ANONYMOUS:  Watch It At Home – The Bard Was A Beard, Claims Wheezy Expose   ANONYMOUS is history tailored for the 1%. Although screenwriter John Orloff and director Roland Emmerich have swirled it into a complicated tangle of conspiracies and scandals, the idea at the center of Anonymous is simple enough (uh, Spoiler Alert):  […]

> Let’s face it, “season finale” is a euphemism for what tonight’s episode of THE RIVER almost certainly was in reality:  the SS Minnow from Gilligan’s Island is more likely to make a return voyage than the Magus is of continuing to float down the Amazon.  So what went wrong with The River, a thriller […]

  INTERSTELLAR:  Worth A Ticket – Christopher Nolan’s Imperfect Odyssey Remember A.I.: Artificial Intelligence?  It was the deeply odd sci-fi/fairy tale quasi-collaboration between Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg, originated by Kubrick but rewritten and filmed by Spielberg (at Kubrick’s request) after Kubrick’s death.  Spielberg clearly meant it as a tribute to a great filmmaker and friend, but […]

  BONES:  Monday 8PM on FOX WHERE WE WERE:  Watching Brennan drive away, baby Christine in tow.  Temperance (Emily Deschanel) had been framed by cyberpath Christopher Pelant (Andrew Leeds) for the murder of an old friend, and rather than be arrested, she fled with the help of ex-con dad Max (Ryan O’Neal), leaving Booth (David […]

  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 […]

  THE NIGHT SHIFT:  Tuesday 10PM on NBC Previously… on THE NIGHT SHIFT:  On the 7PM-7AM shift at San Antonio Medical Center, Dr. TC Callahan (Eoin Macken) is the rebellious yet brilliant ex-Army medic who’s willing to break all the rules, damn it, because all he cares about are his patients.  His ex, Jordan Alexander […]

  TAKE TWO:  Thursday 10PM on ABC ABC’s TAKE TWO has an unusually classy set of auspices for a summer broadcast series.  Its co-creator is Andrew W. Marlowe, who gave the network its long-running hit Castle (his writing partner on the new show is Terri Edda Miller, a Castle writer/producer and also Mrs. Marlowe), and […]

  EMANUEL AND THE TRUTH ABOUT FISHES is deeply, satisfyingly strange.  In a way, it’s a validation not just of Sundance, but the whole film festival system that is now our main way of finding out about distinctive new talent.  It also tells a story based in large part on a single plot development that, while […]