On paper, THE SECRET CIRCLE seemed to have everything going for it.  It was a ready-made companion piece to CW’s one big hit The Vampire Diaries–produced by Vampire‘s Kevin Williamson, based on another series of books by Vampire author L.J. Smith.  The ensemble cast was led by Britt Robetrson, previously the personable star […]

  The thing to remember, when charting the collapse of THE OFFICE, is that the producers weren’t taken by surprise.  Steve Carell made it clear early last season that he wouldn’t be returning, and the show had months to plan for his departure and The Office 2.0.  The abject failure that resulted is a remarkable […]

  If NBC’s Thursday night sitcoms were a movie about college roommates, The Office would be the one who doesn’t study or do the work but still gets better grades than anyone else, 30 Rock would be the teacher’s pet, Community the stoner who’s either going to end up as a temp or a billionaire.  […]

  DARK SHADOWS:  Watch it At Home – Loving Detail Isn’t Enough   DARK SHADOWS is one of the most confounding big-budget movies of recent years.  When Tim Burton (and his muse, Johnny Depp, one of the film’s producers as well as its star) announced that their next project would be a revisit to the […]

    This year, the original Las Vegas-set CSI, about to begin its 12th season on the air, faced not one but two crossroads.  A couple of years earlier, the show’s original star William L. Petersen had decided a decade was enough, and decided not to renew his contract.  Conventional wisdom has it that an […]

      It’s not all that unusual for a TV comedy to improve during the course of its first season, as it discovers its distinctive comic voice (that was the case with Happy Endings, and The Office as well).  What’s less typical is a sitcom finding its soul.  Parks & Recreation comes to mind, […]

    LAST MAN STANDING was a terrible show when the season began, and it hasn’t gotten any better.  The series was anticipated to be a blockbuster hit, and ABC gave it the unusual task for a new series of opening up a night, since it marked the return of Tim Allen to series television, […]

      With the spring decline of New Girl‘s ratings, 2 BROKE GIRLS became the only remaining breakout comedy hit of the 2011/12 broadcast season.  The truth is, it’s still not all that good.  Tonight’s season finale, written by co-creator/showrunner Michael Patrick King (the other co-creator, Whitney Cummings, famously had to drop down to […]