The second 2-hour chunk of the newly anointed most popular scripted show in the history of basic cable, History’s HATFIELDS & MCCOYS, was much like the first episode:  a strong opening hour followed by a second that didn’t quite live up to it.  Oddly, Hour 4 even failed for many of the same reasons […]

> The upcoming MEN IN BLACK 3 centers around a time-travel theme, and with co-star Josh Brolin as host, much of this week’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE seemed to be saluting the movie with sketches that could have been written anywhere between a year and a decade ago.   Thus, after an MIB3 gag monologue that made […]

  It’s relatively unusual for a movie star to host SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE without having something to plug, but this week Bruce Willis took the lead for his first turn since the days of the original Die Hard in 1989.  Willis rarely gets the credit he deserves for the range of his roles (the Die […]

> Another TV year is officially in the books, and the statuettes have been handed out to prove it.  Since the Emmys end at 8PM LA time for the convenience of East Coast eyes, by midnight the main parties are trailing off, and those winners lucky enough to still have jobs for the new season […]

  The hits just kept coming on tonight’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, which packed a whole fall’s worth of glitz into the show’s final 90 minutes of 2013.  Technically, Jimmy Fallon was the host and Justin Timberlake was musical guest, but as anyone would have expected, the two were essentially a team–and if they weren’t enough […]

    THE FOLLOWING:  Midseason MONDAY 9PM on FOX WHAT IT’S SAYING:  Jack Bauer meets Hannibal Lecter.  Only this time, Lecter has a cult of imitator serial killers. WHAT IT’S REALLY SAYING:  Not for the kiddies.  It may look more like a movie than a continuing series, but it certainly gets its point across.  Kevin […]

> Possibly because the Golden Globes take place in much less proximity to the Emmys than they do to the Oscars, and thus aren’t the crucial part of network gamesplaying that they are for the movie studios, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s TV awards have always tended to be more adventurous and genuine than the […]

  How long can television (or “television,” since programming is now viewed on a multitude of screens and platforms) stay as good as it is right now?  It used to be tough to find 10 TV shows in a year worthy of being considered “best,” but now the problem is deciding which superb shows to omit.  […]