There were no surprises of any scale at tonight’s ACADEMY AWARDS (a full list of winners is here) , and that went for the telecast, too.  Neil Patrick Harris was as personable a host as anticipated, and he/his writers were sometimes quick on their feet, as when he had a gag ready about a Documentary […]

  John Ridley’s ABC anthology series AMERICAN CRIME has always worn its sackcloth and ashes in plain sight, but Season 3 was especially brutal.  It was eight hours of unceasing human misery, enough to make the insides curdle of even the most earnest devotee of serious TV drama.  Understandably, viewers fled, pushing the show’s ratings […]

  THE FOLLOWING:  Monday 9PM on FOX With the exception of those whose livelihoods depend on it, is there anyone who really wanted a third season of THE FOLLOWING?  After a promising start, the mass murder thriller wallowed in gore, torture and plotting that was pretentious, repetitive, and often downright silly.  The ratings reflected that, […]

   THE VAMPIRE DIARIES brought its A-game to its 3rd season finale, wrapping up (or at least advancing) some storylines while providing massive fodder for Season 4.  It should be noted that Diaries thrives on plot twists and surprises, so SPOILERS WILL ABOUND after the page break.

  Nobody saw Season 2 of YOU’RE THE WORST coming.  Season 1 of Stephen Falk’s series had been high-risk enough, a rom-com that spat on the genre’s conventions while also quietly incorporating them, centered on a couple notable for their narcissism, self-destructiveness and general sense of delusion.  Falk, and his stars Aya Cash and Chris […]

  BLESS THIS MESS:  Tuesday 9:30PM on ABC The six-episode order ABC gave BLESS THIS HOUSE (after FOX had passed on the project) is about as small as any network show can get.  That doesn’t leave much time for series creators Lake Bell (who also stars and directed the pilot) and Elizabeth Meriwether to show […]

  Damon Lindelof is fascinated by the elements of storytelling, sometimes to the detriment of the story itself.  It was fitting that a motif of WATCHMEN, both in its Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons 1987 graphic novel version and in Lindelof’s HBO sequel/spin-off, was the construction of watches, because this new version could feel like a fantastically […]

  HOMELAND‘s season 7 was a mess, but a more entertaining one than recent editions have been.  There were even a few episodes toward the middle of the season that brought back memories of the truly great series it had been in its early glory years.  At this point, though, we’ll settle for less, and […]