THE CATCH:  Thursday 10PM on ABC – If Nothing Else Is On… Not much remains of the original pilot for ABC and ShondaLand’s THE CATCH, beyond its basic premise and some of the cast.  Original series creator Jennifer Schuur has been discarded in favor of showrunner Alan Heinberg, a ShondaLand veteran (Schuur retains a script credit […]

  I’M DYING UP HERE:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime – If Nothing Else Is On… A stand-up comic’s set, especially if the comic is a newcomer, has to make its mark immediately if the audience’s attention isn’t going to wander.  That’s a lesson that Showtime’s new dramedy series about 1970s stand-ups I’M DYING UP HERE […]

  TRUE DETECTIVE:  Sunday 9PM on HBO The first season of TRUE DETECTIVE was so masterfully assembled that it took some time for people to question what taste it was leaving in their mouths.  When Matthew McConaughey’s arias of philosophizing, and the brilliantly extended tracking shots, and the dense mythology were done, how new were […]

  THE GOOD DOCTOR:  Monday 10PM on ABC – Change the Channel ABC’s THE GOOD DOCTOR arrives with some pedigree, being a medical series from David Shore, the creator of House, and starring Freddie Highmore, fresh off his remarkable turn on Bates Motel.  The pilot, though, suggests that there’s very little of note here. The […]

  THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:  Thursday 8PM on CW Walter White, that student of change, would enjoy this fifth season of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES.  Behind the camera, showrunner Julie Plec is now splitting her time with the Diaries spin-off The Originals, and is also an Executive Producer of The Tomorrow People; Executive Producer Caroline Dries wrote […]

  BROKE:  Thursday 9:30PM on CBS Even brand-new episodes of CBS multicamera sitcoms can have a tendency to feel like reruns, and the network’s new midseason series BROKE brings that to the “but this is ridiculous” level.  Broke is built around virtually the same premise as NBC’s midseason sitcom Indebted.  (The two shows even air […]

  IMPASTOR:  Wednesday 10:30PM on TV Land – Change the Channel TV Land’s brand was built primarily as a repackager of vintage sitcoms, and when it entered the world of original content, it initially did so with shows that tried to duplicate their appeal:  basic multi-camera comedies like Hot In Cleveland and The Exes that starred former stars of […]

  HALT AND CATCH FIRE:  Saturday 9PM on AMC The links between AMC’s HALT AND CATCH FIRE as a television series, the stories it tells, and its characters have gone unusually deep.  The positive part has been that as series creators Christopher Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers have grown steadily more assured and ambitious in each […]