Pilot Reports

THE SKED SERIES PREMIERE REVIEW: “Under the Dome”

Posted June 25, 2013 by Mitch Salem

  UNDER THE DOME:  Monday 10PM on CBS – Potential DVR Alert Much of CBS’s programming philosophy is built around the steady reliability of its reruns, so on the face of it, the Eye would seem least likely of the broadcast networks to make the summer’s biggest play with an expensive, top-level original series.  But […]

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Fall Pilots

PREMIERING TONIGHT: THE SKED Pilot Review – CW’s “The Tomorrow People”

Posted October 9, 2013 by Mitch Salem

  Read All Our Fall Pilot Reports here. THE TOMORROW PEOPLE:  Wednesday 9PM on CW – If Nothing Else Is On… THE TOMORROW PEOPLE is CW sticking with the CW playbook.  The word “rip-off” may be a strong label for a show whose concept dates back to a British TV series that began in 1973, but […]

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Midseason Pilots

THE SKED Pilot Review: “Intelligence”

Posted January 7, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  INTELLIGENCE:  Preview Tonight at 9PM, then Monday 10PM on CBS starting January 13 – If Nothing Else Is On… Gabriel Black (Josh Holloway), the hero of CBS’s midseason entry INTELLIGENCE, follows in the TV footsteps of Chuck and the autistic character from Alphas by having a brain directly wired into all electronic signals in […]

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Pilot + 1

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “Dads”

Posted September 25, 2013 by Mitch Salem

  DADS: Tuesday 8PM on FOX Previously… on DADS:  Video game company partners Eli and Warner (Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi) are invaded by their respective fathers, David (Peter Riegert) and Crawford (Martin Mull).  The old guys move in, and in no time are driving their sons crazy.  Also around for the carnage:  Warner’s wife […]

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Pilot Reports

THE SKED Series Premiere Review: “Super Fun Night”

Posted October 2, 2013 by Mitch Salem

  SUPER FUN NIGHT:  Wednesday 9:30PM on ABC – Change the Channel ABC’s decision to bury the original pilot for its Rebel Wilson vehicle SUPER FUN NIGHT isn’t unheard-of, but it’s certainly no mark of confidence–the pilot, after all, is what convinced them to order the series in the first place.  (For the record, our […]

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Pilot + 1

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “Reign”

Posted October 25, 2013 by Mitch Salem

  REIGN:  Thursday 9PM on CW Previously… on REIGN:  Before there were vampire teens or telekinetic teens or alien or witch or werewolf teens, there were royal teens.  In 1557, 15-year old Mary Queen of Scots (Adelaide Kane), hunted by her English cousins and in need of a military alliance, travels to France, where she […]

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Reviews

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “Banshee”

Posted January 11, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  BANSHEE:  Friday 10PM on Cinemax Cinemax’s gonzo-grindhouse extravaganza BANSHEE is back for its second season, seeming to flow directly from the ids of sensitive rom-com/dram novelist Jonathan Tropper and his fellow series creator David Schickler. By Banshee standards, the season 2 premiere, written by Tropper and directed by Greg Yaitanes, was relatively sedate.  Mostly […]

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Other

THE SKED Review: “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon”

Posted February 17, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  A guy–almost always a middle-aged white guy–walks out onto a stage and delivers a 10 or 15 minute stand-up routine about current events, to the cameras and a live audience of a few hundred people.  Then he sits behind a desk and for another 10 minutes or so, he does a pre-scripted (sometimes pre-taped) […]

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