One of the reasons “locked room” mysteries appeal to producers is that they require limited production values, and for what amounted to half its initial season, DARK MATTER tried to make up for its inadequate budget by being a locked spaceship mystery, with chunks of its content taking place on the dimly-lit, far from detailed sets […]

      It’s not all that unusual for a TV comedy to improve during the course of its first season, as it discovers its distinctive comic voice (that was the case with Happy Endings, and The Office as well).  What’s less typical is a sitcom finding its soul.  Parks & Recreation comes to mind, […]

  LA TO VEGAS:  Tuesday 9PM on FOX – In the Queue Broadcast TV kicks off its new scripted series year with FOX’s well-paced LA TO VEGAS, a mostly retro workplace sitcom with a small twist:  Lon Zimmet’s series takes place almost entirely on the roundtrips of the titular run, operated by the Southwest-like Jackpot Airlines. The […]

  PARKS AND RECREATION:  Tuesday 8PM on NBC There will be plenty of time to lament the passing of PARKS AND RECREATION, and what it portends for network TV comedy and especially for NBC.  Well, “plenty” may be overstating it, since NBC is burning off the remaining episodes two at a time, apparently in a […]

  WAYWARD PINES:  Wednesday 9PM on FOX WAYWARD PINES was never intended to be a continuing series, especially once FOX dumped what was once intended as a prestige project from Executive Producer M. Night Shyamalan into its summer line-up.  But these days, networks can’t afford to leave ratings on the table, and once Wayward proved […]

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 rear […]

  WICKED CITY:  Tuesday 10PM on ABC Previously… on WICKED CITY:  In 1982 Los Angeles, serial killer Kent Grainger (Ed Westwick) is slaughtering young women he picks up on the Sunset Strip.  He’s recently acquired a new playmate, Betty Beaumontaine (Erika Christensen), a single mom and nurse with a very dark side.  Chasing Kent is […]

  ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO – Tuesday 9PM on CW CW has gone back to its WB/UPN roots for ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO, a reboot and update of the Roswell series that debuted on the first of those networks in 1999, then moved to the other.  Once again, it’s a story of romance between an Earth woman […]