MANHATTAN LOVE STORY:  Tuesday 8:30PM on ABC starting September 30 – Change the Channel PLAYERS:  Series creator Jeff Lowell, who’s been a writer/producer on sitcoms going back to Cybill two decades ago, but who’s creating a series himself for the first time.  Stars Jake McDorman and Analeigh Tipton.  Pilot director Michael Fresco.  Brillstein Entertainment […]

  RED BAND SOCIETY:  Wednesday 9PM on FOX Previously… on RED BAND SOCIETY:  In a Los Angeles hospital, a half-dozen adolescents struggle with their health and with the general problems of being teenagers.  Kara (Zoe Levin) is a mean girl cheerleader who needs a heart transplant; Emma (Ciara Bravo) a studious, compassionate anorexic; Jordi (Nolan […]

  MULANEY:  Sunday 9:30PM on FOX Previously… on MULANEY:  John Mulaney (the series creator playing a character with his own name) is a stand-up comic who supports himself by serving as a producer on a comedy game show hosted by egomaniacal, insecure old-timer Lou Cannon (Martin Short).  John’s roommates are college friend Jane (Nasim Pedrad) […]

  THE LIBRARIANS:  Sunday 8PM on TNT – If Nothing Else Is On… TNT’s THE LIBRARIANS is a reboot, of a sort.  It’s based on a trio of Indiana Jones-ian original movies the network aired starting in 2004 (when it was more currently a knock-off of the National Treasure franchise), toplining Noah Wyle as a […]

  “Wildly uneven” was probably the best that could have been hoped from a SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE hosted by non-actor, non-comic (but NBC synergy bait) Blake Shelton.  There were times when the need to come up with ideas for a star out of their comfort zone seemed to inspire the SNL writers, but also some […]

  ONE BIG HAPPY:  Tuesday 9:30PM on NBC – Change the Channel Have you heard the one about the guy who makes a pact with his lesbian best friend that if they’re not with anyone else when they turn 30, they’ll have a baby together?  Have you heard the one about the guy who meets […]

  It would have been nice if Reese Witherspoon had shown triumphant comic chops on tonight’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, in the face of her terrible new movie comedy Hot Pursuit, but although she was a poised and enthusiastic host, it was just another uneven SNL. Witherspoon was mostly an observer for the funniest bit of […]

  DEFIANCE:  Friday 8PM on Syfy The second season of Syfy’s DEFIANCE was often jarringly different from its first, shifting from its initial post-apocalyptic-western procedural form to a heavily mythological storyline that broke up the central father-and-adoptive-alien-daughter relationship of Nolan (Grant Bowler) and Irisa (Stephanie Leonidas) for much of the season, while embracing a mystical […]