INSTINCT:  Sunday 8PM on CBS – Change the Channel It’s a coincidence that the movie Love, Simon and CBS’s series INSTINCT premiered over the same weekend, but both are facets of a newish stage in LGBTQ pop culture:  the ordinary genre story that happens to have a gay lead.  In the case of Love, […]

  WICKED CITY:  Tuesday 10PM on ABC Previously… on WICKED CITY:  In 1982 Los Angeles, serial killer Kent Grainger (Ed Westwick) is slaughtering young women he picks up on the Sunset Strip.  He’s recently acquired a new playmate, Betty Beaumontaine (Erika Christensen), a single mom and nurse with a very dark side.  Chasing Kent is […]

  The third season of ORPHAN BLACK was a step up from Season 2, although the show is still the victim of its plotting.  The main narrative for the season was set up in the Season 2 finale, with the discovery that along with the (mostly) female “Leda” clones, all played by Tatiana Maslany, there […]

> Previously… On ARE YOU THERE, CHELSEA?:  “Chelsea Newman,” aka the fictionalized Chelsea Handler (Laura Prepon) works in a New Jersey sports bar, knocking back drinks and men, and trading barbs with co-workers and family alike. Episode 2:  If it weren’t for hour-mate Whitney, Chelsea might be the least sexy show ever to be obsessed […]

  It’s not hyperbole to say that the stakes are higher for tonight’s GOLDEN GLOBES than they’ve ever been before.  On the awards front, a full set of wide-open Oscar races means that most Globe winners will become instant Academy Awards favorites.  Meanwhile, on the broader level, the Globes will be Hollywood’s first major awards […]

  Many remarkable things have happened in the world of television over the past few years, but none may be odder than the fact that a story about the 16th century Mary, Queen of Scots ran on network TV for four seasons.  Even more, while REIGN initially squeezed into the CW demographic by concentrating on […]

  COVERT AFFAIRS:  Tuesday 9PM on USA Last season was an important one for COVERT AFFAIRS, as it transitioned from being a light spy caper about appealing newbie CIA agent Annie Walker (Piper Perabo) to presenting Annie as a serious, more experienced operative.  While no one would confuse it with a LeCarre thriller, the show […]

  THE WALKING DEAD:  Sunday 9PM on AMC Based on everything we know about THE WALKING DEAD, it seemed a safe assumption after the Season 4 finale that we’d be spending a large chunk of Season 5 trapped with our heroes at Terminus, the supposed sanctuary they’d spent most of the season seeking that turned […]