MASTERS OF SEX:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime – Potential DVR Alert After the macho angst of Ray Donovan and–notwithstanding its excellence–the heavy going of Homeland, Showtime smartly changes pace with MASTERS OF SEX, an engrossing, sexy and sometimes funny history based on the real lives of Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson, trailblazing sexuality […]

  SCREAM QUEENS:  Tuesday 9PM on FOX – Change the Channel SCREAM QUEENS could have been more accurately titled “Ryan Murphy Presents,” in the manner of the old Alfred Hitchcock show, because it’s essentially his own salute to his favorite tropes and styles.  As Bill Hader’s Stefon might say, it has everything:  Glee, American Horror […]

    THE CARRIE DIARIES: Monday 8PM on CW – Change the Channel   THE CARRIE DIARIES is CW’s last big gun of the season (Cult, still forthcoming, is smaller caliber), the show that the network hopes will inherit Gossip Girl‘s place (Carrie just so happens to be produced by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage […]

  WATCHMEN:  Sunday 9PM on HBO The Damon Lindelof/HBO WATCHMEN provides a new wrinkle to the world of IP exploitation.  It’s not an adaptation of the classic Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons graphic novel (a la Zack Snyder’s all-too-reverent 2009 film) or even a reboot, but a newly conceived work that’s more like a spin-off or a […]

> 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 reviews, but rather as a guide to the general style and content of the […]

  DOMINION:  Thursday 9PM on Syfy – Change the Channel Was there really a pressing need to make a TV series out of the schlock horror movie Legion?  It’s not as though the film was much of a hit ($40M total box office in the US, $68M worldwide), nor is it well-remembered even 4 years […]

  TELENOVELA:  Monday 8:30PM on NBC starting January 4 – If Nothing Else Is On… Simply put, TELENOVELA is what Jane the Virgin would be if Jane’s vain, airheaded but good-hearted actor father Rogelio were the main character–actually, if every character were more or less Rogelio.  The show, which NBC previewed tonight to give it […]

  MULANEY:  Sunday 9:30PM on FOX – Change the Channel MULANEY arrives with a fair amount of goodwill.  It’s a multicamera sitcom modeled after Seinfeld, and produced by Lorne Michaels.  Its creator/star, John Mulaney, is one of the relatively few SNL writers to have achieved some measure of fame for himself, mostly thanks to his […]