> WHERE WE WERE:  Contra Security, a wacky high-tech firm run by the extravagantly enigmatic Oz (Christian Slater).  Contra tests the security measures of its clients by cracking them wide open, staging mock break-ins, robberies, and similar hijinks.  Its roster of idiosyncratic experts include hacker Cameron (Bret Harrison), gadget guy Cash (Alphonso McAuley) and, for […]

  FX’s THE AMERICANS has been, by a substantial margin, the best new show of this season.  And if tonight’s season finale was slightly less ambitious than we might have hoped in terms of delivering the shocking twists or cliffhangers that we now expect from our top serialized series, it still delivered an expert mix […]

  SAVE ME had a late start, but it managed to be the worst network show to premiere during the 2012-13 season.  Unspeakably self-righteous, smug and narcissistic–and also not remotely funny–it was a series about religion that could have been underwritten by atheists.  While the idea of having The Big C creator Darlene Hunt run […]

  THE KNICK:  Friday 10PM on Cinemax Previously… on THE KNICK:  New York’s Knickerbocker Hospital circa 1900 is a highly respectable institution, funded by wealthy benefactors and with a conscientious staff, but to modern eyes, it’s little more than a sewer, with “state of the art” operating procedures that seem savage and conditions that are […]

  THE HUMBLING (Millenium) – no release date set – Watch It At Home THE HUMBLING wasn’t one of Philip Roth’s major novels, and Barry Levinson’s film, despite striking performances from Al Pacino and Greta Gerwig and some memorable moments of dark comedy, isn’t a major film either. The script by Buck Henry and Michal […]

  LAST MAN STANDING:  Friday 8PM on ABC If your heart beats faster when you hear the retro sound of a voice saying “Last Man Standing Is Recorded Before A Live Studio Audience,” then to paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy, you just may be the audience for Last Man Standing.  It’s found a smallish but loyal crowd […]

  Read All Our Fall Pilot Reports here. TROPHY WIFE:  Tuesday 9:30PM on ABC – If Nothing Else is On… If you like your comedy innocuous, TROPHY WIFE may fit the bill.  The title is ironic:  although Kate (Malin Akerman) is the young, beautiful third wife of Peter (Bradley Whitford), she’s not after his money–he’s […]

  THE WHITE QUEEN:  Saturday 9PM on Starz Previously… on THE WHITE QUEEN:  Lady Elizabeth Woodville (Rebecca Ferguson) was a widow with two children who captured the lust, and then the heart, of England’s King Edward IV (Max Irons) in 1465.  This was during the War of the Roses, a battle of British nobility for […]