LEGACIES: Thursday 9PM on CW CW’s LEGACIES brings the Vampire Diaries extended universe once again close to its roots, after the older-skewing adventures of The Originals. We’re not only back in Mystic Falls, Virginia, but in a version of high school, although one that looks a lot like Hogwarts. (The connection is so blatant […]
BRAND X WITH RUSSELL BRAND: Thursday 11PM on FX – Change the Channel Russell Brand has been more or less flailing around for the past several years, trying to find a place in American pop culture. His introduction to most domestic audiences came with his role as the comically dissipated rock star in Forgetting […]
> A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and production of episodes for the regular season: a writing/producing team is hired, audience focus groups weigh in, networks and studios (which may have had their own turnover in the off-season) give plenty of notes, both helpful and otherwise, and […]
> 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 […]