BATES MOTEL:  Monday 9PM on A&E BATES MOTEL has lit up its Vacancy sign for a second season, and it’s retained its particular blend of soap, black comedy and horror thriller.  The strength of Bates is that even if we didn’t recognize its protagonist’s name, and know what lies in his Hitchcockian future, the […]

  MR. SELFRIDGE:  Sunday 9PM on PBS MR. SELFRIDGE, the solace for PBS viewers between editions of Downton Abbey, has returned for its second season.  It lacks the dramatic urgency of Downton and is altogether a more conventional piece of work–it’s literally a show that, set in 1914, climaxes its opening hour by having someone […]

  BLACK BOX:  Thursday 10PM on ABC – Change the Channel In ABC’s (partial) defense, BLACK BOX wasn’t intended to run during the regular broadcast season.  It was meant to be seen in summer, when standards are lower, but the network was caught flat-footed when Kerry Washington’s pregnancy caused Scandal to cut its season by […]

  The headlines have all been in PERSON OF INTEREST‘s favor this past season.  As stories of massive worldwide surveillance by the NSA and other agencies have continued to surface, what not so long ago looked like a CBS entry into sci-fi has taken on the feel of just slightly exaggerated reality.  The series itself […]

  THE NIGHT SHIFT:  Tuesday 10PM on NBC Previously… on THE NIGHT SHIFT:  On the 7PM-7AM shift at San Antonio Medical Center, Dr. TC Callahan (Eoin Macken) is the rebellious yet brilliant ex-Army medic who’s willing to break all the rules, damn it, because all he cares about are his patients.  His ex, Jordan Alexander […]

  WILFRED:  Wednesday 10PM on FXX WILFRED, that metaphysical, existential compendium of stoner, fart and dick jokes, is going for its last walk, relocated to the FXX network for a shortened 4th and final season.  The producers claim that fundamental questions will be answered about the show’s central mysteries:  the nature of Wilfred’s (Jason Gann, […]

  EXTANT:  Wednesday 9PM on CBS Previously… on EXTANT:  Astronaut Molly Woods (Halle Berry) returns from a 13 month-long solo mission in space with a surprise–she’s pregnant.  Although come to think of it, she did have that odd encounter with her dead first husband Marcus (Sergio Harford)–or at least with someone or something making use […]

  MANHATTAN LOVE STORY:  Tuesday 8:30PM on ABC starting September 30 – Change the Channel PLAYERS:  Series creator Jeff Lowell, who’s been a writer/producer on sitcoms going back to Cybill two decades ago, but who’s creating a series himself for the first time.  Stars Jake McDorman and Analeigh Tipton.  Pilot director Michael Fresco.  Brillstein Entertainment […]