> 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 […]

  LOOKING:  Sunday 10:30PM on HBO – Worth A Look HBO’s LOOKING is distinctive for the obvious reason that it’s a dramedy about gay characters, of a completely different order than the network universe of a Sean Saves the World or Glee.  That doesn’t just mean it’s far more sexual than a broadcast network would […]

    THE GOODWIN GAMES:  Midseason TBD on FOX – Worth A Look Disclaimer: Network pilots now in circulation are not necessarily in the form that will air in the Fall. Pilots are often reedited and re-scored, and in some cases even recast or reshot. These critiques shouldn’t be taken as full pilot reviews, but […]

  PROOF:  Tuesday 10PM on TNT – Change the Channel Is there life after pilot?  TNT’s new PROOF doesn’t make much of a first impression.  It’s a squishy attempt to fuse a medical setting with the come-into-the-light spirituality that’s made inspirational hits out of stories like Heaven Is For Real–except in this case, stripped of […]

  RED BAND SOCIETY:  Wednesday 9PM on FOX – If Nothing Else Is On… PLAYERS:  The Fault In Our Stars, which opened studio and network eyes to the commercial appeal of seriously ill teenagers.  Amblin Television, the small-screen wing of Steven Spielberg’s production empire.  The Spanish series that originated this project’s concept.  US series creator Margaret […]

  SEED:  Monday 9:30PM on CW – If Nothing Else Is On… Remember last year’s Vince Vaughn (purported) comedy Delivery Man?  CW’s summer sitcom SEED isn’t a rip-off of the movie, exactly, since it premiered in Canada before the Vaughn movie opened (although whether it’s a rip-off of Starbuck, the 2011 Canadian movie that preceded […]

  Read All Our Fall Pilot Reports here. SLEEPY HOLLOW:  Monday 9PM on FOX – If Nothing Else Is On… For what’s supposed to be an original series, SLEEPY HOLLOW feels awfully familiar.  Part of it, of course, is that writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are doing a spin on the Washington Irving classic […]

  EMERALD CITY:  Friday 9PM on NBC – Change the Channel EMERALD CITY will make you wish you’d stayed in Kansas.  It’s a muddle of The Wizard of Oz, Mad Max, Game of Thrones (in their dreams) and that terrible Syfy updated version of Alice In Wonderland from a few years ago, and you’d think […]