Reviews

THE SKED Season Finale Review: “Betrayal”

Posted January 19, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  All the way to the very end, BETRAYAL couldn’t get it right.  Although it hasn’t technically been canceled (as a matter of policy, networks don’t give up their legal rights to shows until the last possible moment), the show’s ratings have been so awful that a renewal is massively unlikely, and for most of […]

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Midseason Premiere

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “The Following”

Posted January 19, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  THE FOLLOWING:  Monday 9PM on FOX (starting Jan 27) The blood-drenched, increasingly grandiose literary pretensions of THE FOLLOWING grew tiresome by the end of last season’s run.  It seemed like very good news that in the season finale, Edgar Allen Poe scholar, brutal serial killer and unaccountably irresistible cult leader Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) […]

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Other

THE SKED Review: “Saturday Night Live” with Drake

Posted January 19, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  Tonight’s footnote to SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE history was that it featured the debut of new cast member Sasheer Zamata, who is, not incidentally, an African-American woman–“not incidentally” only because her hiring came after a rather embarrassing amount of pressure, both internal and external, was applied to force Lorne Michaels to acknowledge that SNL was […]

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Pilot + 1

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “Enlisted”

Posted January 18, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  ENLISTED:  Friday 9:30PM on FOX Previously… on ENLISTED:  The brothers Hill–demoted hero soldier Pete (Geoff Stults), cynical Derrick (Chris Lowell) and earnest, dumb Randy (Parker Young)–all serve on a Florida Army base, where Pete is Sergeant of his brothers’ platoon.  Their commanding officer is one-legged Sergeant Major Wallace (Keith David).  Also on the base:  […]

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Pilot + 1

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “Chicago PD”

Posted January 16, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  CHICAGO PD:  Wednesday 10PM on NBC Previously… on CHICAGO PD:  Sergeant Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) is a tough-as-nails cop out of the Dick Wolf school of tough cops, and he runs a tough squad, although he has a heart of sufficient gold to rescue street kids who come his way.  His tough squad includes […]

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Midseason Premiere

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “Suburgatory”

Posted January 15, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  SUBURGATORY:  Wednesday 8:30PM on ABC For a comedy that seemed to have a strong sense of itself on its debut, SUBURGATORY suffered from a surprisingly rocky case of the Terrible Twos.  Creatively, the second season of Emily Kapnek’s series wobbled from its original tart satire of suburban mores to weakly serialized romances, dumbed-up silliness […]

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Pilot + 1

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “Killer Women”

Posted January 15, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  KILLER WOMEN:  Tuesday 10PM on ABC Previously… on KILLER WOMEN:  Molly Parker (Tricia Helfer) is your basic aggressive, rule-breaking, sharp-shooting Texas Ranger–except that she looks great in a dress.  She loves her job, has a fine relationship with boss Luis Zea (Alex Fernandez) and a hot DEA boyfriend (Marc Blucas) to boot, but she’s […]

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Pilot Reports

THE SKED Series Premiere Review: “Bitten”

Posted January 14, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  BITTEN:  Monday 10PM on Syfy Syfy’s Canadian werewolf import BITTEN is noticeably low-rent.  Even its transformation sequences use as little CG as possible:  a morphing hand, a back becoming increasingly hairy, and voila, there’s the fake wolf. Although the show has a bit more sex then the Syfy norm, it gives off a very […]

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