The final hour of PARKS & RECREATION was more conceptual than one might have expected, in a way that made it feel more like an epilogue than a conclusion.  Written by series co-creator/showrunner Michael Schur and star/producer Amy Poehler, and directed by Schur, it was an omnibus of flash-forwards, advancing the action as much […]

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg8sujxWids&sns=em Since FALLING SKIES wants to be on the air for years to come (it’s already been renewed for a 3rd season), its story can’t ever end, unless it reaches an official final valedictory year.  So in the Season 2 finale, written by Executive Producer Remi Aubochon and Co-Executive Producers David Weddle and Bradley Thompson, […]

  RAY DONOVAN had an odd, misshapen Season 5, bleak even by its own depressed standards.  It was perhaps best viewed as a long runway to Season 6, which will by necessity involve something of a reboot, since Showtime has announced that the series is relocating to New York.  The show thus far has been […]

  POLITICAL ANIMALS remained uncompelling to the very end, which is remarkable when you consider that its final episode threw in, among other things, the (apparent) death of the President of the United States.  The show had plenty of suds and political intrigue, and yet it never amounted to more than a pale imitation of other […]

  Which plotline really grabbed you in Season 4 of GLEE?  Was it Rachel’s (Lea Michele) one-episode pregnancy scare?  Her involvement (unwitting) with a male escort?  Was it the weeks of sullen silence between Mr. Schue (Matthew Morrison) and Finn (Cory Monteith) after Finn impulsively kissed Mr. Schue’s fiance Emma (Jayma Mays)?  Was it Blaine […]

  There was a lot of attention paid to the amount of attention paid to the series finale of HBO’s THE LEFTOVERS, almost all of it because its co-creator was Damon Lindelof, and the last time he brought a series to its conclusion, it didn’t go so well.  But in many ways The Leftovers was […]

  THE WALKING DEAD is in danger of becoming TV’s version of The Phantom Menace: a gigantic hit that no one really likes.  The ratings, while still massive, were significantly down in Season 7, which premiered with the instantly-infamous episode that introduced villain Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who promptly clubbed two cast regulars to death […]

  Season 2 of FOX’s WAYWARD PINES wouldn’t have felt out of place on Syfy, and that’s not a compliment.  Season 1 had a strong cast (Matt Dillon, Carla Gugino, Toby Jones, Juliette Lewis) and a clever twist, revealed halfway through:  the bucolic yet sinister titular town was actually the last outpost of humanity, its […]