After almost 4 decades (!) on the air, it’s a little silly to describe any given SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE episode, or even season, as “critical” or “vital.”  Nevertheless, this is a big transition year for the show, with such veterans as Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis and Fred Armisen (on top of Kristin Wiig the […]

  BONNIE & CLYDE saved its most idiotic inspiration for the end.  Up until its last few minutes, the second half of the Lifetime/A&E/History miniseries was perhaps marginally better than its first (which we dealt with in yesterday’s review).  There was less chatty posthumous narration from Clyde (Emile Hirsch) this time around, a greater role […]

    NASHVILLE:  Wednesday 10PM on ABC   WHAT IT’S SAYING:  Good old girls tusslin’ and singin’ in the world of country music.

  Tonight’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE marked the return of movie-star alumnus Will Ferrell as host, but he had a minimal amount to do with the clear highlight of the night.  That would be the show’s 100th Digital Short, a genuine extravaganza (if this was the reason there was no Digital Short last week, the effort […]

    Even as the scripted drama business on the broadcast networks subsides into increasing irrelevance, new players arise who want to take part.  Dramas may not be cost-effective in the way that they once were, but they’re still an unmatched vehicle for branding–just ask AMC–and Netflix, Amazon and Hulu are among the entities who […]

  Well, the studio audience seemed to be having a great time at SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE tonight.  There were more squeals than laughs to be had, what with Justin Bieber in the house as both host and musical guest.  The show was very careful never to force Bieber out of his comfort zone, and while […]

  Add to Louis C.K.’s remarkable list of recent achievements the ability to intermittently brighten up a routine episode of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. They weren’t all gems, but a couple of tonight’s sketches were among the season’s best so far.  Chief among them was “Lincoln,” which wasn’t just a letter-perfect parody of Louie, but one […]

> Just how big a fan are you of RULES OF ENGAGEMENT?  If CBS dropped it off the top of the Empire State Building, would you jump after it?  Because that’s pretty much what they’ve done by (probably only temporarily) airing new episodes on Saturdays.  The rest of the night isn’t even worth mentioning… The […]