ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK may be the most tolerant show on television (or “television,” or whatever it is we’re calling distributed entertainment content in this new Netflixed world).  All the characters, even those who commit the most heinous acts–inmates and guards both–have their reasons and their frailties.  They’re miserably in love, or living […]

  CAMP:  Wednesday 10PM on NBC Previously… on CAMP:  Camp Little Otter in upstate New York is an old-fashioned place where the kids learn crafts, the counselors try to get laid and the owner, Mack Greenfield (Rachel Griffiths), is trying to hold on while enduring a divorce from her dickish husband Steve (Jonathan LaPaglia), who […]

  THE BRIDGE:  Wednesday 10PM on FX Previously… on THE BRIDGE:  In the exact center of the bridge connecting El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico, a killer has placed two half-bodies of murdered women, carefully joined together.  One is an anti-immigrant conservative American judge; the other is a teenage Mexican prostitute.  The crimes require a […]

  SUITS:  Tuesday 10PM on USA SUITS is the class of the USA Network portfolio, as well as one of its biggest hits, although there are times when it can seem like an orgy of brinksmanship for its own sake.  Character after character faces down an adversary (whether professional or personal) and vows to defeat […]

  COVERT AFFAIRS:  Tuesday 9PM on USA Last season was an important one for COVERT AFFAIRS, as it transitioned from being a light spy caper about appealing newbie CIA agent Annie Walker (Piper Perabo) to presenting Annie as a serious, more experienced operative.  While no one would confuse it with a LeCarre thriller, the show […]

  THE NEWSROOM:  Sunday 10PM on HBO Aaron Sorkin may have professed not to agree with most of the criticisms aimed at THE NEWSROOM during its initial season, but a look at its Season 2 premiere makes it pretty clear that he was listening.  From the new and altogether less stentorian opening credit sequence (no […]

  With the arrival of ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK after House of Cards, Hemlock Grove and Arrested Development, Netflix has completed the first quartet of its initial plunge into high-profile original programming .  Based on the available evidence (Netflix doesn’t release viewership information), the process has gone extremely well, with both subscriptions and the stock […]

  THE BRIDGE:  Wednesday 10PM on FX – DVR Alert FX has assumed a leadership role in the development of serious, ambitious TV drama over the past decade (The Shield, Rescue Me, The Americans), and with its new series THE BRIDGE, it takes on its largest canvas to date.  The Bridge, which is based on […]