With far less fanfare than last night’s farewell to The Closer, tonight TNT rang down the season’s curtain on FRANKLIN & BASH, a show that can barely be bothered to remember that a season finale is different from any other episode.  This isn’t a series very interested in story arcs or even continuity; it […]

  The original, Las Vegas-set CSI didn’t just spawn a mini-industry of its own spin-offs, but it can fairly lay claim to being one of the most influential shows of its generation, more or less inventing the subgenre of high-tech procedural that’s populated every network over the years since it began.  The series rose from […]

  UNFORGETTABLE:  Friday 8PM on CBS UNFORGETTABLE, the CBS procedural whose title practically begs to be a punchline, is back.  Although “back” isn’t exactly the word:  Unforgettable was famously canceled after its initial 2011-12 season, and then uncanceled to serve as filler for CBS with a 13-episode order.  7 of those episodes aired last summer, […]

  HELL ON WHEELS:  Saturday 9PM on AMC In its 5 seasons on the air, HELL ON WHEELS has never achieved a sustained stability, shifting tones and narrative thrust on an almost seasonal basis as a perpetual bubble show in the ratings.  Based on tonight’s Season 5 premiere, this announced final stanza may be its […]

  Frank Darabont has had a busy couple of weeks, although not necessarily in a good way.  He launched TNT’s MOB CITY, his first project since being thrown off AMC’s The Walking Dead after less than two seasons as creator/showrunner, to ratings that started out as disappointing and only got worse.  Then, earlier this week, […]

  MOM:  Thursday 8:30PM on CBS MOM is a grittier brand of sitcom than CBS’s usual variety.  It features three generations of teen moms, and its lead characters, Christy Plunkett (Anna Faris) and her mother Bonnie (Allison Janney), are recovering addicts and alcoholics.  The family members as often as not regard each other with outright […]

> A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and 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 in the off-season) give plenty of notes, both helpful and otherwise, and […]

> Disclaimer:  Network pilots now in circulation are not necessarily in the form that will air in the Fall.  Pilots are often reedited and rescored, and in some cases even recast or reshot.  So these critiques shouldn’t be taken as full reviews, but rather as a guide to the general style and content of the […]