A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and the production of episodes for the regular season: a writing/producing team is hired, audience focus groups weigh in, networks and studios (which may have had their own turnover) give plenty of notes, helpful and otherwise, and critics begin to rear […]

  Like its central hero, Dr. Lee Rosen (David Strathairn), ALPHAS spent most of its Season 2 finale staggering about in a daze, apparently bleeding to death.  And–SPOILER ALERT— also like Rosen, as well as everyone else who had the misfortune to be in Grand Central Station at the close of the episode aside from […]

  Some smart shifts in emphasis have left HART OF DIXIE in fine shape as it reaches the midpoint of its second season, changes that were evident in tonight’s midseason finale, written by series creator Leila Gerstein and directed by Patrick Norris. Season 1 of Hart was essentially Gilmore Girls meets “Southern Exposure,” the travails […]

  BANSHEE:  Friday 10PM on Cinemax Alan Ball’s name is the one most often thrown about in connection with the new Cinemax series BANSHEE, and that’s understandable, what with him being the creator of True Blood and all.  But Ball is just an Executive Producer on Banshee; the show was actually created by the novelists […]

  It takes quite a while–almost its entire length, in fact–for the utter conventionality of AFTERNOON DELIGHT to become clear.  Jill Soloway’s feature directing debut, for which she unaccountably won a Sundance award, toys with being a much more interesting, transgressive film, before settling down to be as middle-of-the-road and inoffensive as is humanly possible.  […]

  CULT:  Tuesday 9PM on CW Previously… on CULT:  Stay with me here.  “Cult” is a fictional TV series that airs on a fictional version of the CW, in which the deranged followers of Billy Grimm (Rob Knepper) murder, torture and commit various other crimes at his behest, including the abduction of the sister of […]

  When SUBURGATORY went on the air last season, it had a clear vision:  as the title suggests, it was a light but acerbic satire about the perils of living a few too many miles from New York City, reflected through the gaze of Tessa (Jane Levy), a bright high-schooler who’d been brought from Manhattan […]

  Even with the nonstop double (sometimes barely single) entendres, 2 BROKE GIRLS is as basic and old-fashioned as a sitcom can be–it’s sort of a starter kit for CBS comedy.  Take 2 mismatched diner co-workers/roommates/business partners (Kat Dennings as streetsmart Max and Beth Behrs as once-wealthy Caroline), mix with a wacky boss and fellow […]