HAPPY TOGETHER:  Monday 8:30PM on CBS Even though CBS’s HAPPY TOGETHER is inspired by a period in Executive Producer Harry Styles’s actual life, it’s one of those sitcoms where no one in front of or behind the cameras appears to have spent much time on Earth.  The contrivance that serves as the plot has […]

  History will record that on the same night the curtain rang down for Mad Men, THE ROYALS also concluded its season.  As utterly different as the two shows are, The Royals is one of the many cable scripted series that probably wouldn’t exist if Mad Men hadn’t proven how valuable a single drama can […]

  JANE THE VIRGIN:  Monday 9PM on CW Previously… on JANE THE VIRGIN:  Jane (Gina Rodriguez) is what the title says she is, much to the relief of her grandmother Alba (Ivonne Coli), yet still pregnant, thanks to the mistake of a doctor who accidentally inseminated her.  This naturally complicates her relationship with fiance Michael […]

  RAKE:  Thursday 9PM on FOX Previously… on RAKE:  Keegan Deane (Greg Kinnear) is an LA lawyer whose life is a wreck.  Between tax evasion issues and a gambling habit, he’s lost his house and has to live with his best friend Ben (John Ortiz) and Ben’s wife, ADA Scarlet (Necar Zadegan), he has no […]

> WHERE WE WERE: On a cul de sac in Florida, where for a brief period of time, divorcee Jules (Courtney Cox) pursued younger men–unfortunately, just long enough for this series to be pitched to ABC and launched with a title that, since midway in its first season, has had nothing to do with the […]

  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 […]

  PARENTHOOD:  Thursday 10PM on NBC PARENTHOOD, like Parks & Recreation, is one of NBC’s little engines that could, chugging along to a fourth season despite mediocre ratings.  (And last night’s series-low-tying 1.6 in its Thursday night debut won’t help any.)  Whatever the network may consider its failings from a bottom-line point of view, creatively it […]

> HOUSE OF LIES – Sundays 10PM on Showtime – If Nothing Else Is On… Showtime took a major step forward this season with its gripping new drama series Homeland, a show worthy of being mentioned with anything on TV.  The network’s new comedy HOUSE OF LIES, though, is considerably less of an event. The […]