JANE THE VIRGIN:  Monday 9PM on CW Previously… on JANE THE VIRGIN:  Jane (Gina Rodriguez) is what the title says she is, much to the relief of her grandmother Alba (Ivonne Coli), yet still pregnant, thanks to the mistake of a doctor who accidentally inseminated her.  This naturally complicates her relationship with fiance Michael […]

  THE MILLERS:  Monday 8:30PM on CBS THE MILLERS is about to enter dangerous territory. Last season, the series was the very definition of a “timeslot hit.”  It lost half of its Big Bang Theory lead-in each week, but Big Bang‘s ratings were so enormous that even 50% of them counted as a success.  This […]

  THE AFFAIR:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime Previously… on THE AFFAIR:  Several years from now, Noah (Dominic West) and Alison (Ruth Wilson) sit in police interrogation rooms and separately recount, in connection with a crime we don’t yet know about, the story of their relationship in ways that shade the events differently and sometimes outright […]

  Audiences of TV drama have the luxury these days of being spoiled, and that raises the question:  what separates a great series from one that’s merely very good?  WGN America’s MANHATTAN had an original, intriguing premise and setting, exploring the scientific and personal tensions amid the creation of the world’s first atomic bomb at […]

  BIRDMAN or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance):  Worth A Ticket – A Stunt, But An Amazing One Alejandro G. Inarritu’s BIRDMAN is, like this year’s Boyhood, a film defined by its form.  In the case of Boyhood, that form was inextricable from its content:  its depiction of the passage of time, and the experience […]

  One of the ways that, even at a time overwhelmed with quality TV drama, Cinemax’s THE KNICK has proven itself extraordinary has been in its subversion of the accepted TV template.  Conventional wisdom has had it that the auteurs of television are its writer/producers, with the directors as skilled craftspeople devoted to realizing the […]

  CRISTELA:  Friday 8:30PM on ABC Previously… on CRISTELA:  Law student Cristela (series co-creator Cristela Alonzo) works as an intern at a firm run by partner Trent Culpepper (Sam McMurray), alongside his bubbleheaded (blonde) daughter Maddie (Justine Lupe) and nice-guy Josh (Andrew Leeds).  Meanwhile, to make ends meet, Cristela lives at home with her meddling […]

  THE FLASH:  Tuesday 8PM on CW Previously… on THE FLASH:  Mild-mannered civilian police investigator Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) comes out of an encounter with a particle accelerator and a freak storm, and finds himself gifted with super-speed.  Other “metahumans,” though, are less heroic, and before long, Barry has donned a suit and become a superhero […]