Articles

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: CW’s “90210”

Posted May 16, 2012 by Mitch Salem

  90210 has never been CW at its best.  The semi-network specializes almost exclusively in fantasies, either of the supernatural or soapy kind (or both), and some of its shows deliver those fantasies with wit and compelling storytelling–The Vampire Diaries and the early years of Gossip Girl, for example. 90210, though, has always a very […]

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Articles

THE SKED: WHAT TO WATCH THIS FALL ON WEEKENDS (1st Draft)

Posted May 27, 2011 by Mitch Salem

> 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 […]

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Articles

THE SKED’S PILOT + 1 REVIEW: “The Firm”

Posted January 13, 2012 by Mitch Salem

> Previously… on THE FIRM:  Mitch McDeere (Josh Lucas), having relocated with his family to the Canadian part of Washington DC, 10 years after the events in the book and movie, has associated his scrappy small practice with a new but equally evil big firm that’s particularly interested in him because of an accused murderer […]

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Articles

THE SKED REVIEW: “Game Change”

Posted March 13, 2012 by Mitch Salem

> On Saturday night, HBO’s GAME CHANGE scored the network’s highest premiere rating for an original TV-movie in 8 years.  (As it always the case with HBO, the movie will be rebroadcast many times, as well as being available on HBO GO and other platforms.)  While there were certainly A list names associated with the […]

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Articles

THE SKED PILOT + 1 REVIEW: “Girls”

Posted April 23, 2012 by Mitch Salem

> A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and the production of episodes for the regular season: a writing/producing team is hired, audience focus groups weigh in, networks and studios (which may have had their own turnover) give plenty of notes, helpful and otherwise, and critics begin to […]

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Pilot Reports

THE SKED PILOT REVIEW: “The Newsroom”

Posted June 25, 2012 by Mitch Salem

THE NEWSROOM:  Sundays 10PM on HBO – DVR Alert We live in an era of TV auteurs.  Although there will always be networks and studios writing the checks–just ask Dan Harmon–it’s arguably the case that writer/producers like Matthew Weiner, Louis C.K., Kurt Sutter and Lena Dunham have more clout than all but a tiny handful […]

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Pilot Reports

PREMIERING TONIGHT–THE SKED’S FALL PILOT REPORT: ABC’s “Last Resort”

Posted September 27, 2012 by Mitch Salem

  LAST RESORT: Thursday 8PM on ABC – Potential DVR Alert The strangest new show on any network this season may be LAST RESORT, created and written by the man behind The Shield, Shawn Ryan, with Karl Gajdusek. The problem with trying to evaluate LAST RESORT based on its fairly riveting pilot is that the […]

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Pilot + 1

THE SKED’S PILOT + 1 REVIEW: “Copper”

Posted August 27, 2012 by Mitch Salem

  COPPER:  Sunday 10PM on BBCAmerica – If Nothing Else Is On… A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and the production of episodes for the regular season: a writing/producing team is hired, audience focus groups weigh in, networks and studios (which may have had their own turnover) […]

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