MR. SELFRIDGE, which might as well be called “Downton Abbey Won’t Be Back For 10 Months, So What Else Are You Gonna Watch?”, concluded its second, very earnest season on PBS tonight.  World War I came to Mr. Selfridge this season, much as it had to Downton, and the result was a less bustling […]

  INTRUDERS:  Saturday 10PM on BBCAmerica – Worth A Look The premiere of BBCAmerica’s INTRUDERS, which received the network’s marquee slot following the season premiere of Dr. Who, provided the creepiness associated with series creator Glen Morgan, a veteran of The X-Files and the Final Destination movie franchise, and director Eduardo Sanchez, who co-helmed The […]

    THE CARRIE DIARIES: Monday 8PM on CW – Change the Channel   THE CARRIE DIARIES is CW’s last big gun of the season (Cult, still forthcoming, is smaller caliber), the show that the network hopes will inherit Gossip Girl‘s place (Carrie just so happens to be produced by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage […]

  Disclaimer:  Network pilots now in circulation are not necessarily in the form that will air in the Fall.  Pilots are often reedited and re-scored, and in some cases even recast or reshot.  These critiques shouldn’t be taken as full pilot reviews, but rather as a guide to the general style and content of the […]

  BOARDWALK EMPIRE:  Sunday 9PM on HBO WHERE WE WERE:  Mourning an unexpected death.  In the Season 2 finale of Boardwalk Empire, anti-hero bootlegger Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) murdered his one-time protege, later rival Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt), a startling plot development, and even more so in the context of Empire as a TV series.  […]

      The crazier SCANDAL has gotten, the better it’s been.  Although the Shonda Rhimes soap only had a 7-episode run this Spring, it’s managed to find its footing quickly.  The first few episodes were forgettably glib, scandal-of-the-week hours that were far-fetched and overly jocular (the worst was the one about the Supreme Court […]

  John Ridley’s ABC anthology series AMERICAN CRIME has always worn its sackcloth and ashes in plain sight, but Season 3 was especially brutal.  It was eight hours of unceasing human misery, enough to make the insides curdle of even the most earnest devotee of serious TV drama.  Understandably, viewers fled, pushing the show’s ratings […]

  TYRANT:  Tuesday 10PM on FX Season 1 of TYRANT was a mess.  It was rebooted and somewhat restaffed after the pilot was shot, and then continued to be changed on the fly, making for a series that seemed to shift tone and direction every few episodes.  The ratings weren’t much above terrible (although they […]