> After a hiatus so long that it seemed as though CW had found its own witchcraft to create more repeats of THE SECRET CIRCLE than there’d been original episodes to start, the series finally returned to original episodes. WHERE WE LEFT OFF:  The major revelation of the fall finale was that heroine Cassie (Britt […]

  STATE OF AFFAIRS:  Monday 10PM on NBC Previously… on STATE OF AFFAIRS:  Charleston–call her Charlie–Tucker (Katherine Heigl) is the CIA analyst whose task it is to put together the President’s Daily Briefing book that gives POTUS Constance Payton (Alfre Woodard) her rundown on the immediate foreign threats affecting the US.  Charlie and the President […]

  MOM:  Monday 9:30PM on CBS Previously… on MOM:  Christy (Anna Faris) is a recovering alcoholic single mom who has to cope with her own no-boundaries recovering addict single mother Bonnie (Allison Janney), as well as teen daughter Violet (Sadie Calvano) and son Roscoe (Blake Garrett Rosenthal).  Christy is just barely holding it together, and […]

> Reviews of some of the more prominent movies in theatres right now: X-MEN:  FIRST CLASS MIDNIGHT IN PARIS THE HANGOVER PART II KUNG FU PANDA 2 THE TREE OF LIFE

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 […]

  Although the ratings continued heading downward, there were heartening developments in the back half of THE WALKING DEAD‘s Season 9.  Under new showrunner Angela Kang, the show took some steps to jar itself loose from the rut it gotten itself into.  The departure of star Andrew Lincoln may have kick-started the need to explore […]

  Cinemax’s QUARRY felt like a pulpier version of Rectify, and it came by that lineage naturally:  although based on a series of crime novels by Max Allan Collins, and with all 8 episodes often stunningly directed by Banshee‘s Greg Yaitanes, the series was created and run by Graham Cordy and Michael D. Fuller, who […]

  GOTHAM:  Monday 8PM on FOX – If Nothing Else Is On… PLAYERS:  Batman (and if we’re being honest, Christopher Nolan, even though he has nothing to do with this show).  Series creator Bruno Heller, who was also behind The Mentalist and HBO’s Rome.  Star Ben McKenzie, and a supporting cast headed by Donal Logue […]