> Previously On… THE WALKING DEAD:  Our erstwhile humans spent many, many episodes on a farm owned by cranky vet Hershel (Scott Wilson), while they searched for the missing Sophia (Madison Lintz).  There were lots of lengthy conversations about the meaning of life in a zombie-infected universe, and whether it was worth going on–let alone […]

> The second-season finale of Showtime’s SHAMELESS was unusually low-key for the rambunctious series, the result of having to deal with the aftermath of last week’s Thanksgiving dinner, where bipolar mom Monica (Chloe Webb) very graphically attempted suicide, and of Karen (Laura Wiggins) giving birth to a baby who turned out to have Downs Syndrome.  […]

The title of MAD MEN‘s Season 5 finale was “The Phantom,” and as is almost always the case with Matthew Weiner’s opus, it had several meanings.  (Weiner shared credit for the finale’s script with Jonathan Igla, and directed the episode himself.)  Most specifically, the phantom was that of Adam Whitman, Don Draper’s (Jon Hamm) brother, […]

  BEAUTY & THE BEAST: Thursday 9PM starting 10/11 on CW – If Nothing Else Is On… Disclaimer: Network pilots now in circulation are not necessarily in the form that will air in the Fall. Pilots are often reedited and re-scored, and in some cases even recast or reshot. These critiques shouldn’t be taken as […]

  VEGAS:  Tuesday 10PM on CBS – Potential DVR Alert VEGAS is CBS’s version of swinging for the fences, which is to say that it can also be seen as a neon-lit, gold-edged version of Longmire.  This time the widowed western lawman is Ralph Lamb, a real (although probably quite fictionalized) rancher who became a […]

  The political comics of America owe a heartfelt “thank you” to Mitt Romney for his “47%” bungle that became public this week.  (So do the Democrats, but that’s another story.)  Jon Stewart has been going to town on it all week, and tonight’s inaugural SNL WEEKEND UPDATE THURSDAY of the season used it as […]

  HART OF DIXIE:  Tuesday 8PM on CW WHERE WE WERE:  The bedroom of Dr. Zoe Hart (Rachel Bilson) in Bluebell, Alabama, where the New York transfer was finally getting some action after an entire season of dithering.  On what was supposed to be the wedding night of George Tucker (Scott Porter), for whom Zoe […]

  Add to Louis C.K.’s remarkable list of recent achievements the ability to intermittently brighten up a routine episode of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. They weren’t all gems, but a couple of tonight’s sketches were among the season’s best so far.  Chief among them was “Lincoln,” which wasn’t just a letter-perfect parody of Louie, but one […]