No one can say THE CATCH didn’t try.  Today’s cancellation announcement concluded two seasons of seemingly constant adjustment and revision (probably attributable in part to ABC’s commitment to non-writing Executive Producer Shonda Rhimes), starting with a pilot that was largely junked and partly recast, and continuing with a change in showrunners and many tweaks […]

  DA VINCI’S DEMONS:  Friday 9PM on Starz 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, […]

> Possibly because the Golden Globes take place in much less proximity to the Emmys than they do to the Oscars, and thus aren’t the crucial part of network gamesplaying that they are for the movie studios, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s TV awards have always tended to be more adventurous and genuine than the […]

  The borders between “movies” and “television” were already beginning to buckle pre-pandemic, thanks to Netflix and the desire of studios to release their product on as many simultaneous platforms as possible.  Now, of course, we’ve been 4 months without movie theaters, and the most optimistic view is that wide openings are still weeks if […]

  The season finale (if it’s lucky) of TNT’s mediocre MURDER IN THE FIRST was rather sad, pallid proof that the powerhouse writer/producer Steven Bochco has been outstripped by the genre he helped invent, the serialized adult crime drama.  Murder In the First tried, sometimes painfully, to be newfangled, throwing in the latest in basic […]

> Although nothing is likely to be official until May, the odds are that PAN AM is heading into its final landing.  The series received a short back order from ABC, and will be off the air after February, when Good Christian Bitches (or whatever they’re calling it this week) will take its Sunday 10PM […]

  Season 4 of ONCE UPON A TIME was a rather misshapen one.  The Fall cycle was a tie-in to Disney’s blockbuster Frozen (creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz swore it was their idea and not a corporate mandate), and although it didn’t bring out the best in the series, it delivered in the ratings.  […]

  CHAMPIONS:  Thursday 9:30PM on NBC – Change the Channel As this season’s NBC comedies go, CHAMPIONS is less rancid than AP Bio, but “harmless” isn’t much of a recommendation for a sitcom.  Despite the fact that the series was created by Mindy Kaling and Charlie Grandy, its pilot is all set-up, in the traditional […]