SALEM:  Sunday 10PM on WGN America – If Nothing Else Is On… There’s more than vanity to the desire of just about every cable network to have at least one original scripted series (although that’s part of it).  There’s also a clear dollar and cents value to original scripted programming, which pays off in […]

>   See A Word About Busted Pilots We’ve gotten this far without using the word “ghastly” to describe any of the busted pilots from this year’s development season, but that streak is about to end.  HELP WANTED, which was produced by Warner Bros for NBC, is unaccountably bad.  Partly that’s a function of its […]

  SHOOTER:  Tuesday 10PM on USA – Change the Channel USA Network has had a tough time populating its post-Mr. Robot schedule.  Sam Esmail’s series, while not a ratings blockbuster, has been a re-branding triumph, instantly changing the image of USA from the stodgy network of Monk and Royal Pains to something darker, younger, cooler, […]

  ALMOST HUMAN:  Monday 8PM on FOX Previously… on ALMOST HUMAN:  2 years ago in 2046, Detective John Kennex (Karl Urban) was ambushed with his partner by “the Syndicate,” a mysterious organization that controls all local high-tech crime.  Kennex’s partner was killed, and his own leg was blown off and replaced with a synthetic one.  […]

        After last week’s tumultuous, spectacular battle of Blackpool, tonight’s Season 2 finale of GAME OF THRONES was, necessarily, somewhat lower-key.  It served more as a coda, and as a transition to Season 3 (considering that there was no attempt at closure in any of the stories, it’s a good thing that […]

  ABC’s NASHVILLE has reached the midpoint of its season as one of the better dramas on network television, and also one of the more frustrating.  Particularly galling is that it seems to falter worst at the things other, less interesting shows do with much less effort. Plotting, for example.  Within the show’s mostly parallel […]

  CHASING LIFE:  Tuesday 9PM on ABCFamily Previously… on CHASING LIFE:  Very inconveniently, 24-year old aspiring Boston reporter April Carver (Italia Ricci) has just been diagnosed with leukemia.  The timing couldn’t be worse, not because she’s afraid for her life–April more or less tosses that concern off–but because she’s just started dating hunky reporter Dominic […]

  RUSH:  Thursday 9PM on USA – Change the Channel USA Network is aiming for “edgy” with its new Thursday line-up, and so the pilot for RUSH begins with its antihero Will Rush (Tom Ellis) doing coke.  The twist?  When his lady friend goes into cardiac arrest, Will reveals himself as a brilliant physician who […]