FEAR THE WALKING DEAD:  Sunday 9PM on AMC AMC’s eccentric decision to keep its Walking Dead assembly line going with a not-quite-prequel has become even more so in Season 2, which places the Season 1 survivors on a yacht owned by one of them, the rich and enigmatic Strand (Colman Domingo), hovering off the […]

  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 […]

  GLEE:  Friday 9PM on FOX Among the many wrongheaded decisions made by FOX over the last several years, one was giving GLEE a two-year renewal–just as the bottom was starting to fall out of its ratings.  Last year, things went from bad to ghastly, not only in the ever-worsening ratings but creatively, as the […]

  THE WALKING DEAD:  Sunday 9PM on AMC The back half of THE WALKING DEAD‘s fourth season began by bringing the series back to square one:  isolated figures wandering without a clear goal through an anonymous landscape riddled with zombies. The episode, entitled “After,” picked up immediately after last fall’s finale, and established quickly that […]

  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 […]

  ANGIE TRIBECA:  Monday 9PM on TBS (“binge-a-thon” airs through 7PM January 18) – If Nothing Else Is On… We’ve seen plenty of attempts by networks to “break through the clutter” for their new shows in this era of non-stop premieres, from re-running the pilot in several timeslots to simulcasting episodes on affiliated networks to […]

  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 […]

  THE ROYALS:  Sunday 10PM on E! – Change the Channel This week’s cable network eager to expand its portfolio to the world of scripted programming is E!.  Just as Bravo attempted to appeal to its Real Housewives audience with The Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, E! is courting its celebrity gossip crowd with THE ROYALS, […]