TYRANT:  Wednesday 10PM on FX FX’s TYRANT has never been as incisive or daring as it could have been, given its incendiary setting in a fictional Middle Eastern nation on the brink of revolution, but it’s a survivor, back on the air for its third season.  After an unengaging initial run, the series remade […]

  BLOOD DRIVE:  Wednesday 10PM on Syfy – If Nothing Else Is On… Syfy is in the midst of a rebranding, the focal point of which seems to be a new font for its logo.  Creatively, if the premiere of BLOOD DRIVE is to be taken as a guide, the network intends its model to […]

  INHUMANS:  Friday 9PM on ABC (starting Sept 29) – Change the Channel In this world of Peak TV, it’s harder for a new series to break through the clutter than it’s ever been, and that thicket will be a veritable forest during the fourth week of September, when the major broadcast networks will follow […]

  BARRY:  Sunday 10:30PM on HBO – Potential DVR Alert The buzz is that HBO’s BARRY is a series that changes quite a bit from its pilot, so we’ll keep this short and return to the series later in its 8-episode run.  Co-created by star Bill Hader (who also directed the opening three episodes) and […]

  BURDEN OF TRUTH:  Wednesday 8PM on CW This summer’s crop of original broadcast dramas (Reverie, Take Two, The Outpost) has been notably bad, and in that context, CW’s new Canadian import, the straightforward legal drama BURDEN OF TRUTH, comes as something of a relief. The set-up is a much tamer version of the one […]

  CITY ON A HILL – Sunday 9PM on Showtime Showtime’s new CITY ON A HILL wears so many influences on its sleeve that there’s hardly any garment to be seen.  The show hails from Executive Producers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and it’s sort of a subtweet of Affleck’s The Town, with a plot […]

    LAST MAN STANDING was a terrible show when the season began, and it hasn’t gotten any better.  The series was anticipated to be a blockbuster hit, and ABC gave it the unusual task for a new series of opening up a night, since it marked the return of Tim Allen to series television, […]

      The crazier SCANDAL has gotten, the better it’s been.  Although the Shonda Rhimes soap only had a 7-episode run this Spring, it’s managed to find its footing quickly.  The first few episodes were forgettably glib, scandal-of-the-week hours that were far-fetched and overly jocular (the worst was the one about the Supreme Court […]