This season, ABC’s A MILLION LITTLE THINGS provided proof that even as viewers accustom themselves to DVRs and video on demand, old-fashioned network scheduling can still be key.  A Million Little Things was languishing on Wednesdays, on the bubble for next season, when a move behind Grey’s Anatomy allowed it to thrive, and led […]

> WARNING:  Scaaaarrrry Spoilers Within You have to give AMERICAN HORROR STORY the credit of its crazy, crazy convictions.  Ryan Murphy and his gang of producers followed through on where the last few episodes appeared to be going, and the result will be a second season presumably very different from its first. It didn’t take […]

  It was probably unwise for TWISTED to end its first season with a cliffhanger, since it seems to be doomed–the ratings were low even when it had Pretty Little Liars as a lead-in, and once that show finished its season, they became downright awful.  As much as one hates to see people lose their […]

  There were so many ads for summer blockbuster movies during tonight’s Season 4 finale of AMC’s THE WALKING DEAD, it was almost like watching the Super Bowl.  One by one, the latest installments of Planet of the Apes, X-Men, Spider-Man, Transformers–pictures not opening for months, sometimes two or even three in a single commercial […]

  It helps if you think of BUNHEADS as a CG special effects spectacle, except in this case the CG special effects and spectacle are all in the sound of Amy Sherman-Palladino’s dialogue.  Either you love herrapid-fire, endlessly witty repartee or you find it stilted and artificial; if you’re a naysayer, you should probably find another show […]

The title of MAD MEN‘s Season 5 finale was “The Phantom,” and as is almost always the case with Matthew Weiner’s opus, it had several meanings.  (Weiner shared credit for the finale’s script with Jonathan Igla, and directed the episode himself.)  Most specifically, the phantom was that of Adam Whitman, Don Draper’s (Jon Hamm) brother, […]

  MAJOR CRIMES has been doing for TNT what it was created to do–that is, fill the hole left by the departure of the network’s long-running hit The Closer–and it’s earned the Season 2 renewal it’s already received.  Putting aside a bump for last night’s season finale, it’s been getting around a 0.7 rating in […]

  Every year at about this time, Marvel faces a contradiction.  Even as it has a giant movie dominating multiplexes worldwide (this year, of course, it’s Captain America: Civil War, which is approaching the $1 billion mark), its TV business struggles.  Over the past few weeks, network cousin ABC has canceled hiatus series Agent Carter, […]