> 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 […]

> THE LA COMPLEX:  Tuesdays 9PM on CW – If Nothing Else Is On… By CW standards, THE LA COMPLEX is close to gritty realism, which is to say it’s a shade less glossy than 90210 and Gossip Girl.  Set in a downscale version of the kind of apartment building/motel familiar to anyone who watched […]

  SAVE ME:  Thursday 8PM on NBC – Change the Channel Note:  This review was originally written after last year’s Upfronts, before it was known that SAVE ME would be held by NBC until the summer.  It’s possible that the pilot underwent changes during the months that followed, although if it did, NBC didn’t publicize […]

  BELIEVE:  Sunday 9PM on NBC (Premiere Monday 10PM on March 10) – If Nothing Else Is On… Movie wizard and newly-minted Best Director Oscar winner Alfonso Cuaron is the co-creator of BELIEVE (although it was never intended that he would stay with the show on a day-to-day basis once it went to series) and […]

  FAKING IT:  Tuesday 10:30PM on MTV FAKING IT is intended as the companion piece to MTV’s hit scripted comedy Awkward., which serves as its lead-in, but on the basis of its pilot, it has nothing like the original comic voice of Lauren Iungerich’s show (of course, now that Iungerich has stepped away from Awkward., […]

  BAD JUDGE:  Thursdays 9PM on NBC starting October 2 – Change the Channel PLAYERS:  Non-Writing Executive Producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay (and Anne Heche).  Star Kate Walsh.  Series creator Chad Kultgen (mostly a novelist–Jason Reitman’s new dramedy movie Men, Women & Children is based on his book–although he was also a writer on, […]

  MR. ROBOT:  Wednesday 10PM on USA – Potential DVR Alert There are networks, especially in the pay-TV universe, that play the instant-renewal game, announcing as soon as a new show has premiered, or sometimes even before, that another season has been ordered.  It’s a PR move, for the most part, and sometimes only semi-legitimate, […]

  FALLING WATER:  Thurs 10PM on USA – If Nothing Else Is On… The pilot for USA’s FALLING WATER is flashy, but it doesn’t have much on its mind.  The project has had an extended period of development:  it was originally created by Henry Bromell, whose credits included I’ll Fly Away, Homicide and Homeland, and when Bromell died in 2013, […]