THE GOODWIN GAMES probably should have been a movie.  Its extremely high-concept premise–three estranged siblings come back to their hometown after their father’s death, forced to solve a series of posthumous games and puzzles in order to get his multi-million dollar inheritance, and meanwhile bond together as a family and become better human beings–could […]

  DEAD OF SUMMER:  Tuesday 9PM on Freeform – If Nothing Else Is On… Freeform’s DEAD OF SUMMER arrives with A-list auspices.  Two of its co-creators, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, are also the creators of Once Upon A Time (the remaining co-creator and series showrunner, Ian Goldberg, is a former Once writer/producer), and Horowitz […]

  MASTERS OF SEX:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime MASTERS OF SEX was one of television’s best surprises last season.  Despite a title and premise–the groundbreaking study of human sexuality by Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson–that seemed to promise a pay-cable softcore version of history, Michelle Ashford’s series was so bracingly smart and emotionally complicated […]

  Lorne Michaels does know how to throw a party.  The 2015 finale of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE closed with a rollicking “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, joined by the cast, the night’s hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, special guest Maya Rudolph, fake in-studio snow–and Paul […]

  BURN NOTICE went heavy on action for its final hour, attempting to look like a more expensive show than it actually ever was.  Burn was never a well-respected series (it was memorably ridiculed in an SNL skit as a hit no one knew anything about), with inch-deep plots and characterizations that hardly budged in the 7 seasons it […]

  MURDER IN THE FIRST:  Monday 10PM on TNT Previously… on MURDER IN THE FIRST:  San Francisco homicide detectives Terry English (Taye Diggs) and Hildy Mulligan (Kathleen Robertson) are investigating two crimes connected to arrogant high-tech tycoon Erich Blunt (Tom Felton), the violent deaths of both his biological father and his former employee and lover.  […]

  In their teardown season as new showrunners of FEAR THE WALKING DEAD, Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg didn’t solve all the problems inherent in the franchise, and the season was uneven, only partly for reasons of transition.  Still, they accomplished a lot, more or less creating a new series from the one that had […]

  NURSE JACKIE:  Sunday 9PM on Showtime NURSE JACKIE had a strong, dramatic season last year that may have been its best.  But the ratings weren’t anything to speak of (a 0.2-0.3 in 18-49s, and fewer than a million total viewers), and series co-creator/showrunners Liz Brixius and Linda Wallem left the show rather messily (from […]