MADAM SECRETARY:  Sunday 8PM on CBS  – Potential DVR Alert PLAYERS:  Series creator Barbara Hall, a veteran of everything from Northern Exposure to Joan of Arcadia (which she created), and Army Wives to Homeland.  Star Tea Leoni, and an A-list supporting cast that includes Keith Carradine, Tim Daly, Bebe Neuwirth and Zeljko Ivanek.  Pilot […]

  AGENTS OF SHIELD:  Tuesday 9PM on ABC It took most of its first season for AGENTS OF SHIELD to start becoming the show the synergy experts at Disney, Marvel and ABC desperately wanted it to be, and by then it had squandered most of the gaudy ratings that had greeted it last fall.  Only when the plotline of Captain America: […]

  THE AFFAIR:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime – DVR Alert Sundays already have too much television to watch, and Showtime isn’t making life any easier with its excellent new THE AFFAIR.  Although paired on the night with Homeland, it’s of a piece with the network’s Masters of Sex, another compelling exploration of the boundless mysteries […]

  Tonight’s PETER PAN LIVE proved that NBC, and producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, had learned some valuable lessons from last year’s successful but often painful production of The Sound of Music.  Chief among them was that it’s a better idea to anchor your show with an actress who can sing (and sing showtunes) […]

  TOGETHERNESS:  Sunday 9:30PM on HBO Previously… on TOGETHERNESS:  Brett (Mark Duplass) and Michelle (Melanie Lynskey), a couple with two young children, found their house getting crowded with the additions of Michelle’s sister Tina (Amanda Peet), a businesswoman with a disastrous romantic life, and Brett’s oldest friend Alex (Steve Zissis), who’s acting career is failing. […]

  THE LAST MAN ON EARTH:  Sunday 9:30PM on FOX – Potential DVR Alert THE LAST MAN ON EARTH is both excitingly original and disappointingly cliched, an odd mix that leaves its future prospects somewhat unsettled.  However it ends up, though, FOX and its creator/star Will Forte deserve credit for embarking on a show that’s […]

  WEIRD LONERS:  Tuesday 9:30PM on FOX Previously… on WEIRD LONERS:  Out-of-work womanizer Stosh (Zachary Knighton) has just moved in with his odd cousin Eric (Nate Torrence) in Eric’s house, which is next door to the one where bitter singleton Caryn (Becki Newton) has just taken in commitment-phobe artist Zara (Meera Rohit Kumbhani). Episode 2:  […]

  Transgender issues have been such hot-button topics in the news lately that people may not be prepared for how muted and delicate Tom Hooper’s THE DANISH GIRL is.  The film, which debuted at the Venice Film Festival and then screened at Toronto, before beginning a quest for awards later in the year, barely deals […]