BILLIONS:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime (pilot available via VOD and streaming) – Potential DVR Alert There’s a gag in The Big Short where an esoteric piece of financial information, crucial for understanding the mortgage meltdown but hard to communicate without an audience’s eyes glazing over, is illustrated by having it explained by Margot Robbie […]

  SHADOWHUNTERS: THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS:  Tuesday 9PM on Freeform – If Nothing Else Is On… Fans of mediocre YA fantasy adventure may remember SHADOWHUNTERS: THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS from its last incarnation, as a 2013 feature film based on Cassandra Claire’s novels.  That was supposed to kick off a franchise, but the movie flopped, and the […]

  TEACHERS:  Wednesday 10:30PM on TV Land (pilot airs 11PM on January 13, also available via on-demand & streaming) – Change the Channel In its continuing effort to cultivate a younger image, TV Land will follow Season 2 episodes of Younger with the new TEACHERS.  Both are female-oriented, but they could hardly be more different […]

  COLONY:  Thursday 10PM on USA (pilot available via on-demand and streaming) – If Nothing Else Is On… USA’s new COLONY falls into the category of alien-invasion science fiction, but its pilot has more in common with World War II films like The Last Metro or the recent alt-history chronicle The Man In the High […]

  SECOND CHANCE:  Wednesdays 9PM on FOX (pilot also available via VOD/streaming) – If Nothing Else Is On… There’s not much spark to FOX’s SECOND CHANCE, a spin on Frankenstein (at one point it was even titled The Frankenstein Code), restyled as a contemporary sci-fi-tinged procedural.  The show’s creator Rand Ravich was behind the intriguing […]

  SHAMELESS:  Sunday 9PM on Showtime John Wells comes from the broadcast network school of showrunning, where he kept ER going for 22 (or more) episodes per year for more than a decade, and barely missed a beat when Aaron Sorkin left The West Wing.  He’s on the short list of producers you’d want overseeing […]

  SHADES OF BLUE:  Thursday 10PM on NBC – If Nothing Else Is On… SHADES OF BLUE is the weak tea brewed by broadcast network executives who dream of airing something like The Shield.  Both shows center on corrupt urban cops, but where The Shield smacked viewers in the face, forcing them to decide where […]

  AMERICAN CRIME:  Wednesday 10PM on ABC AMERICAN CRIME‘s first season was, if not great network television, certainly ballsy.  John Ridley’s series took on race and class and religion to boot, and it was shot in a self-conscious “art film” way, with lengthy, intense close-ups, a measured pace, and a minimum of both music and […]