Truth be told, Season 4 of COMMUNITY was probably closer to what NBC thought it was buying when it originally ordered the show than any of the seasons that preceded it.  Eccentric but not insular, offbeat but not off-putting, with a logical explanation for each seeming twist of surrealism and wrapped up whenever possible […]

  It’s no small thing to be a scripted success on the broadcast networks during the summer, and while it’s never been a breakout hit, the fact that the Canadian series ROOKIE BLUE has made it to a 4th season on ABC is impressive in itself.  Its modest, accomplished mix of police procedural and soap […]

  It’s impossible to discuss the season finale of NURSE JACKIE–or, as it turns out, its entire fifth season–without talking about its final minute, so I’ll skip to the next paragraph to ward off anyone who unwisely wandered into the SPOILER territory of a season finale review. Here we are.  The question is whether its […]

  Read All Our Fall Pilot Reports here. REIGN:  Thursday 9PM on CW – Potential DVR Alert The CW is often–and rightly–considered a network of very limited ambitions, with just two modes of operation:  rom-com soap and supernatural soap.  But its new REIGN, while well fortified with suds, is as big a swing for the […]

  ONCE UPON A TIME:  Sunday 8PM on ABC The Season 3 premiere of ONCE UPON A TIME didn’t step foot in Storybrooke, nor did it feature any flashbacks to pre-curse incarnations of the protagonists.  Whether this was a one-time event for the premiere or a new template for the series is unclear, but the […]

  IRONSIDE:  Wednesday 10PM on NBC Previously… on IRONSIDE:  NYPD Sergeant Robert Ironside (Blair Underwood), shot in the back and now in a wheelchair, has won the right to a hand-picked squad (Pablo Schreiber, Spencer Grammer, Neal Bledsoe) helping him to solve crimes, under the sometimes exasperated command of rule-bound Captain Rollins (Kenneth Choi).  Ironside […]

  The hits just kept coming on tonight’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, which packed a whole fall’s worth of glitz into the show’s final 90 minutes of 2013.  Technically, Jimmy Fallon was the host and Justin Timberlake was musical guest, but as anyone would have expected, the two were essentially a team–and if they weren’t enough […]

  LOOKING:  Sunday 10:30PM on HBO – Worth A Look HBO’s LOOKING is distinctive for the obvious reason that it’s a dramedy about gay characters, of a completely different order than the network universe of a Sean Saves the World or Glee.  That doesn’t just mean it’s far more sexual than a broadcast network would […]