AGENT CARTER: Tuesday 9PM on ABC Under showrunners Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas, the second season of ABC/Marvel’s retro comic book adventure AGENT CARTER, at least in the early going, makes a less strenuous effort to fit into the larger Marvel universe, and the result is more streamlined and smoother than Season 1. The […]
MAD MEN: Sunday 10PM on AMC The final season of MAD MEN was conceived by Matthew Weiner to run, as the previous seasons had, across 14 consecutive weeks, and it was AMC’s decision (for scheduling and budgetary reasons) to break the season in half and run it over 2 years. Nevertheless, whether by chance […]
PARKS AND RECREATION: Tuesday 8PM on NBC There will be plenty of time to lament the passing of PARKS AND RECREATION, and what it portends for network TV comedy and especially for NBC. Well, “plenty” may be overstating it, since NBC is burning off the remaining episodes two at a time, apparently in a […]
MAN SEEKING WOMAN: Wednesday 10:30PM on FXX – If Nothing Else Is On… You know how on Family Guy a character will say “This is just like when________” or “You’re like________,” and there’s an instant cutaway to whatever the character was talking about, no matter how bizarre? (An example from this past week: Stewie […]
WYNONNA EARP: Friday 10PM on Syfy – Change the Channel Syfy has recently been trying to burnish its schlocky image with some more ambitious projects, most notably the time-travel thriller 12 Monkeys and The Magicians, a show with plenty of flaws but also lots of imagination. The network’s economics, though, probably demand that a […]
LEGENDS OF TOMORROW: Thursday 8PM on CW – In the Queue Even with a half-season and the resources of two other series to prepare the way, LEGENDS OF TOMORROW finally arrived on CW heavy with exposition. It was such a premise pilot, in fact, that the show’s ability to stand on its own feet […]
EMPIRE: Wednesday 9PM on FOX – Potential DVR Alert The producer/writer/director Lee Daniels creates films that are compellingly moving (Precious), insane (The Paperboy) or both (The Butler), so it’s a wonder that it’s taken him this long to come to television. Working alongside his Butler screenwriter Danny Strong, he’s now given us EMPIRE, an […]
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 […]