THEATER CAMP (Searchlight/Disney):  The odds are that a lot of people who’ll want to see a movie called Theater Camp are comfortable with the kind of ramshackle, hit-or-miss qualities associated with actual summer camp productions, and will likewise find plenty to enjoy in a movie that’s been made with more love and energy than […]

> The Academy limits the number of movie ads that can be aired on the Oscar telecast (until recent years, they didn’t allow any), so as not to make the night look like the awards are shilling for the studios.  (God forbid!)  It’s not clear whether that’s the reason only 2 movie promos made it […]

> As anyone who’s ever worked at a TV network knows, sometimes the only thing worse than a flop is having a hit on your air.  AMC is learning this lesson the hard way:  it’s endured messy, extended renewal talks for Mad Men and the loss of The Walking Dead‘s showrunner over the past year […]

  This year’s COVEN season of AMERICAN HORROR STORY was as cohesive as the proudly bizarre  series is ever likely to get.  That entailed a slight shortage of the WTF variety moments that have made the two previous seasons memorable–no aliens, no fiendish medical experiments, no appearances by Anne Frank–but there was something to be […]

  Rarely has a TV series crashed as quickly and completely as ABC’s RESURRECTION.  It premiered just 10 months ago with a 3.8 rating in the 18-49 demo, yet last week it managed only an 0.8 (actually up a tenth from the previous week).  In other words, 80% of the audience that was initially enthusiastic about […]

  THE AFFAIR:  Sunday 9PM on Showtime It’s a bit surprising to be talking about a 4th season of Showtime’s THE AFFAIR at all, and not just because the ratings have always been mild, and the series has never attained the buzz or awards attention that prestige TV aspires to.  The Affair seemed to reach […]

  ABOUT A BOY:  Tuesday 9PM on NBC Previously… on ABOUT A BOY:  Will Freeman (David Walton) lives a happily superficial, bimbo-laden life in San Francisco, supported indefinitely by the royalties from the one successful song he ever wrote–when one day, 11-year old misfit Marcus (Benjamin Stockham) and his vegan, neurotic, disapproving mother Fiona (Minnie […]

  MISTRESSES:  Monday 10PM on ABC Tonight’s season premiere of last summer’s guilty pleasure MISTRESSES referenced the old line about not fixing what ain’t broken, which was odd, because under showrunner/Executive Producer Rina Mimoun, the show seemed to be doing just that.  In the premiere, at least, written by Mimoun and directed by Ron Lagomarsino, […]