CONSTANTINE:  Friday 10PM on NBC Previously… on CONSTANTINE:  John Constantine (Matt Ryan), a character who originated in DC Comics, is a demon-hunter, trying to regain his own soul (which he lost by allowing a young woman to die) by saving humans from otherworldly attacks.  He has a magic map that tells him where hellish […]

  DO NO HARM:  Thursday 10PM on NBC A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and the production of episodes for the regular season: a writing/producing team is hired, audience focus groups weigh in, networks and studios (which may have had their own turnover) give plenty of notes, […]

  I’M DYING UP HERE:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime Showtime’s I’M DYING UP HERE is a behind-the scenes showbiz story, and fittingly the series itself is part of one.  Despite terrible ratings and reviews that were generally less than enthused, the network picked it up for a 2nd season just days before also announcing that […]

  BAD TEACHER:  Thursday 9:30PM on CBS Previously… on BAD TEACHER:  As in the movie, Meredith (Ari Graynor in the Cameron Diaz role) is teaching grade school strictly as a way of meeting the rich fathers of her students, and otherwise devoting little effort to the job.  While she waits for Mr. Right Bank Account […]

  AMERICAN CRIME:  Sunday 10PM on ABC John Ridley’s AMERICAN CRIME feels even more like an outlier amid the world of network television than it did when it debuted two years ago.  Broadcasters have largely responded to the erosion in their ratings by seeking bigger and bigger tents, relying on procedurals, franchises, remakes and stars […]

  THE WALKING DEAD:  Sunday 9PM on AMC The Season 7 premiere of THE WALKING DEAD didn’t have a lot of goals.  The series managed somehow, in this age of spoiler culture and social media, to keep the off-camera victim of its Season 6 finale murder a mystery–no easy feat–and it had to pay off […]

  Even though death is part of the daily menu of our television and movies, dying–lingering, fatal illness–is much rarer.  We prefer our deaths to be mere starting points for police investigations, or the byproduct of our fascination with serial killers–puzzles rather than human beings.  Even on medical shows, patients who die rarely take up […]

  LOUIE:  Thursday 10:30PM on FX We’ve learned over time that it’s impossible to take the measure of a season of LOUIE until we see what its auteur has in store for us.  Last year’s Season 4 was extraordinarily ambitious, with a feature-length episode that only barely featured its star tossed off in the midst […]