title Tells the Tale   Here’s a quick primer in Oscar rules and how studios can get around them.  In order for a film to be Oscar-eligible (other than in a few special categories like Documentary and Foreign Film), it needs a theatrical release in […]

  Comic crumbs were hard to come by on tonight’s mostly dreadful SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.  It’s a particular disappointment because after two episodes struggling with non-comedy hosts Adam Levine and Justin Bieber, the show had a definite uptick with the slyly funny Christoph Waltz, and this time the host was Kevin Hart, who’s proven his […]

  ROMA (Netflix – Dec. 14):  Alfonso Cuaron is one of the master filmmakers of this era, and Roma confirms that all over again.  It’s a deceptively simple memory piece, a semi-autobiographical story set in the Mexico City of his youth in 1970-71, with most of the action revolving around an upper-middle-class family with three […]