THE MICHAEL J. FOX SHOW:  Thursday 9:30PM on NBC Note:  NBC aired two episodes of THE MICHAEL J. FOX SHOW on its opening night, the pilot at 9PM followed by the first regular episode in the show’s usual 9:30PM timeslot.  Our thoughts on the pilot are here. Previously… on THE MICHAEL J. FOX SHOW:  […]

  MASTERS OF SEX:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime Previously… on MASTERS OF SEX:  In 1956, brilliant but arrogant and socially awkward fertility expert William Masters (Michael Sheen) prepares to start his trailblazing research into the physicality of human sexuality.  His own personal life is hardly beyond reproach–he’s allowed his wife Libby (Caitlin Fitzgerald) to believe […]

  The formulaic TV sitcom plot can be summed up like this:  the protagonist has some understandable goal, but says or does the worst possible thing to achieve it, causing chaos–yet things work out OK in the end, and the character learns a valuable lesson.  In recent years, the traditional rules of TV comedy (and […]

  The most inventive part of tonight’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE really wasn’t, because it was almost certainly unintentional.  Nevertheless, it was sort of brilliant, in a “found art” sort of way.  Soon after the monologue, there was a negligible piece about a suburban group performing a snowflake dance for the Christmas pageant at their local […]

  KILLER WOMEN:  Tuesday 10PM on ABC Previously… on KILLER WOMEN:  Molly Parker (Tricia Helfer) is your basic aggressive, rule-breaking, sharp-shooting Texas Ranger–except that she looks great in a dress.  She loves her job, has a fine relationship with boss Luis Zea (Alex Fernandez) and a hot DEA boyfriend (Marc Blucas) to boot, but she’s […]

  SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE was pushed off the air for a solid month by the Winter Olympics, and then by 15 more minutes in the east tonight by an NHL game in primetime–not the kind of thing that pleases Generalissimo Lorne Michaels.  After all that, the show wasn’t remotely worth the wait. The Big Bang […]

  It was probably unwise for TWISTED to end its first season with a cliffhanger, since it seems to be doomed–the ratings were low even when it had Pretty Little Liars as a lead-in, and once that show finished its season, they became downright awful.  As much as one hates to see people lose their […]

  SALEM:  Sunday 10PM on WGN America Previously… on SALEM:  In the late 17th century, the town of Salem had a fanatical witch hunter in the person of Cotton Mather (Seth Gabel), but also a coven of very real witches, headed by the town’s most powerful woman, Mary Sibley (Janet Montgomery), along with Tituba (Ashley […]