In this new era of serialized television drama, plot–and the skill with which it’s doled out–is more important than ever.  An overall clumsiness with the handling of its storylines is what’s held back Lifetime’s WITCHES OF EAST END from being more than a pleasant diversion, and tonight’s season finale was sadly no exception.  The […]

  Previously… on SAVE ME:  Beth Harper (Anne Heche), didn’t die when, after the latest of many drunken nights, she choked on a hero sandwich.  She was, in fact, saved by God Him/Herself, and is now a prophet of the Lord’s message, albeit on a small scale.  She knows local facts, like who her teenage […]

  If The Avengers were an episode of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, it might be something like the first hour of tonight’s show, a veritable all-star brigade of special guests and beloved characters presented for the celebratory return of Host Supreme Justin Timberlake (and the spottier last half-hour had its moments, too). SNL and Timberlake have […]

  DECEPTION:  Sunday 10PM on ABC – In the Queue For its newest trick, the House of Greg Berlanti presents a crime procedural so insubstantial it seems to disappear before your very eyes.  DECEPTION, created by Chris Fedak (co-creator of NBC’s vintage Chuck) mixes together tropes like a summer camp magic show:  the smug amateur […]

  FINDING CARTER:  Tuesday 10PM on MTV – Potential DVR Alert Most YA drama, in one way or another, is about the emotional dislocation of being a teen, and in recent years, the reigning trope has been to externalize the theme supernaturally:  the teen discovers that he/she is a vampire, an alien, a witch, a […]

  GAME OF THRONES:  Sunday 9PM on HBO There’s intrigue behind the cameras as well as in front of them on GAME OF THRONES these days.  Series creators/showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have let it be known that they want the show to end in a couple of seasons, while HBO would like this […]

  Read All Our Fall Pilot Reports here and Midseason Pilot Reports here. BETRAYAL:  Sunday 10PM on ABC  – If Nothing Else Is On… BETRAYAL is certainly on brand for ABC.  Its pilot, just like the one for Revenge two seasons ago, starts by flash-forwarding to a shooting, and the action that follows takes us […]

  GAME OF THRONES:  Sunday 9PM on HBO Concerns have been as high as expectations for the final season of GAME OF THRONES.  Season 7, the first with little recourse to George R. R. Martin’s novels due to the lagging rate of his writing, was generally considered a warning of trouble ahead, with a pace […]