AMERICAN FICTION (Orion/MGM/Amazon – Nov. 17):  The Toronto People’s Choice Award has been something of a golden ticket to a Best Picture nomination over the years, and this year the prize went to Cord Jefferson’s directing debut American Fiction.  Jefferson’s script (based on the novel “Erasure” by Percival Everett) for the most part deftly toes […]

  THE LAST SHIP:  Sunday 9PM on TNT The world was saved at the end of THE LAST SHIP‘s second season.  Not only was a cure found for the virus that had caused a nearly apocalyptic pandemic, killing off most of Earth’s population, but the dearly departed Dr. Scott (Rhona Mitra) perfected a way to […]

  WAYWARD PINES:  Wednesday 9PM on FOX WAYWARD PINES was never intended to be a continuing series, especially once FOX dumped what was once intended as a prestige project from Executive Producer M. Night Shyamalan into its summer line-up.  But these days, networks can’t afford to leave ratings on the table, and once Wayward proved […]

  THE BLACKLIST adequately completed the first act of its season’s mission with tonight’s fall finale–but the tough part is still to come.  NBC largely adopted a conservative schedule this season–a new sitcom after Tuesday’s The Voice and a couple more thrown away on Thursday, another fantasy thriller after Grimm, a third old-skewing procedural to […]

  GROUND FLOOR:  Thursday 10PM on TBS – If Nothing Else Is On… As cable networks have stolen more and more of the glory from broadcasters, with TV movies, miniseries, and quality 1-hour dramas now largely in their domain, one of the last bastions of broadcast domination is the mainstream sitcom.  (Niche comedies are a […]

      ACT OF VALOR:  Watch It At Home –  Fast Forward When They’re Not Shooting   If there were a genuine national military crisis, and a small group of expert soldiers were needed to protect the interests of the country, would you want George Clooney or Brad Pitt behind the triggers of those […]

  THE BLACKLIST: REDEMPTION:  Thursday 10PM on NBC – Change the Channel THE BLACKLIST: REDEMPTION is for all those who longed to see what The Blacklist would look like without James Spader, a group that could probably fit into a medium-sized elevator.  Ordered by NBC when the network still thought The Blacklist was going to […]

  GRACELAND:  Thursday 10PM on USA Previously… on GRACELAND:  Mike Warren (Aaron Tveit) is a straight-out-of-the-academy FBI agent and the newcomer to a luxurious Malibu beachhouse that was seized by the government from a druglord (he was an Elvis fan), which now serves as both residence and base of operations for FBI, DEA and Customs […]