ROGUE:  Wednesday 9PM on Audience Network (DirecTV only) – Change the Channel Remember when the phrase “cable drama” only implied a cheaper, racier version of a network cop show?  Subscribers to DirecTV can relive those years with ROGUE, its newest original programming and a series that gives Red Widow a run for its money […]

  Host James Franco (and very busy musical guest Nicki Minaj, who turned up in several sketches) had the benefit of one of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE’s sharper episodes of the season tonight–uneven, of course, but with at least as much good as bad. Things didn’t start off particularly well.  It’s gotten to the point where […]

  TYRANT went all the way back to the source for its main plotline this season, giving Bassam Al-Fayeed (Adam Rayner) a saga so Moses-like that he might as well have witnessed a burning bush along the way.  Bassam was sentenced to death for treason by his brother Jamal (Ashraf Barhom), ruler of a Middle […]

> (Note:  SHOWBUZZDAILY had a pilot report on this show back when it was called Are You There, Vodka?  It’s Me, Chelsea.  Since then, it’s been substantially recast and reshot, not to mention retitled, so we’re taking a fresh look at it.) ARE YOU THERE, CHELSEA? – Wednesdays 8:30PM on NBC – If Nothing Else […]

  “Are you kidding me?  It’s always the weird stuff that’s the best,” Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) said at one point during tonight’s season finale of TRUE BLOOD–he was watching the birth of half-human/half-faerie quadruplets at the time–and that appears to be the case for the show’s many fans as well.  The hour had no shortage […]

  BANSHEE:  Friday 10PM on Cinemax Previously… on BANSHEE:  Through a series of coincidences not worth recounting, an ex-con (Antony Starr) has taken on the identity of Lucas Hood, who was killed on his way to becoming the new sheriff of Banshee, Pennsylvania, a small town rich in Pennsylvania Dutch culture and crime.  It also […]

  1600 PENN:  TBD Midseason on NBC – If Nothing Else Is On… Disclaimer: Network pilots now in circulation are not necessarily in the form that will air in the Fall. Pilots are often reedited and re-scored, and in some cases even recast or reshot. These critiques shouldn’t be taken as full pilot reviews, but […]

  UNDER THE DOME:  Monday 10PM on CBS Previously… on UNDER THE DOME:  Well, there’s a giant freaking dome.  One peaceful Sunday afternoon, it suddenly came down over Chester’s Mill, Maine, enveloping the town and imprisoning all who dwell within as though inside an inverted fishbowl.  They include hero-with-secrets Dale Barbara nee “Barbie” (Mike Vogel), […]