A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and the 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) give plenty of notes, helpful and otherwise, and critics begin to rear […]

  WHITNEY:  Wednesday 8PM on NBC WHERE WE WERE:  Mostly in the apartment shared by Whitney (series creator Whitney Cummings) and her boyfriend Alex (Chris D’Elia), a longterm but unmarried couple who tend to hurl zingers at each other between embraces.  Her sitcom buddies are college chum Lily (Zoe Lister-Jones), who was engaged last year […]

  HOUSE OF LIES:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime Marty Kaan (accent on the “con”) and his management consulting crew are back for a second season at their HOUSE OF LIES tonight on Showtime, and apart from a purge of some of the recurring guest stars, everything is pretty much as remembered.  2 weeks have passed […]

  It won’t surprise anyone if last night’s episode of GUYS WITH KIDS turns out to be not just its season finale but its farewell to the airwaves.  The show has struggled with ratings in the low 1s all season, and although that’s not particularly worse than its hour-mate Whitney, when it comes to Guys, […]

  SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE usually benefits from having a host with the confident comic talent that Melissa McCarthy brings to the table, but even with a 3-week hiatus in its pocket, the writing staff came up with little that was up to her level.  The result was a very long 90 minutes. Almost everything that […]

  Here lies HAPPY ENDINGS, one of the funniest comedies on all of television–foully murdered by some of the worst scheduling moves in recent network memory.  ABC began the season by sending the show (along with Don’t Trust the B___ In Apt 23) on a virtual suicide run, competing head-to-head on Tuesdays with New Girl, […]

  THE FOSTERS:  Monday 9PM on ABCFamily Previously… on THE FOSTERS:  San Diego cop Stef (Teri Polo) and charter school assistant principal Lena (Sherri Saum) are a gay couple raising a blended family:  Stef’s biological son Brandon (David Foster), adopted twins Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) and Jesus (Jake T. Austin), and now foster children Callie (Maia […]

  THE GOODWIN GAMES probably should have been a movie.  Its extremely high-concept premise–three estranged siblings come back to their hometown after their father’s death, forced to solve a series of posthumous games and puzzles in order to get his multi-million dollar inheritance, and meanwhile bond together as a family and become better human beings–could […]