> The atmosphere on this week’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE was far more relaxed now that last week’s Lindsay Lohan Extravaganza Express has left town.  That didn’t make it a great episode–SNL is lucky to manage 1 or 2 of those in a season–but it had its share of laughs. Jonah Hill was a good choice […]

  SILICON VALLEY:  Sunday 10PM on HBO – DVR Alert There’s no algorithm (yet) to predict compatibility between TV series, so we don’t know yet how SILICON VALLEY will fare in the ratings, or for that matter how its quality will hold up over time, but based on its pilot, it seems to be as […]

  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.  […]

  There was a sequence late in the one and only season of VEGAS that suggested what the show could have been.  It wasn’t a big deal:  deputy sheriff Dixon Lamb (Taylor Handley) needed a favor from the entertainment director of one of the casinos (Enver Gjokaj), who’d only grant it if he got some […]

>The FOX pilot LOCKE & KEY is a very effective hour of creepiness, but it’s not that hard to understand why the network didn’t put the project on its schedule.  The show screams “cult hit” at best, and the pilot feels more like a shortened feature film than the viable prototype for a continuing weekly […]

    THE MINDY PROJECT: Tuesday 9:30PM on FOX – DVR Alert Companion shows don’t come more perfectly designed than FOX’s THE MINDY PROJECT.  When FOX launched New Girl last fall, it became an instant hit, with a quirky, likable heroine in Zooey Deschanel, a very strong supporting cast, and a sophisticated, urban tone.  it’s […]

> This week UP ALL NIGHT was promoted to NBC’s version of the big leagues, where many felt it belonged from the start.  It’s switched places with Whitney and been given the benefit of The Office, NBC’s one genuine lead-in, for the Thursday 9:30PM slot.   Let’s take a look at whether it merits the […]

  Hardly anyone who wasn’t earning a paycheck from Kevin Williamson’s THE FOLLOWING will miss it.  It was as close as any network series has ever come to torture porn, with at least one or two innocents being slaughtered or at least terrorized every week, and without the aesthetic artistry of Hannibal to justify its […]