> 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 […]

  The failures of HOSTAGES were many, and they separate into two dimensions.  One–the more important to CBS–was commercial; the show proved to be dead in the water from the night it premiered against the launch of The Blacklist.  Despite a summer of heavy promotion, NBC and James Spader wiped the floor with Hostages, and […]

  SUPERGIRL:  Monday 8PM on CBS (premiere at 8:30PM tonight) – In the Queue SUPERGIRL is more thrilling as an experiment in network scheduling than as a TV show.  There’s nothing terribly wrong with the series itself, which comes from the Greg Berlanti factory of DC Comics adventures that’s already given us CW’s Arrow and The Flash, with […]

  The 2nd season of HELL ON WHEELS was different, and perhaps somewhat better, than its first.  (Behind the scenes, experienced producer John Shiban was brought on to showrun with series creators Joe and Tony Gayton.)  If the show manages to come back for a 3rd season, it appears that incarnation will be yet another […]

  HELL ON WHEELS – Saturday 9PM on AMC Season 3 brings an upwardly mobile turn for HELL ON WHEELS.  Hero Cullen Bohannon’s (Anson Mount) dark mission of vengeance for the death of his wife during the Civil War, which propelled the action for the show’s first two seasons, is apparently over, and by the […]

  SHADOWHUNTERS: THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS:  Tuesday 9PM on Freeform – If Nothing Else Is On… Fans of mediocre YA fantasy adventure may remember SHADOWHUNTERS: THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS from its last incarnation, as a 2013 feature film based on Cassandra Claire’s novels.  That was supposed to kick off a franchise, but the movie flopped, and the […]

  There weren’t a lot of surprises at tonight’s EMMY AWARDS, and the truth is that where television is right now, there didn’t need to be.  (A full list of winners is here.)  Game of Thrones and Veep were arguably coming off their best seasons ever, and it would be hard to begrudge them their […]

  CROSSING LINES:  Sunday 10PM on NBC – If Nothing Else Is On… Television’s changing economics will probably lead to a lot more internationally financed co-productions as time goes on.  In terms of content, that means subject matter that can be sold worldwide even without an initial US network success, which may require iconic protagonists […]