POLITICAL ANIMALS:  Sunday 10PM on USA – Potential DVR Alert   POLITICAL ANIMALS is a lot more Brothers & Sisters than it is The West Wing, which makes sense because it’s the work of Greg Berlanti, who took over as showrunner on B&S when show creator Jon Robin Baitz wasn’t giving ABC the soap […]

  SAVE ME:  Thursday 8PM on NBC – Change the Channel Note:  This review was originally written after last year’s Upfronts, before it was known that SAVE ME would be held by NBC until the summer.  It’s possible that the pilot underwent changes during the months that followed, although if it did, NBC didn’t publicize […]

  THE OFFICE:  Thursday 9PM on NBC WHERE WE WERE:  Wondering how much longer THE OFFICE could last, as we wearily bid a not-so-fond farewell to Robert California (James Spader) and came to terms with the fact that Nellie Bertram (Catherine Tate) wasn’t going anywhere.  She seemed to be locked in a battle for supremacy […]

  RAISING HOPE:  Tuesday 8PM on FOX WHERE WE WERE:  The town of Natesville, where the Chance clan–Jimmy (Lucas Neff), mom Virginia (Martha Plimpton), dad Burt (Garret Dillahunt) and ancient Maw-Maw (Cloris Leachman)–indeed raise Jimmy’s daughter by a now (as far as we know) deceased death row inmate.  After a couple of seasons pining after […]

  BANSHEE:  Friday 10PM on Cinemax Alan Ball’s name is the one most often thrown about in connection with the new Cinemax series BANSHEE, and that’s understandable, what with him being the creator of True Blood and all.  But Ball is just an Executive Producer on Banshee; the show was actually created by the novelists […]

  PSYCH:  Wednesday 10PM on USA PSYCH felt every one of its 7 seasons in its premiere tonight.  The show’s premise has always been thin–goofy detective Shawn Spencer (James Roday) pretends to be a psychic and, with sidekick Gus (Dule Hill) gets himself hired as a consultant by the Santa Barbara Police Department to solve […]

  ORPHAN BLACK:  Saturday 9PM on BBCAmerica The second hour of BBCAmerica’s ORPHAN BLACK continued to keep up the pace while gradually revealing its secrets.  The very hardworking Tatiana Maslany this time got to add German and soccer mom accents to her repertoire, as the base character of Sarah met yet more of her lookalikes, […]

  Like the famous tortoise, PARKS & RECREATION has hung in there long enough to become the highest-rated (all-but-certainly) returning sitcom on NBC’s air.  That is, admittedly, a low bar, but it’s still a triumph for a show that’s been at risk of cancellation more or less since it came on the air.  Parks & […]