AMERICAN CRIME:  Sunday 10PM on ABC John Ridley’s AMERICAN CRIME feels even more like an outlier amid the world of network television than it did when it debuted two years ago.  Broadcasters have largely responded to the erosion in their ratings by seeking bigger and bigger tents, relying on procedurals, franchises, remakes and stars […]

  Vampires may live forever, but TV shows don’t, and tonight the coffin closed on THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, the pre-superhero champion of the then-fledgling CW network when it debuted 8 years ago.  In truth, the close of business was a season or two past due:  not only were the ratings way down from their peak, […]

  THE CATCH:  Thursday 10PM on ABC THE CATCH may have set a record for the number of times a series can be rebooted by the launch of its 2d season, yet it remains stubbornly lite rather than airy, ShondaLand’s little red choo-choo that has never quite made its way up the hill. Showrunner Allan […]

  THE AMERICANS:  Tuesday 10PM on FX THE AMERICANS is inevitably one of those pieces of pop culture that feels more queasily topical these days (in this case, despite its 1980s setting), with its tale of Russian agents interacting with duped Americans and gaining top secret information for the good of the Motherland.  The show […]

  FEUD:  BETTE AND JOAN:  Sunday 10PM on FX – Potential DVR Alert It’s a testament to Ryan Murphy’s clout that FEUD:  BETTE AND JOAN even exists.  8 hours set in the early 1960s about Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, a pair of Oscar-winning stars in their 50s who were considered has-beens when they made […]

  TIME AFTER TIME:  Sunday 9PM on ABC – If Nothing Else Is On… If H.G. Wells really did travel from 1893 to the present day, one of the things that would probably horrify him is the fact that all creative endeavors are now viewed merely as “IP,” a play-doh-like building material used to create […]

  THE ARRANGEMENT:  Sunday 10PM on E! – If Nothing Else Is On… E! stays on-brand with its second scripted series THE ARRANGEMENT, which plays off the rumors that surrounded Tom Cruise’s marriage to Katie Holmes.  It’s got celebrity and the heat of a scandal roman a clef, but it completely lacks the saucy, junky […]

  TAKEN:  Monday 10PM on NBC – If Nothing Else Is On… NBC’s television version of TAKEN doesn’t have much to do with the movie franchise that provided its title, other than fitting into the action genre and featuring a hero named Bryan Mills.  Although presented as a sort of prequel, it’s a modern-day origin […]