Even among procedurals, ABC’s Canadian summer series MOTIVE was a bare-bones example of the genre–it was virtually abstract.  The show had a single gimmick:  at the start of each episode, the killer and victim were identified, so in theory the only mystery was why this person killed that one.  (Sometimes, as in the first […]

  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 […]

  Read All Our Fall Pilot Reports here and Midseason Pilot Reports here. THE MILLERS:  Thursday 8:30PM on CBS – If Nothing Else Is On… When Bad Shows Happen To Talented People, Chapter 2456:  you wouldn’t think a network comedy would need more to succeed than Greg Garcia (My Name Is Earl, Raising Hope) as […]

> Worth a ticket. The director and writer of Saw, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, combine again to bring us–hey, where are you going?  No, seriously:  don’t run away.  Leaving aside that Saw is rather unfairly maligned (before it became the poster child for “torture porn” and a dumb sequel machine for Lionsgate, the original […]

  RED 2:  Watch It At Home – Less Fizz in the Drink This Time The first RED was a disarming surprise, a rom-com action adventure about retired but very lethal spies as bubbly as it was explosive.  It made almost $200M at the worldwide box office, and while that’s not quite Expendables money ($274M […]

  Behind the scenes events threatened to overtake the narrative of THE AFFAIR this season.  Midway through the run, Showtime announced that next year’s Season 5 would be the series finale, making the current season something of a preface to the end.  It then developed that original lead actress Ruth Wilson had asked the producers […]

  Showbuzzdaily’s Top 10 Films of 2012 can be found here, and the Worst 10 are here.  But there were other movies this year worth remembering: HONORABLE MENTIONS CLOUD ATLAS (Warners – October – written and directed by Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer): An impossibly ambitious epic that was thrilling when it worked. […]

  90210 has never been CW at its best.  The semi-network specializes almost exclusively in fantasies, either of the supernatural or soapy kind (or both), and some of its shows deliver those fantasies with wit and compelling storytelling–The Vampire Diaries and the early years of Gossip Girl, for example. 90210, though, has always a very […]