Tonight’s PETER PAN LIVE proved that NBC, and producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, had learned some valuable lessons from last year’s successful but often painful production of The Sound of Music.  Chief among them was that it’s a better idea to anchor your show with an actress who can sing (and sing showtunes) […]

  TOGETHERNESS:  Sunday 9:30PM on HBO Previously… on TOGETHERNESS:  Brett (Mark Duplass) and Michelle (Melanie Lynskey), a couple with two young children, found their house getting crowded with the additions of Michelle’s sister Tina (Amanda Peet), a businesswoman with a disastrous romantic life, and Brett’s oldest friend Alex (Steve Zissis), who’s acting career is failing. […]

  THE LAST MAN ON EARTH:  Sunday 9:30PM on FOX – Potential DVR Alert THE LAST MAN ON EARTH is both excitingly original and disappointingly cliched, an odd mix that leaves its future prospects somewhat unsettled.  However it ends up, though, FOX and its creator/star Will Forte deserve credit for embarking on a show that’s […]

  WEIRD LONERS:  Tuesday 9:30PM on FOX Previously… on WEIRD LONERS:  Out-of-work womanizer Stosh (Zachary Knighton) has just moved in with his odd cousin Eric (Nate Torrence) in Eric’s house, which is next door to the one where bitter singleton Caryn (Becki Newton) has just taken in commitment-phobe artist Zara (Meera Rohit Kumbhani). Episode 2:  […]

  Transgender issues have been such hot-button topics in the news lately that people may not be prepared for how muted and delicate Tom Hooper’s THE DANISH GIRL is.  The film, which debuted at the Venice Film Festival and then screened at Toronto, before beginning a quest for awards later in the year, barely deals […]

  For anyone who doubts the challenges of sustaining a serialized narrative across 22 broadcast-network hours, there’s QUANTICO.  Joshua Safran’s series went from one of the brightest spots of ABC’s fall schedule to a show that may have been lucky to have an early Season 2 renewal in its pocket, unable to effectively navigate its […]

  TYRANT:  Wednesday 10PM on FX FX’s TYRANT has never been as incisive or daring as it could have been, given its incendiary setting in a fictional Middle Eastern nation on the brink of revolution, but it’s a survivor, back on the air for its third season.  After an unengaging initial run, the series remade […]

  STAR:  Wednesday 9PM on FOX (returning January 4) – In the Queue The writer/producer/director Lee Daniels makes his home in wild melodrama, and he’s had success at two extremes:  with the almost hallucinatory grittiness of Precious, and the ultra-glitz of Empire.  His new FOX series STAR is an attempt to meld both, and not […]