SCREAM QUEENS:  Tuesday 9PM on FOX – Change the Channel SCREAM QUEENS could have been more accurately titled “Ryan Murphy Presents,” in the manner of the old Alfred Hitchcock show, because it’s essentially his own salute to his favorite tropes and styles.  As Bill Hader’s Stefon might say, it has everything:  Glee, American Horror […]

  LIMITLESS:  Tuesday 10PM on CBS – If Nothing Else Is On… LIMITLESS is the second new series in two days to reverse the basic point of the movie it’s based on and turn its premise into an excuse for a sci-fi tinged procedural. The CBS Limitless is as bland as FOX’s Minority Report, but […]

  MINORITY REPORT:  Monday 9PM on FOX – If Nothing Else Is On… It’s not unusual for a sci-fi/fantasy or action-adventure pilot to boast a far more generous budget than the amount allotted to ordinary series episodes, sometimes double or more.  So the high-tech production design and snazzy special effects of FOX’s MINORITY REPORT pilot, […]

  LIFE IN PIECES:  Monday 8:30PM on CBS – Change the Channel Two seasons ago, CBS gave us The Millers, which against all odds managed to take the talents of Will Arnett, Beau Bridges, Margo Martindale, J.B. Smoove and Jayma Mays (and that’s not even counting guest stars) and emerge with a show that was […]

  BLINDSPOT:  Monday 10PM on NBC – If Nothing Else Is On… NBC’s strategy this fall seems to be to play the deja vu card and hope for the best.  Heroes Reborn returns on Thursday as though its ratings hadn’t cratered into oblivion just 5 years ago, The Player feels like basic cable circa 1998, […]

  A week at the Toronto Film Festival added up to 24 screenings–a decent pace, but not an outstanding one.  Blame some vagaries of the festival’s scheduling, and a baseline decision that Midnight Madness was too much midnight and maybe even too much madness.  The potential awards contenders I wasn’t able to get to included […]

  CASUAL:  October 7 on Hulu Hulu has included some original programming in its inventory for a while now, but it’s signaled its intention to join Netflix and Amazon in that realm in a more serious way with its order of new Mindy Project episodes, and production of a Stephen King minseries, The Way from […]

  Despite its compact scale, Emma Donoghue’s bestselling novel ROOM was a daunting candidate for film adaptation, because so much of its impact depends on its very specific narrator’s voice, a 5-year old named Jack who has lived his entire life in the shed where his Ma (whose other name is Joy) was taken captive […]