THE KNICK:  Friday 10PM on Cinemax Previously… on THE KNICK:  New York’s Knickerbocker Hospital circa 1900 is a highly respectable institution, funded by wealthy benefactors and with a conscientious staff, but to modern eyes, it’s little more than a sewer, with “state of the art” operating procedures that seem savage and conditions that are […]

  SMASH:  Tuesday 10PM on NBC The intermission that began last May is over, and what SMASH desperately wants you to know isn’t just a second season but a full-fledged Version 2.0 kicks off with the self-aware lyric “I know I’ve kept you waiting/I know I’ve made you mad.”  In an attempt to get the […]

  SHADES OF BLUE:  Thursday 10PM on NBC – If Nothing Else Is On… SHADES OF BLUE is the weak tea brewed by broadcast network executives who dream of airing something like The Shield.  Both shows center on corrupt urban cops, but where The Shield smacked viewers in the face, forcing them to decide where […]

  THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA:  Wednesday 8PM on NBC Previously… on THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA:  Laura Diamond (Debra Messing) is the mother of obstreperous twins, and the estranged wife of adulterous Jake (Josh Lucas).  She’s also–get this!–a NYPD homicide detective, who solves murders between arranging playdates and keeping her kids in private school, and coping […]

  RESURRECTION:  Sunday 9PM on ABC American viewers have a seemingly endless fascination with the undead in all their various forms, and that extended to last season’s instant midseason hit RESURRECTION (although its ratings steadily declined throughout its run).  The show returned tonight for its second season, and as is often the case with it, […]

  DATES:  Thursday 9PM on CW – If Nothing Else Is On… CW is barely promoting its run of the 2013 British series DATES, which the network is using (presumably for a negligible fee) to fill a few hours of its summer schedule.  It’s an oddity, the kind of show you might expect to find […]

  Whenever The Killing feels badly about how abused it gets for being a lame murder mystery dotted with time-wasting red herrings, it can look over at TWISTED to boost its morale.  With the help of the biggest lead-in ABCFamily has to offer in Pretty Little Liars, Twisted managed to keep its ratings decent enough […]

  TAKEN:  Monday 10PM on NBC – If Nothing Else Is On… NBC’s television version of TAKEN doesn’t have much to do with the movie franchise that provided its title, other than fitting into the action genre and featuring a hero named Bryan Mills.  Although presented as a sort of prequel, it’s a modern-day origin […]