THE KNICK:  Friday 10PM on Cinemax Previously… on THE KNICK:  New York’s Knickerbocker Hospital circa 1900 is a highly respectable institution, funded by wealthy benefactors and with a conscientious staff, but to modern eyes, it’s little more than a sewer, with “state of the art” operating procedures that seem savage and conditions that are […]

  MANHATTAN:  Sunday 10PM on WGN America Previously… on MANHATTAN:  Starting in 1943, the New Mexico desert housed a mysterious, ultra-secret military and scientific operation code-named The Manhattan Project, its mission to create the first atomic bomb (or as they called it, the “gadget”).  There were two opposing designs for the gadget.  The better-funded and […]

  SATISFACTION:  Thursday 10PM on USA Previously… on SATISFACTION:  The Trumans, Neil (Matt Passmore) and Grace (Stephanie Szostak) have comfortable suburban lives that are breaking apart.  Neil, an investment manager, delivers a diatribe about his life on an airliner marooned on the runway, which becomes a YouTube punchline.  Grace, regretful that she abandoned her design […]

  SEED:  Monday 9PM on CW Previously… on SEED:  Years ago, bartender and serial dater Harry Dacosta (Adam Korson) donated his sperm to a clinic for cash.  Now, he discovers in short order that he’s the father of (at least) teen Anastasia (Abby Ross), and 9-year-old Billy (William Ainscough).  When they track him down, he […]

  THE STRAIN:  Sunday 10PM on FX Previously… on THE STRAIN:  A jet stops on the tarmac at JFK with–it appears–virtually all of its occupants mysteriously dead.  Missing from the cargo hold:  a huge, ornately carved box–sort of, um, like a coffin–filled with earth and with worms that squirm into human flesh.  CDC investigator Dr. […]

  EXTANT:  Wednesday 9PM on CBS Previously… on EXTANT:  Astronaut Molly Woods (Halle Berry) returns from a 13 month-long solo mission in space with a surprise–she’s pregnant.  Although come to think of it, she did have that odd encounter with her dead first husband Marcus (Sergio Harford)–or at least with someone or something making use […]

  FINDING CARTER:  Tuesday 10PM on MTV Previously… on FINDING CARTER:  At 16, Carter Stevens (Kathryn Prescott) believed herself to be having a better-than-average adolescence, mostly due to a close bond with her easygoing mother Lori (Milena Govich).  But her world was turned inside-out when she learned that Lori actually kidnapped her when she was […]

  THE LEFTOVERS:  Sunday 10PM on HBO Previously… on THE LEFTOVERS:  3 years ago, 2% of the world’s population simultaneously and spontaneously vanished, in what may have been the Rapture (albeit a Rapture that took Gary Busey and the cast of Perfect Strangers along with the Pope).  The troubles of those who remain are encapsulated […]