There was hardly a toy in the filmmaking nursery that Legion and its hugely talented creator Noah Hawley left unplayed by the time its third and final season was over:  aspect ratios, color, camera angles, musical numbers, stop-motion, slow-motion, miniatures, repetitions, multiple exposures, stylized sets–everything short of 3D Imax.  And like many a child […]

  Over the course of the season, THE NEW NORMAL toned down its most disastrous miscalculation, which can be summarized in two words:  Ellen Barkin.  Not Barkin the very fine actress, of course, but the character she was called upon to play, Jane Forrest, the conservative Republican midwesterner grandmother who had raised Goldie Clemmons (Georgia […]

  When the musical guest on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE is also the host (and isn’t Justin Timberlake), it’s usually a smart strategic idea to minimize the host’s comedy duties for the week.  But Lady Gaga, in her dual roles tonight, suggested such a knack for sketch comedy that one could easily have mistaken her for […]

  Once again, Starz has had to stand by and watch as other cable networks, not just its paycable competition HBO and Showtime, but smaller players like BBCAmerica and Sundance–and now even streaming services–get the original programming glory and attention it’s repeatedly tried to capture.  Despite an instant Season 2 renewal (standard practice for Starz), […]

  BELIEVE:  Sunday 9PM on NBC Previously… on BELIEVE:  10-year old Bo Adams (Johnny Sequoyah) is one special little girl, with superpowers that include telekinesis and the ability to foretell the future and read people’s minds.  Her powers, like those of so many Chosen Ones before her, can be used to help, but they also […]

  DESIGNATED SURVIVOR:  Wednesday 10PM on ABC ABC’s DESIGNATED SURVIVOR had what the trades like to call a “troubled” off-season.  Remarkably for a show that’s just aired its twenty-third episode, it’s on its fourth showrunner, with Keith Eisner as its newest version of the drummer from This Is Spinal Tap.  Today, the story broke that […]

> FALLING SKIES – Sundays 10PM on TNT – If Nothing Else Is On… Or:  how is FALLING SKIES not Terra Nova?  I’ve raved about FOX’s Fall dinosaur spectacle, and here’s another Steven Spielberg special-effects extravaganza, centered around a family trying to hold onto its identity and its life in a hair-raising environment–so what’s the […]

  SEX&DRUGS&ROCK&ROLL:  Thursday 10PM on FX Previously… on SEX&DRUGS&ROCK&ROLL:  Johnny Rock (series creator Denis Leary) is seemingly on the last legs of a music career that never quite made him the star he expected to be, when he makes two discoveries:  he has an adult daughter Gigi (Elizabeth Gillies) he never knew about, and Gigi […]