Sometimes shows overthink their season finales, and that may have been the case with tonight’s HART OF DIXIE.  The show has gotten along quite well all season in its native Bluebell, Alabama, but for the finale series creator Leila Gerstein and fellow Executive Producer Len Goldstein broke the characters up into unfamiliar pairings and […]

  DIETLAND:  Monday 9PM on AMC AMC’s DIETLAND is a big swing, but it seems to be trying to hit to all parts of the field at once.  The series, created by Marti Noxon (from a novel by Sarai Walker), and with its first 2 episodes directed by Noxon as well, begins with a relatable, […]

  There’s a reason why serialized dramas usually have some sort of “franchise” powering them:  a mystery to be solved, patients to be cured, a quest to be undertaken, etc.  Generating compelling stories on a weekly basis out of something like ordinary life can become awfully difficult, and a series can quickly turn mundane.  THE […]

  There are a multitude of serialized dramas on television these days, but none has fully embraced the form in the way that GAME OF THRONES does.  The other serials nearly always hedge their bets:  there’s a storyline introduced and resolved within each hour, and an arc that’s concluded by the end of the season. Thrones, […]

  THE SLAP:  Thursday 8PM on NBC Previously… on THE SLAP:  A group of friends and relatives gathered for the 40th birthday party of mid-level NY public official Hector (Peter Sarsgaard), and tensions ran high, between Hector (who’s in the midst of a mid-life crisis) and his wife Aisha (Thandie Newton), between Aisha and Hector’s mother […]

  COMPLICATIONS:  Thursday 9PM on USA – Change the Channel USA Network has been hammering away at its own image for some time now, trying to find a show that will brand it as cooler and edgier than the home of Monk and Psych.  Suits has given the network a 2d generation hit, and a […]

  CROSSING LINES:  Sunday 10PM on NBC Previously… on CROSSING LINES:  Under the aegis of senior official Michel Dorn (Donald Sutherland), the International Criminal Court has established a multinational group of crimefighters to track down wrongdoers operating throughout Europe.  Each of our heroes, as it happens, labors under heavy baggage from crimes left unsolved and/or […]

> GAME OF THRONES:  Sundays 9PM on HBO Bend the knee, everyone:  GAME OF THRONES is back. WHERE WE WERE:  Reeling from the decapitation of Eddard Stark, who until the loss of his head had seemed to be the stalwart hero of the entire saga.  It was sociopathic teenage King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson), supposedly the […]