INTO THE BADLANDS:  Sunday 10PM on AMC – If Nothing Else Is On… The first 5 minutes of the pilot for INTO THE BADLANDS tell you pretty much all you need to know.  There’s an opening narration placing us in one of those post-apocalyptic, neo-western futures, the kind where “Barons” rule, aided by sworn […]

  THE ROYALS:  Sunday 10PM on E! THE ROYALS has been, if not much else, an effective demonstration of branding by E!.  Its first scripted series, recounting the antics of a fictional British royal family, fit in well with the network’s more established business of depicting the antics of the emptily wealthy in an unscripted […]

  AGENT X:  Sunday 9PM on TNT – Change the Channel Remember a couple of months ago when The Player started on NBC, and the criticism was that it was the kind of mindless action show that had once made the term “basic cable” a perjorative?  Well, TNT’s new AGENT X is a throwback to […]

  Whether it was appropriate in the first place (other than for ratings, obviously) for SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE to turn over 90 minutes of its hugely valuable, non-news airtime to Donald Trump, who already gets more media attention than any other candidate, is debatable.  But SNL certainly didn’t bolster its brand by failing to challenge Trump in […]

  WICKED CITY:  Tuesday 10PM on ABC Previously… on WICKED CITY:  In 1982 Los Angeles, serial killer Kent Grainger (Ed Westwick) is slaughtering young women he picks up on the Sunset Strip.  He’s recently acquired a new playmate, Betty Beaumontaine (Erika Christensen), a single mom and nurse with a very dark side.  Chasing Kent is […]

  LEGENDS:  Monday 10PM on TNT The first season of TNT’s LEGENDS was notable mostly for wasting the talents of its star Sean Bean.  The show’s concept, based on a novel by Robert Littell, concerned federal agent Martin Odum (Bean), who had taken on many “legends” or fake identities over the years, and who discovered […]

SUPERGIRL:  Monday 8PM on CBS Previously… on SUPERGIRL:  Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist) was older than her illustrious Kryptonian cousin when she was sent to Earth to protect him as he grew from babyhood.  But some unexpected delays brought her to town years behind schedule, and since by then Earth already had a superhero keeping the […]

  WICKED CITY:  Tuesday 10PM on ABC – Change the Channel CBS and ABC both took their time before introducing their last new dramas of the fall.  But while Supergirl flew into town on clouds of carefully planned hype and positive buzz, WICKED CITY was preceded by behind-the-scenes changes and reshoots.  The show is another […]