The MTV version of SCREAM nailed its own problem back in the pilot, courtesy of its one-man meta machine Noah (John Karna)–but diagnosing one’s own illness is a long way from curing it.  A TV series, indeed, can’t possibly duplicate the experience of a slasher movie, because that genre plays a numbers game:  its […]

  SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE went musical in a big way for its host, Anna Kendrick, and that mostly wasn’t a bad thing.  Kendrick is a genuine musical-comedy performer, with not just the novelty hit “Cups” from Pitch Perfect to her credit but a lead in the upcoming film of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods on […]

  In its second season, THE AMERICANS continued to be a expertly crafted saga of betrayals, both political and personal.  Tonight’s chilling season finale, written by series creator Joe Weisberg and his co-showrunner Joel Fields, and directed by Daniel Sackheim, brought all its themes together brilliantly, and set the stage for what should be an […]

  The second half of REVOLUTION‘s season tried to be interesting, God knows.  The initial run of episodes after the pilot mostly seemed to consist of our heroes trudging through forests, on the trail of militia-captured teen Danny Matheson, brother of heroine Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) and nephew of Miles (Billy Burke).  But when Revolution returned […]

> 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 […]

  As a series, Cinemax’s BANSHEE has been notable for the sheer knock-down, drag-out-edness of its action scenes.  One episode started with a bungled robbery which led to a chase that must have lasted 10 minutes, and when hero ex-con turned fake-sheriff of Banshee, PA Lucas Hood (Antony Starr) faced down an MMA fighter who […]

  In its second season, A&E’s neo-western LONGMIRE has become a superior procedural-plus, effectively knitting together both its frontier and cop genres and its crime-of-the-week and serialized storylines with an increased sense of character and some understated humor.  Tonight’s season finale, written by series creators Hunt Baldwin and John Coveny (based on a series of […]

  REIGN rang down the curtain on the first piece of its season (it returns on January 23, having managed to hold onto its post-Vampire Diaries timeslot) in fine historical romance style.  The script, by series co-creator Laurie McCarthy (the episode was directed by Fred Gerber), brought the show’s main storyline to the forefront:  the […]