SCREAM:  Tuesday 10PM on MTV – If Nothing Else Is On… There aren’t a lot of sure things in Hollywood, but here’s one:  you can always make some money by gathering together a group of teens and killing them off one by one.  It’s been true since at least 1978’s Halloween (and its zillions […]

  THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH:  Mon-Thurs 11PM on Comedy Central After one night of THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH, we conclusively know this:  Comedy Central isn’t bleeping the word “shit” anymore.  It was a fairly big deal when the network let Jon Stewart liberally use the cattle-related version of the word as […]

  THE REAL O’NEALS:  Tuesday 8:30PM on ABC – Change the Channel Whatever its other ailments, over the past few years ABC has had an extraordinary run of diverse, smart family sitcoms,–an area where other networks have struggled badly–with Fresh Off The Boat, Black-ish and The Goldbergs building on Modern Family and The Middle.  (Even […]

  FBI:  Tuesday 9PM on CBS Dick Wolf and CBS have always seemed as made for each other as the leads of a rom-com.  And as in that genre, only outside interference has kept the King and Network of Procedurals from falling into a passionate airport-gate embrace before now.  In this case, it’s been their […]

  The most tantalizing question of the Summer 2018 TV season is whether Jesse Armstrong, the creator of HBO’s slow-boil triumph SUCCESSION, knew what he was doing all along, or if the first 3-4 episodes were as uncertain as they seemed at the time.  In that beginning phase, Succession felt like Billions for The Gang […]

  THE LIBRARIANS:  Sunday 8PM on TNT Previously… on THE LIBRARIANS:  In the long-term absence of head Librarian Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle), a trio of apprentices preserve magical historical artifacts and keep the world safe from their use:  history/literature/mechanical genius Jacob Stone (Christian Kane), mathematical savant Cassandra Cillian (Lindy Booth), and master thief and hacker […]

  ONCE UPON A TIME:  Friday 8PM on ABC This season’s Version 2.0 of ONCE UPON A TIME exists because of dwindling ratings, which led to a reduced budget and consequently a cast dump.  (The show was also moved to a less demanding Friday night slot.)  The potential advantage of that hardship was that after 6 […]

REVOLUTION:  Monday 10PM on NBC – If Nothing Else Is On… REVOLUTION is Falling Skies without aliens, The Walking Dead without zombies, Jericho… well, actually it pretty much is Jericho.  We’ve all strolled down this post-apocalyptic road before (let’s not even try to count the number of movies set there), and based on its pilot, […]