EPISODES:  Sunday 10:30PM on Showtime   WHERE WE WERE:  Sean and Beverly Lincoln (Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig) are a married pair of British television writers who’ve had a modest success with a low-key comedy about a middle-aged teacher at a boys’ private school.  US TV executive Merc Lapidus (John Pankow) tells them that […]

  THE OFFICE:  Thursday 9PM on NBC WHERE WE WERE:  Wondering how much longer THE OFFICE could last, as we wearily bid a not-so-fond farewell to Robert California (James Spader) and came to terms with the fact that Nellie Bertram (Catherine Tate) wasn’t going anywhere.  She seemed to be locked in a battle for supremacy […]

  BLUNT TALK:  Saturday 9PM on Starz – If Nothing Else Is On… For Jonathan Ames, the creator of Starz’s new comedy BLUNT TALK, the sweet spot is the intersection of addled (male) self-delusion and yearning.  His HBO series Bored To Death never found much of an audience, but it was rewarding for those who […]

  VIKINGS:  Thursday 10PM on History The season 2 premiere of VIKINGS neatly demonstrated the series’ knack for straddling brawny historical action and engrossing historical soap.  Written by series creator Michael Hirst and directed by Ciaran Donnelly, it separated into two halves, both dealing with the consequences of events from last season’s finale. The first […]

  ELEMENTARY:  Thursday 10PM on CBS Nothing makes ELEMENTARY look better than the arrival of ABC’s Forever, an even more ersatz updated Sherlock Holmesisn procedural that features a fantastically knowledgeable British detective partnered with a more practical American (and adds a supernatural element, as Forever‘s hero is immortal).  Forever is simplistically sentimental and overly ingratiating, […]

  SOMEWHERE BETWEEN:  Tuesday 10PM on ABC – Change the Channel (Now!) There’s no politically correct way to put this.  ABC’s summer thriller SOMEWHERE BETWEEN hinges on the frantic efforts of TV producer Laura Price (Paula Patton) to stop the murder of her daughter Serena (Aria Birch) after the fact, when Laura is inexplicably transported […]

  2 BROKE GIRLS:  Monday 8PM on CBS 2 BROKE GIRLS is about as basic as sitcoms come.  Take two mismatched young women–Caroline (Beth Behrs), who’s tall, blonde and unable to believe she’s not rich anymore; and Max (Kat Dennings), a busty brunette with street smarts–turn them into enforced roommates and co-workers at a Brooklyn […]

  SUPERGIRL:  Monday 8PM on CBS (premiere at 8:30PM tonight) – In the Queue SUPERGIRL is more thrilling as an experiment in network scheduling than as a TV show.  There’s nothing terribly wrong with the series itself, which comes from the Greg Berlanti factory of DC Comics adventures that’s already given us CW’s Arrow and The Flash, with […]