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

  MAJOR CRIMES:  Monday 9PM on TNT – If Nothing Else Is On…   As soon as plans for the Closer spin-off MAJOR CRIMES were announced, the central question was always how a series could work whose main protagonist was going to be Internal Affairs Capt. Sharon Raydor (Mary McDonnell), the least likable, most humorless […]

  BROOKLYN NINE-NINE:  Tuesday 8:30PM on FOX – Potential DVR Alert BROOKLYN NINE-NINE is the kind of sitcom that can go very right or extremely wrong:  an ensemble about kooky homicide detectives, anchored by former SNL-er Andy Samberg.  Happily, series creators Michael Schur and Dan Goor, both veterans of Parks & Recreation (Schur is its co-creator as […]

  Read All Our Fall Pilot Reports here and Midseason Pilot Reports here. THE MILLERS:  Thursday 8:30PM on CBS – If Nothing Else Is On… When Bad Shows Happen To Talented People, Chapter 2456:  you wouldn’t think a network comedy would need more to succeed than Greg Garcia (My Name Is Earl, Raising Hope) as […]

  TURN:  Sunday 9PM on AMC – If Nothing Else is On… Unlike just about any other armed conflict in history, and for reasons that have never really been pinned down, the American Revolutionary War has rarely been a fertile source of drama either in the movies or on television.  Mel Gibson’s The Patriot was […]

  YOU’RE THE WORST:  Thursday 10:30PM on FX – Worth a Look YOU’RE THE WORST overplays its hand from the start, and its gooey center is all too visible beneath its hard-candy exterior, but it’s still far more enjoyable than Married, its companion comedy on FX.  Series creator Stephen Falk’s concept (he’s a longtime associate […]

  ASCENSION:  Mon-Wed 9PM on Syfy In the post-Battlestar Galactica era, Syfy has barely even seemed to be trying.  It’s rather sad:  at a point when nearly every network–even CBS!–has at least one substantial piece of inventory in the science-fiction/fantasy genre, Syfy has been filling its air with tame programmers like Eureka and Haven, or […]

  KILLJOYS:  Friday 9PM on Syfy – If Nothing Else Is On… KILLJOYS is yet another sparse, grungy Syfy Canadian cheapie, although it has a bit of B-movie verve.  It concerns a pair of galactic bounty hunters, the beauteous yet deadly Dutch (Hannah John-Kamen) and her more easygoing junior partner John (Aaron Ashmore).  They work […]