> A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and 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 in the off-season) give plenty of notes, both helpful and otherwise, and […]

  GIRLS:  Sunday 10PM on HBO As HBO’s GIRLS begins its 6th and final season, it somehow feels older than it actually is.  That’s the way it is with television now:  the revolutionary can become the familiar in a blink.  It had already felt, with the arrival of half-hours like Atlanta, Better Things and Insecure, […]

  BLUNT TALK:  Saturday 9PM on Starz – If Nothing Else Is On… For Jonathan Ames, the creator of Starz’s new comedy BLUNT TALK, the sweet spot is the intersection of addled (male) self-delusion and yearning.  His HBO series Bored To Death never found much of an audience, but it was rewarding for those who […]

  THE LEFTOVERS:  Sunday 9PM on HBO It would be hard to imagine a more appropriate theme song for a Damon Lindelof TV series than one that includes the refrain “Let the mystery be.”  The title sequence of THE LEFTOVERS, which along with much else about the series has been completely revamped from its polarizing […]

  THE WHISPERS never made much sense, and that went triple for tonight’s finale.  On a macro level, it was probably unwise to end the season with a cliffhanger, since reports are that although the ratings were no worse than middling, ABC had let the cast options lapse when it postponed the show to summer, […]

  In its second season, HBO’s SUCCESSION found an exquisite middle ground between Dallas and Shakespeare.  The show is still a somewhat rareified taste–it’s routinely been the lowest-rated show in the network’s current Sunday line-up–but as evidenced by its surprise writing Emmy a few weeks ago, its quality is recognized. The Season 2 finale, written […]

  No, honestly:  what the hell was that? All snark aside, it was admirable and really long past due for USA Network to try to get out of the “characters welcome,” franchise-centric box it had put itself into.  When people start using the phrase “well, it was sort of like a USA show” as disparagement, […]

    LAST MAN STANDING was a terrible show when the season began, and it hasn’t gotten any better.  The series was anticipated to be a blockbuster hit, and ABC gave it the unusual task for a new series of opening up a night, since it marked the return of Tim Allen to series television, […]