MAGNUM, P.I.:  Monday 9PM on CBS As everyone knows, the 2018-19 CBS TV season has turned out to be the final one overseen by Les Moonves, the longtime network mogul ousted after allegations of sexual misconduct.  It’s fitting that the first new series of his last season is that definitive Moonves-ian object, a rebooted […]

> Premieres Wednesday 10PM on USA:  Change the Channel NECESSARY ROUGHNESS departs from the USA Network formula in several ways:  our heroine Dani Santino (Callie Thorne) is the mother of teenagers, she doesn’t work undercover or take on wacky identities, she has no extraordinary abilities other than empathy, and her wise-cracking best friend isn’t around […]

  INSTINCT:  Sunday 8PM on CBS – Change the Channel It’s a coincidence that the movie Love, Simon and CBS’s series INSTINCT premiered over the same weekend, but both are facets of a newish stage in LGBTQ pop culture:  the ordinary genre story that happens to have a gay lead.  In the case of Love, […]

  Effective showrunners learn from their mistakes, and the 4th and, as we now know, penultimate season of BBCAmerica’s ORPHAN BLACK was altogether more satisfying than Season 3.  Creator/showrunners Graeme Manson and John Fawcett had gotten ambitious in all the wrong ways last year, creating a line of male “Castor” clones (all played by Ari […]

  ROSEANNE:  Tuesday 8PM on ABC – In the Queue Television continues its remembrance of things past with ABC’s reboot of ROSEANNE, which last aired a new episode in 1997.  Like NBC’s Will & Grace, this Roseanne is a skillful resuscitation that features the original cast (although in this case, not the original writing staff), […]

  STATE OF AFFAIRS:  Monday 10PM on NBC Previously… on STATE OF AFFAIRS:  Charleston–call her Charlie–Tucker (Katherine Heigl) is the CIA analyst whose task it is to put together the President’s Daily Briefing book that gives POTUS Constance Payton (Alfre Woodard) her rundown on the immediate foreign threats affecting the US.  Charlie and the President […]

  MULANEY:  Sunday 9:30PM on FOX Previously… on MULANEY:  John Mulaney (the series creator playing a character with his own name) is a stand-up comic who supports himself by serving as a producer on a comedy game show hosted by egomaniacal, insecure old-timer Lou Cannon (Martin Short).  John’s roommates are college friend Jane (Nasim Pedrad) […]

  DANCING ON THE EDGE:  Saturday 9PM on Starz Starz’s latest British import, DANCING ON THE EDGE, seems on the basis of its first double-length episode to be intended for viewers who enjoy the jazzy millieu of Boardwalk Empire but find its pace too rapid and its violence too rude.  It’s a well-produced, intelligent drama […]