THE HUMANS (A24/Showtime – Nov. 24):  There are typically two strategies for adapting a celebrated play about a small number of people in a limited space to the screen.  One is to “open it up,” adding scenes, characters, or at least locations outside the original set.  The other is to lean into the claustrophobia, […]

  Few television series have worked so hard to be unlikeable as BOSS.  There had been some thought, after its initial off-putting season, that when Starz replaced series creator Farhad Safinia with Dee Johnson as showrunner, the aim might have been to water down some of the show’s bile, but such was clearly not the […]

  When a show that’s clearly been losing its way creatively suffers in the ratings, like Revenge, it’s understandable.  But ONCE UPON A TIME has run out of steam this season much faster than ABC likely anticipated.  Late last season, Once was regularly getting a 3 rating in 18-49s, but this season’s average dipped to a […]

  REVENGE:  Sunday 9PM on ABC REVENGE went off the rails last season, both creatively and in the ratings (its Season 2 finale managed just a 1.7).  When it was over, series creator Mike Kelley found himself bumped off his own show, replaced by new showrunner Sunil Nayar, who wrote tonight’s Season 3 premiere (directed […]

  THE THREE STOOGES:  Watch It At Home – More Nyuks Than You’d Expect   The Farrelly Brothers’ THE THREE STOOGES is better than its marketing campaign let on, and while that would be more impressive if the trailer and ad materials hadn’t been almost unwatchably bad, it still makes for a welcome relief.  The […]

    STRAW DOGS:  Watch It At Home – Pointless In Every Way   Forget about the artistic comparisons, the insult to film history, and the lack of respect to a great filmmaker no longer with us.  There’s not even a commercial reason to remake Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 STRAW DOGS.  The title is virtually valueless […]

  David Simon is unquestionably a pivotal figure in the history of contemporary TV, yet he’s never been associated with a mainstream hit.  From Homicide: Life On The Street to The Wire to Treme to Show Me A Hero, his work has been critically praised and sometimes honored, but viewers haven’t flocked to them on […]

THE AVENGERS:  Worth A Ticket – A Fun Summer Movie, No More Or Less It’s easy to forget that THE AVENGERS is, you know, a movie.  It’s perhaps the ultimate example of corporate intellectual property, bioengineered years in advance of its production by Marvel and that company’s recent owner Disney, like the spawn of particularly […]