Read All Our Fall Pilot Reports here and Midseason Pilot Reports here. SUPER FUN NIGHT:  Wednesday 9:30PM on ABC starting October 2 – If Nothing Else Is On… Anyone who’s seen Rebel Wilson confidently walk away with chunks of Pitch Perfect, Bachelorette or Bridesmaids knows that she’s a breakout comic talent, and possibly even […]

  UNDER THE DOME hasn’t been particularly important as TV drama, but it’s provided some vital information to the broadcast network business.  After years–decades, really–of treating summer as a repository for scripted burn-offs (this summer’s The Goodwin Games as well as flops like Do No Harm and 666 Park Avenue) and cheap international co-productions (Camp, Crossing Lines, Siberia, Motive, etc) […]

  HOMELAND:  Sunday 9PM on Showtime The obsessive charts are back up on Carrie Mathison’s living room wall, and while that may not be good news for Carrie, it’s great for the rest of us.  After a divisive second season that turned too much on 24-style action and Abu Nazir’s tortuous plan to make Nicholas […]

  THE MILLERS:  Thursday 8:30PM on CBS Previously… on THE MILLERS:  When Tom and Carol Miller (Beau Bridges and Margo Martindale) unexpectedly split up after decades of marriage, Carol went to live with son Nathan (Will Arnett), and Tom with daughter Debbie (Jayma Mays) and her husband Adam (Nelson Franklin).  Apart from dealing with the […]

  MAJOR CRIMES:  Monday 9PM on TNT MAJOR CRIMES isn’t the kind of series to go for “game-changing” alterations, so the back half (actually 8 episodes) of its second season, which resumed tonight after a break since August, is only incrementally different from what aired last summer.  The show is a straightforward procedural for the […]

  COMMUNITY:  Thursday 8PM on NBC A few days ago, the NY Times had a fascinating article about Pei-Shen Qian, an artist who is almost but not quite a forger.  He doesn’t duplicate actual paintings of the masters; instead, he paints new works with such precise adherence to their styles that (he claims) unbeknownst to […]

  RAKE:  Thursday 9PM on FOX Previously… on RAKE:  Keegan Deane (Greg Kinnear) is an LA lawyer whose life is a wreck.  Between tax evasion issues and a gambling habit, he’s lost his house and has to live with his best friend Ben (John Ortiz) and Ben’s wife, ADA Scarlet (Necar Zadegan), he has no […]

  Odd and inconsistent may have been the watchwords for tonight’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE with host Lena Dunham, but even intermittent inspiration was a big improvement after last week’s grimly unfunny outing with Jim Parsons. Dunham has one of the most distinctive voices in current TV comedy, and her SNL gig worked best when it […]