CSI:  Wednesday 10PM on CBS As with Law & Order before it, the franchise that is CSI has dwindled down to a single entry, in this case the original Las Vegas-set version.  The cast has mostly been refurbished, with Ted Danson and Elisabeth Shue now toting the biggest forensics kits, and the ratings are […]

  ABBY’S:  Thursday 9:30PM on NBC Unless the general public cares about a multi-camera sitcom being shot outdoors, NBC’s new ABBY’S may face a tough road.  Aside from that technological distinction (handled with seeming effortlessness by director Pamela Fryman), Abby’s feels like the kind of sitcom that might have tried to coast off the vibe […]

> See A Word About Busted Pilots FAMILY ALBUM was one of the more buzzed-about FOX pilots of this past development season, and although it’s not on the network’s announced schedule, Deadline reports that it’s in contention for midseason and will even shoot a second prototype episode.  So this isn’t so much a postmortem as […]

  FALLING SKIES:  Sunday 10PM on TNT FALLING SKIES is, for TNT, the series Syfy needs and doesn’t seem to be able to pull off.  As futuristic adventure sagas go, there’s nothing innovative about it, or even stylish, and now that the original producers have departed, it’s no longer much interested in being an allegory.  […]

  Last year FX gave THE AMERICANS showrunners Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg a final 2-season order, and from the vantage point of Season 5’s finale, it seems clear that they’ve approached this stretch as a single 23-episode arc, broken more or less in half by a year’s break.  Season 5 was not, in itself, […]

> It’s not all that unusual for a situation comedy to change directions in the midst of its initial season and emerge a different, and better, show:  The Office and Parks & Recreation both took that journey (the US Office was trying too hard at first to ape the Ricky Gervais original, and Parks was […]

  This was, for the most part, a solid rebuilding season for TRUE BLOOD.  The show survived a replacement in showrunners when series creator Alan Ball stepped down after 5 years–and then a replacement of that replacement–with show veteran Brian Buckner ultimately taking over.  Under his direction, the series took a smart step or two […]

  GROWN-ISH:  Wednesday 8PM on Freeform – In Progress ABC’s Black-ish has been a bright spot on the broadcast landscape, the rare network family sitcom to earn both wide audiences and critical praise for its combination of political sting and emotional warmth.  A spin-off created by Black-ish creator Kenya Barris (and Larry Wilmore, an original […]