PERCEPTION:  Monday 10PM on TNT – Change the Channel   A man stands on a chair in the middle of a police station, earphones fastened to his head, and frantically conducts the symphony he’s listening to.  Yes, we’re in Eccentric Genius Detective Territory, Psychiatric Disturbance Subdivision, aka Monk-Land.  The new series PERCEPTION is essentially […]

  MALIBU COUNTRY: Friday 8:30PM starting November 2 on ABC – Worth A Look Disclaimer: Network pilots now in circulation are not necessarily in the form that will air in the Fall. Pilots are often reedited and re-scored, and in some cases even recast or reshot. These critiques shouldn’t be taken as full pilot reviews, […]

  POLITICAL ANIMALS remained uncompelling to the very end, which is remarkable when you consider that its final episode threw in, among other things, the (apparent) death of the President of the United States.  The show had plenty of suds and political intrigue, and yet it never amounted to more than a pale imitation of other […]

It’s unfortunately not saying very much to note that PASSION is the best eeffort Brian DePalma has managed to turn in lately.  DePalma’s Redacted was one of the worst films by a major American director in recent memory (even worse than Francis Coppola’s still-unreleased Twixt, seen at last year’s Toronto)—one had to be a major DePalmite to even find […]

  NEW GIRL:  Tuesday 9PM on FOX WHERE WE WERE:  In an apartment with four very strange inhabitants:  Jess (Zooey Deschanel) of the title, who does have her magic pixie dream girl moments but enough issues and grit of her own to make her more than a male fantasy; Winston (Lamorne Morris), a former (European) […]

  LINCOLN:  Worth A Ticket – The West Wing, Civil War Edition In today’s Hollywood, there aren’t many directors whose names are trademarks.  “A Martin Scorsese movie” doesn’t have the meaning that “an Alfred Hitchcock movie” used to have; David Fincher’s name doesn’t promise the same kind of specific entertainment that John Ford’s once did.  […]

  After 6 years and a 55-minute clip show retrospective, and bearing enough promos for The Carrie Diaries for that show to establish a network of its own, GOSSIP GIRL came to a breezy, mostly satisfying end by concentrating on its original basics:  Blair and Chuck (Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick), Serena and Dan (Blake […]

  The most paranormal thing about FRINGE, in the end, was that it actually survived 5 seasons on the air, as very possibly the lowest-rated series to be regularly renewed in the history of network television.  (Made possible by budget restrictions and Warner Bros Television’s willingness to accept sharply lowered license fees because of the […]