A weaker show than HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER would be crippled by its sizable flaws.  With the all-important exception of its central character, Philadelphia law professor and expert criminal lawyer Annalise Keating, and Viola Davis, the richly talented actress who plays her, the rest of the characters and cast are bland to […]

  THE ODD COUPLE:  Thursday 8:30PM on CBS Previously… on THE ODD COUPLE:  You know the drill.  Oscar Madison (Matthew Perry) is an emotionally superficial slob sportswriter, his old friend Felix Unger (Thomas Lennon) is a neurotic neat freak photographer, Oscar’s a longtime divorcee, Felix’s marriage is just breaking up, Oscar invites him to move […]

  The final hour of PARKS & RECREATION was more conceptual than one might have expected, in a way that made it feel more like an epilogue than a conclusion.  Written by series co-creator/showrunner Michael Schur and star/producer Amy Poehler, and directed by Schur, it was an omnibus of flash-forwards, advancing the action as much […]

  It remains a pop culture puzzle that Marvel can have such uninterrupted, unprecedented success as a producer of blockbuster movies, yet still not have cracked the code of TV, while DC, which is hurrying (perhaps too fast) to play catch-up on the big screen, is routinely turning out hit series for the small one.  (Well, […]

  THE GIRLFRIENDS’ GUIDE TO DIVORCE has made its way, at least somewhat, past a very shaky start–not so much in the ratings, which have remained mediocre (although steady enough for Bravo to declare its first scripted 1-hour a win and order another season), but dramatically.  At the start, Girlfriends pandered all too blatantly to […]

THE NIGHT SHIFT:  Monday 10PM on NBC THE NIGHT SHIFT was a workmanlike performer for NBC last summer, but its promotion to The Voice‘s lead-out on the network’s midseason schedule says more about the empty shelves at NBC than about the show itself, which remains a (very) sub-Grey’s Anatomy mix of surgery and romance. The […]

  Tonight’s Season 2 finale of SLEEPY HOLLOW conspicuously concluded in a way that could also serve as a series finale, a distinct possibility because this underwhelming season has left the series with ratings down 40% from last year’s heyday (and less than half of its original hit premiere).  The finale turned out to be […]

  There were no surprises of any scale at tonight’s ACADEMY AWARDS (a full list of winners is here) , and that went for the telecast, too.  Neil Patrick Harris was as personable a host as anticipated, and he/his writers were sometimes quick on their feet, as when he had a gag ready about a Documentary […]