DIVORCE:  Sunday 10PM on HBO – In the Queue In its opening half-hour, HBO’s DIVORCE doesn’t show much interest in the “-medy” part of “dramedy.”  The series creator is Sharon Horgan, who with Rob Delaney is also the co-creator and co-star of Amazon’s wonderful Catastrophe.  Part of what makes that show so extraordinary is […]

  No mainstream comic book saga revels in its darkness quite as much as FOX’s GOTHAM.  Its sheer viciousness is particularly impressive since it exists in a universe of broadcast standards and practices that now seems positively antiquated.  Nevertheless, just about every character in the show’s Gotham City is or has been a violent psychopath, […]

  It was utterly on-brand for THE AMERICANS that the most electrifying sequence of its series finale was about four people talking to each other.  This was the epic confrontation six seasons in the making:  FBI agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) had finally, once and for all, discovered that his neighbors and supposed best friends […]

  The fourth season of NBC’s THIS IS US wasn’t a standout, relatively speaking, which in a way made the expertise of its execution more clear.  Even when it’s in second gear, Dan Fogelman’s series is constructed and acted so well that it holds its grip on viewers quite well  (This Is Us looked particularly […]

  If NBC’s Thursday night sitcoms were a movie about college roommates, The Office would be the one who doesn’t study or do the work but still gets better grades than anyone else, 30 Rock would be the teacher’s pet, Community the stoner who’s either going to end up as a temp or a billionaire.  […]

TOUCH is a show that thrives on impenetrable mysteries, so perhaps one day it will solve its own.  The show was FOX’s big midseason drama play (Terra Nova was the fall’s), by virtue of being created by Heroes writer Tim Kring and starring FOX’s own hero, Jack Bauer Kiefer Sutherland, and given the week’s plum […]

  EUREKA, while never a breakout hit, was a sturdy performer for 5 years on Syfy–and one of the increasingly small number of shows on its air that was actually science-fiction, as opposed to superhero fantasy, horror, reality, paranormal thriller, or whatever else the network is trying to use to broaden its brand (while actually […]

  For reasons sociologists can ponder, we happen to be at a great moment for spy stories.  Last year’s remake of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the superb Homeland (barring last week’s speed-bump episode) and the upcoming Zero Dark Thirty, the reconstruction of the fossilized bones of James Bond into the triumphant Skyfall–you can hardly take […]