Matthew Weiner had always cultivated an air of mystery around MAD MEN (those impenetrable promos!), and the show itself has been its share of enigmatic at times, which made many wonder if tonight’s series finale would be some kind of a cryptic bone to chew on, one that would cause viewers to puzzle its […]

  TELENOVELA:  Monday 8:30PM on NBC starting January 4 – If Nothing Else Is On… Simply put, TELENOVELA is what Jane the Virgin would be if Jane’s vain, airheaded but good-hearted actor father Rogelio were the main character–actually, if every character were more or less Rogelio.  The show, which NBC previewed tonight to give it […]

  FULL FRONTAL WITH SAMANTHA BEE:  Monday 10:30PM on TBS – Potential DVR Alert It is written, apparently, that all alumni of Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show who aren’t starring in movies or sitcoms must have their own comedy news series, and tonight it was the turn of Samantha Bee.  TBS’s marketing of the series […]

  BULL:  Tuesday 9PM on CBS – Change the Channel CBS’s BULL is, from its title down, almost completely insufferable.  Loosely inspired by the pre-TV professional life of Dr. Phil (billed here as “Dr. Phillip C. McGraw” for maximum pretentiousness), and co-created by McGraw and industry veteran Paul Attanasio (a co-creator of the great Homicide […]

  The biters and the Governor took their toll on the humans who remained in Season 3 of THE WALKING DEAD, but the show’s potentially most damaging casualty may have been at AMC’s own hand, when it decided to get rid of showrunner Glen Mazzara, for reasons neither side has disclosed or–remarkably–even leaked.  His season […]

POWER:  Saturday 9PM on Starz POWER, like Empire, revolves around an African-American drug dealer who seeks respectability in the music business., but who will still commit murder when necessary to protect his interests.  Although the shows are quite different in tone–Power is presented more as a crime drama than a family soap, with drugs in […]

  MR. ROBOT – Wednesday 10PM on USA Previously… on MR. ROBOT:  Elliot (Rami Malek) is a master hacker with an assortment of antisocial and other disturbing quirks, including paranoia, depression, and perhaps schizophrenia, who self-medicates (taking both morphine and a withdrawal drug) and barely manages a friendship with Angela (Portia Doubleday).  He works for […]

  DESIGNATED SURVIVOR:  Wednesday 10PM on ABC Previously… on DESIGNATED SURVIVOR:  When the US government gathers in a single location, one low-ranking official is kept apart in case of catastrophe.  Thus Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) is the only member of the administration left alive when a bomb destroys the […]