Pilot Reports

THE SKED Series Premiere Review: “Finding Carter”

Posted July 9, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  FINDING CARTER:  Tuesday 10PM on MTV – Potential DVR Alert Most YA drama, in one way or another, is about the emotional dislocation of being a teen, and in recent years, the reigning trope has been to externalize the theme supernaturally:  the teen discovers that he/she is a vampire, an alien, a witch, a […]

Full Story »

Articles

THE SKED’S PILOT + 1 REVIEW: “Work It”

Posted January 11, 2012 by Mitch Salem

> (RATINGS NOTE:  THE TIME-SLOT FOR ABC’S 2D EPISODE OF WORK IT BEGAN WITH A 3-MINUTE LAST MAN STANDING OVERRUN ON THE EAST COAST, WHICH MAY MAKE OVERNIGHT RATINGS LESS ACCURATE THAN USUAL.) A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and production of episodes for the regular season:  […]

Full Story »

Reviews

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Killjoys”

Posted August 22, 2015 by Mitch Salem

  KILLJOYS is, along with Dark Matter, one of the ultra-cheap scripted pieces that Syfy runs on Friday nights.  (Defiance, which airs with them, is a somewhat more ambitious enterprise.)  The grubby aesthetics of the two Canadian imports are so similar that it’s no surprise there’s been talk about a crossover between their universes–assuming both are […]

Full Story »

Pilot + 1

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “On Becoming A God In Central Florida”

Posted August 25, 2019 by Mitch Salem

  ON BECOMING A GOD IN CENTRAL FLORIDA:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime There’s an overlap between two of cable’s more high-profile new shows, which also happen to air against each other in the linear world.  Both HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones and Showtime’s ON BECOMING A GOD IN CENTRAL FLORIDA are dark comedies about pernicious American […]

Full Story »

Pilot Reports

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “Star Trek: Discovery”

Posted September 24, 2017 by Mitch Salem

  STAR TREK:  DISCOVERY – Episodes available each Sunday at CBS All Access – In the Quene There are quite a few perils to reaching a judgment about the new STAR TREK: DISCOVERY based on its opening hour, the only episode that will air on the CBS broadcast network before the series begins streaming (1 […]

Full Story »

Midseason Premiere

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “Justified”

Posted January 21, 2015 by Mitch Salem

  JUSTIFIED:  Tuesday 10PM on FX Final seasons, as we all know, can be tricky, but JUSTIFIED seems to be in strong shape as it enters its last lap.   Justified lost a bit of its mojo last year, the victim of some inadequate villains and scattered plotting (the whole Mexican druglord subplot seemed to come […]

Full Story »

Archive

LIMITED RELEASE: “The Double Hour,” “Incendies” & “Cave of Forgotten Dreams”

Posted May 4, 2011 by Mitch Salem

> Plot spoilers are even more problematic when it comes to limited releases, because by definition they’re only being seen by a few people in certain selected locations, and–if they’re good–will ideally be discovered by audiences over time.  Which is a roundabout way of saying that I strongly recommend, but can reveal almost nothing about, […]

Full Story »

Reviews

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Breaking Bad”

Posted September 3, 2012 by Mitch Salem

  Visually, this season of BREAKING BAD has been typified by shots of Walter White’s looming, shaven, gleaming skull.  A bald pate may not have received this much loving camera attention since Brando’s in Apocalypse Now, and in tonight’s season finale, it was featured again, most notably in the great shot as Heisenberg fastened his […]

Full Story »