SUPERSTORE:  Monday 8PM (starting January 4) on NBC – If Nothing Else Is On… If a weak form of The Office‘s DNA seems to flow through NBC’s new sitcom SUPERSTORE, which previewed tonight before beginning its regular run on January 4, it’s not a coincidence:  the series was created by Justin Spitzer, a writer/producer […]

> Worth a ticket. They say that the definition of madness is repeating the same action with the expectation of a different result.  But that diagnosis doesn’t allow for this:  a man (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up and finds himself on a train, where his reflection in the mirror doesn’t look like himself, and the woman […]

> When the announcement was made that Warner Bros would split HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS into 2 full-length movies, there was a certain amount of cynicism about studio greed–and, indeed, why not pick up an extra billion or so if the opportunity arises?  But really, J.K. Rowling’s novels have all been stuffed so […]

  THE COMEDIANS:  Thursday 10PM on FX – If Nothing Else Is On… THE COMEDIANS is another trip down meta-comedy lane, with comic actors playing twisted versions of “themselves,” meaning more for Larry David to answer for when he reaches the pearly gates.  It’s based by US creators Billy Crystal, Larry Charles, Matt Nix and […]

  ENLISTED:  Friday 9:30PM on FOX Previously… on ENLISTED:  The brothers Hill–demoted hero soldier Pete (Geoff Stults), cynical Derrick (Chris Lowell) and earnest, dumb Randy (Parker Young)–all serve on a Florida Army base, where Pete is Sergeant of his brothers’ platoon.  Their commanding officer is one-legged Sergeant Major Wallace (Keith David).  Also on the base:  […]

> A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and 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 in the off-season) give plenty of notes, both helpful and otherwise, and […]

  MISS AMERICANA (Netflix – January 31):  There are certainly areas of Taylor Swift’s life that are carefully elided in MISS AMERICANA (her actor boyfriend’s face and name are absent, for example, and there’s no mention of Cats), and Lana Wilson’s documentary culminates in an inspirational push that is very much on-message with Swift’s latest […]

  THE CRAZY ONES was conspicuously missing from CBS’s long list of early 2014-15 series renewals, and of course it’s faint praise to say that the show isn’t as bad as that sounds.  It’s the case, though:  The Crazy Ones resisted the temptation to be merely “The Robin Williams Show,” and at its best it’s […]