CRISTELA:  Friday 8:30PM on ABC Previously… on CRISTELA:  Law student Cristela (series co-creator Cristela Alonzo) works as an intern at a firm run by partner Trent Culpepper (Sam McMurray), alongside his bubbleheaded (blonde) daughter Maddie (Justine Lupe) and nice-guy Josh (Andrew Leeds).  Meanwhile, to make ends meet, Cristela lives at home with her meddling […]

  Even as ABC’s Agents of SHIELD suggests the limits of corporate/entertainment synergy, it’s been working out just fine for the same network’s ONCE UPON A TIME.  Whether the idea originated with the show’s network, studio or (as they claim) producers, melding Disney’s Frozen with the Once melenge of fairy tale, myth and pop culture […]

  12 MONKEYS:  Friday 9PM on Syfy Previously… on 12 MONKEYS:  28 years from now, post-apocalyptic Earth has been devastated by a plague that’s killed 7 billion people.  On the plus side, scientists have begun to figure out how to travel in time (despite some glitches).  A group of them led by Jones (Barbara Sukowa) […]

  Hardly anyone who wasn’t earning a paycheck from Kevin Williamson’s THE FOLLOWING will miss it.  It was as close as any network series has ever come to torture porn, with at least one or two innocents being slaughtered or at least terrorized every week, and without the aesthetic artistry of Hannibal to justify its […]

  HANNIBAL:  Thursday 10PM on NBC The languidly brutal art-horror thing HANNIBAL has returned, much to the joy of its acolytes.  The series is, without question, unlike anything to be found on even the most adventurous cable or online platform, which makes its continued existence on the wasteland of present-day NBC truly remarkable.  Nevertheless, its […]

  EXTANT:  Wednesday 10PM on CBS Although EXTANT survived to a second season (due at least in part to its lucrative Amazon streaming deal), no one involved fooled themselves that it was going very well, as critical response was poor and the ratings steadily fell through the summer.  Season 2 has brought, if not a […]

  FEAR THE WALKING DEAD:  Sunday 9PM on AMC – In the Queue The opening episode of FEAR THE WALKING DEAD was audacious as only a sure thing can be.  The new series is, of course, a spin-off of the fantastically successful The Walking Dead–even if it lost two-thirds of its parent show’s ratings, it […]

  Awards season is Darwinian, often placing two titles in direct competition that have only general traits in common.  Last year we had the British biographies The Theory of Everything and The Imitation Game, which might have canceled each other out in the end.  This year brings two excellent stories about journalism, Truth and now […]