Pilot Reports

PREMIERING TONIGHT – THE SKED PILOT REPORT: “Do No Harm”

Posted January 31, 2013 by Mitch Salem

  DO NO HARM: Thursday 10PM on NBC – If Nothing Else Is On… What is it with NBC and dual personalities?  Is the network trying to tell us something?  A couple of years ago it gave us My Own Worst Enemy, with Christian Slater as an ordinary family man who periodically transformed into a […]

Full Story »

Pilot Reports

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “9JKL”

Posted October 2, 2017 by Mitch Salem

  9JKL:  Monday 8:30PM on CBS – Change the Channel We usually do actors the favor of evaluating their work on a project separately from the quality of the project itself, willing to take their performances on their own terms.  But Mark Feuerstein doesn’t just star in the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad new […]

Full Story »

Pilot + 1

THE SKED Pilot (+1) Review: “Undateable”

Posted May 30, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  UNDATEABLE:  Thursday 9PM on NBC – Change the Channel UNDATEABLE, whose episodes NBC is burning off two at a time on summer Thursday nights, may not be quite bad enough to earn the obvious “unwatchable” or “unbearable” labels its title seems to demand–not at the tail end of a season in which NBC gave […]

Full Story »

Pilot Reports

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist”

Posted January 8, 2020 by Mitch Salem

  ZOEY’S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST – Sundays 10PM on NBC (starting February 16) In a broadcast network landscape musty with procedurals and the mildest possible sitcoms, NBC deserves credit for commissioning Austin Winsberg’s ZOEY’S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST, an original musical fantasy (the collected works of Dennis Potter and ABC’s short-lived Eli Stone aside).  It’s a genuine attempt […]

Full Story »

Pilot Reports

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “Animal Kingdom”

Posted June 15, 2016 by Mitch Salem

  ANIMAL KINGDOM:  Tuesday 9PM on TNT – In the Queue The opening hour of TNT’s new ANIMAL KINGDOM is daringly light on plot.  Although TNT’s meat and potatoes programming is still mainstream entertainment like The Last Ship and Rizzoli & Isles, it’s been trying to cultivate a darker, more adult image lately, albeit not […]

Full Story »

Articles

THE SKED @ CABLE REVIEW: USA’s “Suits”

Posted June 19, 2011 by Mitch Salem

> Premieres Thursday 10PM on USA:  If Nothing Else Is On… (But it’s summer, so nothing is.) At this point, I think we could all identify a USA Network series blindfolded and with the soundtrack running backwards.  There’s the quirky, unconventional savant lead–available, like a comfortable sweater, in several colors:  cop/detective (In Plain Sight, Psych, […]

Full Story »

Fall Pilots

PREMIERING TONIGHT: THE SKED Pilot Review – CBS’s “We Are Men”

Posted September 30, 2013 by Mitch Salem

  Read All Our Fall Pilot Reports here and Midseason Pilot Reports here. WE ARE MEN:  Monday 8:30PM on CBS – Change the Channel It hasn’t been a great fall for new sitcoms.  On CBS, WE ARE MEN (which could have better been called We Are Mediocrities) joins Mom, The Crazy Ones, and The Millers, […]

Full Story »

Pilot Reports

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “Euphoria”

Posted June 17, 2019 by Mitch Salem

  EUPHORIA:  Sunday 10PM on HBO HBO’s new teen transgression drama EUPHORIA is produced by the indie studio A24, and for those who frequent what’s left of the American indie landscape, most notably the films that come out of Sundance, Euphoria is less revolutionary than it presents itself as being.  The drugs- and porn-saturated world […]

Full Story »