HOMELAND‘s season 7 was a mess, but a more entertaining one than recent editions have been.  There were even a few episodes toward the middle of the season that brought back memories of the truly great series it had been in its early glory years.  At this point, though, we’ll settle for less, and […]

  Jimmy Kimmel’s set got a bit of an upgrade, but other than that there was little visible evidence that the 11:35PM version of JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE will be very different from its midnight incarnation.  Kimmel has never been Mr. High-Concept–he leaves that for Letterman and Conan–and as Jay Leno, still the winner in both […]

  HOMELAND:  Sunday 9PM on Showtime We’ve recently acquired the concept of “legacy media,” referring to things like newspapers that are actually printed on pieces of paper–still potentially useful, but decidedly out of date.  Showtime’s HOMELAND is sort of “legacy quality TV”.  It kicked off in 2011 with one and a half classic seasons, a nimble, […]

> Premieres Thursday 10PM on FX:  Potential DVR Alert Is WILFRED more than a one-trick puppy?  We’ll see.  It joins the FX line-up of off-center comedies (Louie, The League, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) with a promising pilot, offering an original spin on a familiar plotline. Based by David Zuckerman (who hails from the Seth […]

  AGENTS OF SHIELD – Friday 9PM on ABC It’s hard to believe that only 5 seasons ago, when ABC’s AGENTS OF SHIELD arrived on the air, the idea of a superhero TV series still seemed somewhat new and cool.  At that point, it was joined only by Arrow, in the era before CW was […]

  No one could seriously imagine that the TV remake of ROSEMARY’S BABY would come close to Roman Polanski’s 1968 masterpiece, so let’s get the obvious over with in a single paragraph.  (The amazing thing, really, is that it’s lasted this long without an inferior reboot being made, although there was an awful 1976 made-for-TV […]

  It would have been impossible for the Season 2 finale of THE GOOD PLACE to match the gut-punch of Season 1’s climactic twist, partly because until it happened, we hadn’t even known to look for one.  The Good Place was a broadcast network sitcom, albeit a whimsical one, and its creator Michael Schur, while […]

> Disclaimer:  Network pilots now in circulation are not necessarily in the form that will air in the Fall.  Pilots are often reedited and rescored, and in some cases even recast or reshot.  So these critiques shouldn’t be taken as full reviews, but rather as a guide to the general style and content of the […]