CAPTAIN PHILLIPS:  Order Tickets Now – Exceptionally Taut, Intelligent Real-Life Thriller Paul Greenglass is a master of capturing pulse-pounding immediacy on film, and for most directors that would be enough.  Hollywood would be more than happy to back a money truck up to his door and have him churn out nothing but additional Bourne […]

  AMERICAN HORROR STORY – COVEN:  Wednesday 10PM on FX Caged and tortured slaves, mid-coitus spontaneous brain aneurisms and gang rape aside, the COVEN season of AMERICAN HORROR STORY was relatively restrained in its start, at least compared to other AHS seasons.  There appears to be one basic story being told, and all the mythology […]

  ARROW:  Wednesday 8PM on CW ARROW didn’t lose a step in its second-season return, with little sign of the season-premiere-itis often afflicting serialized shows that have to dig themselves out of the plot twists forced by the previous season’s finale.  The potential was there, since the episode began with Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) having renounced […]

  IRONSIDE:  Wednesday 10PM on NBC Previously… on IRONSIDE:  NYPD Sergeant Robert Ironside (Blair Underwood), shot in the back and now in a wheelchair, has won the right to a hand-picked squad (Pablo Schreiber, Spencer Grammer, Neal Bledsoe) helping him to solve crimes, under the sometimes exasperated command of rule-bound Captain Rollins (Kenneth Choi).  Ironside […]

  SUPER FUN NIGHT:  Wednesday 9:30PM on ABC Previously… on SUPER FUN NIGHT:  Kimmie (series creator Rebel Wilson) and her BFFs Marika (Lauren Ash) and Helen-Alice (Liza Lapira) share a New York apartment and nonexistent romantic life.  One night each week, they go out to have adventures.  On the professional front, Kimmie is a lawyer […]

  Read All Our Fall Pilot Reports here. THE TOMORROW PEOPLE:  Wednesday 9PM on CW – If Nothing Else Is On… THE TOMORROW PEOPLE is CW sticking with the CW playbook.  The word “rip-off” may be a strong label for a show whose concept dates back to a British TV series that began in 1973, but […]

  THE ORIGINALS:  Tuesday 8PM on CW Previously… on THE ORIGINALS:  The Mikaelsons have come (back) to New Orleans.  The literally original vampire family (their witch mother cast the spell that created vampirism), brothers Klaus (Joseph Morgan) and Elijah (Daniel Gillies), and sister Rebekah (Claire Holt), beloved of Vampire Diaries fans even–perhaps especially–when they’re trying […]

  BEAUTY & THE BEAST:  Monday 9PM on CW Referring to any CW series as a “bubble show” is sort of a misnomer, because with the exceptions of The Vampire Diaries, Arrow and Supernatural, everything the network airs is pretty much on the bubble.  Even though BEAUTY & THE BEAST seemed to have hit something […]