PENNY DREADFUL:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime starting May 11 – Potential DVR Alert Showtime’s PENNY DREADFUL is an elegant addition to TV’s horror canon.  It’s been created and its initial 8-hour season has been entirely written by John Logan, whose A-list scripts include Gladiator, The Aviator, Sweeney Todd, Rango and Skyfall, and its pilot […]

  The original CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION turned the corner on its 14th season tonight, and at its age, the show has little interest in reinventing itself beyond the bare minimum.  The days when William L. Petersen starred and people like Jerry Stahl were writing dark-humored, sometimes transgressive episodes are long past, and after a […]

  After two full seasons, it’s become clear that Mindy Kaling’s THE MINDY PROJECT may never be a “well-made show.”  Characters pop in and out–it was recently announced that receptionist Betsy (Zoe Jarman) is the latest regular who won’t be back in the fall–or they change randomly–was it ever clear why Jeremy (Ed Weeks) needed […]

  It seems fair to ask just what the hell happened to NEW GIRL this season.  A series that seemed to spring out of its pilot womb in complete command of its oddball voice and marvelous cast could suddenly barely take a step in the right direction, the laughs dried up, and the ratings plunged:  […]

  All season, THE TOMORROW PEOPLE has felt like the ugly stepchild of series co-creators Greg Berlanti and Julie Plec, who have more cherished children (Arrow for him, The Vampire Diaries and The Originals for her) getting the bulk of their attention.  Story arcs have been haphazard, acting has been uneven and budgetary shortfalls have […]

  24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY:  Monday 9PM on FOX – DVR Alert Jack Bauer didn’t speak until 40 minutes into the first hour of tonight’s 24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY premiere.  It’s not that he wasn’t around:  he had a fight scene, a chase, and some interrogation sequences during that span.  He just didn’t say anything.  […]

  The second season of BATES MOTEL has been two largely separate series, and one of them is well worth watching.  That’s the one about teenaged Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore), the sensitive and high-strung taxidermy enthusiast who is in the process of becoming a serial killer of women, and his relationship with his intemperate, unstable, […]

  2 BROKE GIRLS is a serviceable sitcom for CBS, and in its 3rd season, it knows fairly well how to do what it does.  The show hangs on the comic charisma of Kat Dennings as wise-ass, tough-but-vulnerable waitress and aspiring cupcake maker Max, and her chemistry with Beth Behrs as her formerly rich roommate, […]