To say that in its fifth and final season 90210 was running on fumes would be to disparage fumes.  The show, after a very bumpy start in which it ran through several developers and showrunners and tried far too hard to stoke memories of its Beverly Hills, 90210 forebear, settled in for a moderately entertaining […]

  Even with the nonstop double (sometimes barely single) entendres, 2 BROKE GIRLS is as basic and old-fashioned as a sitcom can be–it’s sort of a starter kit for CBS comedy.  Take 2 mismatched diner co-workers/roommates/business partners (Kat Dennings as streetsmart Max and Beth Behrs as once-wealthy Caroline), mix with a wacky boss and fellow […]

  When a show that’s clearly been losing its way creatively suffers in the ratings, like Revenge, it’s understandable.  But ONCE UPON A TIME has run out of steam this season much faster than ABC likely anticipated.  Late last season, Once was regularly getting a 3 rating in 18-49s, but this season’s average dipped to a […]

  Heroes probably still sets the bar for disastrous second seasons of initially enjoyable TV shows, but this year’s REVENGE came uncomfortably close.  ABC more or less acknowledged that fact when it (in a genteel, corporate way) fired series creator and showrunner till now Mike Kelley from the upcoming Season 3 (fellow Executive Producer Sunil […]

  Watching the parade of Kristen Wiig’s Greatest Hits that marked her return to SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE as tonight’s host, you could be forgiven for wishing you missed her more.  For all her great talent, Wiig had become, by the time she left a year ago, a symbol of everything franchise-heavy and headpoundingly overdone on […]

  There was a sequence late in the one and only season of VEGAS that suggested what the show could have been.  It wasn’t a big deal:  deputy sheriff Dixon Lamb (Taylor Handley) needed a favor from the entertainment director of one of the casinos (Enver Gjokaj), who’d only grant it if he got some […]

  If there was a way to turn its premise into a TV series worth watching, TOUCH didn’t find it.  The show tried very different approaches in its two seasons, but FOX’s cancellation notice this week closed the door on any further tries. In its first season, Touch was built around the feel-good idea that […]

  The all-knowing Machine at the heart of PERSON OF INTEREST turned positively chatty in last night’s Season 2 finale, providing real-time advice and assistance via phone and text services to just about anyone who asked it nicely.  (If you didn’t care for numbers, it would help you out via musical tones.)   The Machine, […]