ENLIGHTENED:  Sunday 9:30PM on HBO HBO’s decision to renew Mike White and Laura Dern’s ENLIGHTENED for a second season was one of the least ratings-driven calls in memory.  The show barely registered with viewers, usually drawing a 0.1 in 18-49s and a grand total (on initial airing) of perhaps a quarter of a million […]

  CALIFORNICATION:  Sunday 10:30PM on Showtime Even in the relatively free-and-easy world of paycable, there’s something about CALIFORNICATION that seems to get under people’s skin.  Perhaps it’s the casual tone of the show’s debauchery, or the way it implicates viewers in its hedonism with its tendency toward soft-core porn.  In any case, it’s probably the […]

  SHAMELESS:  Sunday 9PM on Showtime SHAMELESS often feels like the raging id of its showrunner and (US) creator, pillar of the Hollywood establishment John Wells.  Wells is the man behind ER, the senior producer who guided Aaron Sorkin on The West Wing and took over when Sorkin left, and as a filmmaker, his next […]

  HOUSE OF LIES:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime Marty Kaan (accent on the “con”) and his management consulting crew are back for a second season at their HOUSE OF LIES tonight on Showtime, and apart from a purge of some of the recurring guest stars, everything is pretty much as remembered.  2 weeks have passed […]

  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 […]

  1600 PENN:  Thursday 9:30PM on NBC 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 […]

  GANGSTER SQUAD – Watch It At Home – Snappy, Violent and Completely Vacuous Watching the new GANGSTER SQUAD is a bit like checking into one of those giant Vegas theme park hotels and expecting to find yourself in the real Rome, Venice or Paris:  the place is luxurious, but utterly fake.  The director Ruben […]

  Jimmy Kimmel’s set got a bit of an upgrade, but other than that there was little visible evidence that the 11:35PM version of JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE will be very different from its midnight incarnation.  Kimmel has never been Mr. High-Concept–he leaves that for Letterman and Conan–and as Jay Leno, still the winner in both […]