HOSTAGES:  Monday 10PM on CBS Previously… on HOSTAGES:  Ellen Sanders (Toni Collette) is a surgeon scheduled to operate on the President of the United States (James Naughton).  The night before the surgery, her home is invaded by a group that threatens to murder her family–husband Brian (Tate Donovan), daughter Morgan (Quinn Shephard) and son […]

  THE BLACKLIST:  Monday 10PM on NBC Previously… on THE BLACKLIST:  Raymond Reddington (James Spader), debonair Public Enemy #1, has turned himself in to the FBI, willing to surrender and spill everything he knows about all his criminal associates around the world, bit by bit.  His condition:  he’ll only talk to fresh-faced profiler Elizabeth Keen […]

  MOM:  Monday 9:30PM on CBS Previously… on MOM:  Christy (Anna Faris) is a recovering alcoholic single mom who has to cope with her own no-boundaries recovering addict single mother Bonnie (Allison Janney), as well as teen daughter Violet (Sadie Calvano) and son Roscoe (Blake Garrett Rosenthal).  Christy is just barely holding it together, and […]

  HELLO LADIES:  Sunday 10:30PM on HBO HBO sure loves it some Ricky Gervais-ian British comedy.  Apart from his stand-up specials, over the past few years the network has aired Extras, Life’s Too Short and The Ricky Gervais Show, and now, with Gervais in Netflix’s clutches with Derek, it’s resorted to the pseudo-Gervais of the […]

  EASTBOUND & DOWN:  Sunday 10PM on HBO EASTBOUND & DOWN is an acquired taste that, to be honest, I’ve never quite acquired.  Not that the show hasn’t made me laugh, not that I fail to recognize the glory that unbridled Danny McBride can be and the show’s terrific supporting cast and guest stars–but a […]

  Read All Our Fall Pilot Reports here and Midseason Pilot Reports here. WE ARE MEN:  Monday 8:30PM on CBS – Change the Channel It hasn’t been a great fall for new sitcoms.  On CBS, WE ARE MEN (which could have better been called We Are Mediocrities) joins Mom, The Crazy Ones, and The Millers, […]

  HOMELAND:  Sunday 9PM on Showtime The obsessive charts are back up on Carrie Mathison’s living room wall, and while that may not be good news for Carrie, it’s great for the rest of us.  After a divisive second season that turned too much on 24-style action and Abu Nazir’s tortuous plan to make Nicholas […]

  THE GOOD WIFE:  Sunday 9PM/9:30PM (depending on football) on CBS THE GOOD WIFE lost a step in an uneven fourth season that included botched characters (Kalinda’s husband, the friend/foe played by Maura Tierney) and a gubernatorial campaign that never caught dramatic fire.  But the finale set things up very nicely for Season 5, and the […]