SIRENS:  Thursday 10PM on USA – Change the Channel Even though it’s based on a 2011 British format, SIRENS is exactly what you would expect from the union of USA Network and Denis Leary.  Based on the first two episodes, shown back-to-back last night, the series is essentially what Rescue Me would have looked […]

  MIXOLOGY:  Wednesday 9:30PM on ABC Previously… on MIXOLOGY:  On one night, in one bar, ten people variously search for romance or its temporary facsimile through the course of the season’s run.  We were briefly introduced to most of them last week, but the pilot concentrated on Tom (Blake Lee), a likably dweeby guy who’d […]

  GROWING UP FISHER:  Tuesday 9:30PM on NBC Previously… on GROWING UP FISHER:  When Henry Fisher (Eli Baker) is 12 years old, his parents Mel (J.K. Simmons) and Joyce (Jenna Elfman) decide to divorce, but with little effect on the family’s camaraderie, which has also barely been touched by the challenge of Mel’s blindness, a […]

  MIND GAMES:  Tuesday 10PM on ABC Previously… on MIND GAMES:  Bipolar genius Clark Edwards (Steve Zahn), an expert in the study of the brain and how it responds to stimuli, was recently fired from his post as a Psychology professor after his obsessive romance with student Beth (Katherine Cunningham).  He’s partnered with his recently […]

  ABOUT A BOY:  Tuesday 9PM on NBC Previously… on ABOUT A BOY:  Will Freeman (David Walton) lives a happily superficial, bimbo-laden life in San Francisco, supported indefinitely by the royalties from the one successful song he ever wrote–when one day, 11-year old misfit Marcus (Benjamin Stockham) and his vegan, neurotic, disapproving mother Fiona (Minnie […]

  BATES MOTEL:  Monday 9PM on A&E BATES MOTEL has lit up its Vacancy sign for a second season, and it’s retained its particular blend of soap, black comedy and horror thriller.  The strength of Bates is that even if we didn’t recognize its protagonist’s name, and know what lies in his Hitchcockian future, the […]

  The final scene of ALMOST HUMAN‘s season typified what a behind-the-scenes mess the entire run had been.  The occasion was a sequence where human police detective circa 2048 John Kennex (Karl Urban) and his cyborg partner Dorian (Michael Ealy) expressed their appreciation for one another, Dorian because Kennex had spoken on his behalf at […]

  THOSE WHO KILL:  Monday 10PM on A&E – Worth A Look It has the accoutrements of a basic cable crime drama–the heroes are seriously screwed-up, and occasionally say “shit”–but THOSE WHO KILL is a surprisingly conventional procedural in its initial hour, especially given its adjacency on the A&E schedule to the more perverse and […]