Pilot Reports

THE SKED Pilot Review: “Power”

Posted June 5, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  POWER:  Saturday 9PM on Starz After its long respite in the past with the likes of The White Queen, Da Vinci’s Demons, Dancing On the Edge and Magic City, Starz returns to the 21st Century with the new POWER, a drama so contemporary that it boasts (as he’s billed) Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson among […]

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Reviews

THE SKED Season Finale Review: “Penny Dreadful”

Posted June 30, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  If nothing else, this first half of 2014 has been marked as The Year of Eva Green.  Green will probably never be a mainstream Hollywood star–there’s something too feral and broken about her for wide audiences to be comfortable in her presence–but in 300:  Rise Of An Empire and in Showtime’s PENNY DREADFUL, she’s […]

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Pilot + 1

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “Seed”

Posted July 22, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  SEED:  Monday 9PM on CW Previously… on SEED:  Years ago, bartender and serial dater Harry Dacosta (Adam Korson) donated his sperm to a clinic for cash.  Now, he discovers in short order that he’s the father of (at least) teen Anastasia (Abby Ross), and 9-year-old Billy (William Ainscough).  When they track him down, he […]

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Midseason Finale

THE SKED Midseason Finale Review: “Suits”

Posted August 21, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  SUITS is USA Network’s last remaining scripted hit, yet it finds itself in a bind:  with tonight’s midpoint of Season 4, it’s taken its original premise–Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) having been hired as a law firm associate by partner Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), even though Harvey knew that Mike had never attended law […]

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Midseason Finale

SHOWBUZZDAILY Midseason Finale Review: “Outlander”

Posted September 28, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  For fans of his remarkable Battlestar Galactica reboot, it’s still strange to see series creator Ronald D. Moore switch to Starz’s much more old-fashioned OUTLANDER.  (Some of the abruptness of that switch was accidental:  Moore was attached to other, more BSG-like shows in the interim, but they weren’t picked up to series.)  Nevertheless, on […]

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Reviews

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Manhattan”

Posted October 20, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  Audiences of TV drama have the luxury these days of being spoiled, and that raises the question:  what separates a great series from one that’s merely very good?  WGN America’s MANHATTAN had an original, intriguing premise and setting, exploring the scientific and personal tensions amid the creation of the world’s first atomic bomb at […]

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Reviews

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere (-ish) Review: “Hart of Dixie”

Posted December 16, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  CW is treating Season 4 of HART OF DIXIE as carelessly as its characters tend to treat each other.  The show’s return has been delayed until midseason, moved to the nether reaches of Friday nights, and its order cut to 10 episodes, all of which suggests that although no one is saying so for […]

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Reviews

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Chasing Life”

Posted March 24, 2015 by Mitch Salem

  Not to be cynical, but no show on TV could have an easier time coming up with a season-ending cliffhanger than CHASING LIFE, a YA soap whose heroine is battling leukemia.  For most of the back half of the series’ first season, April’s (Italia Ricci) cancer had been in remission, which left the show […]

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