BEAUTY & THE BEAST:  Thursday 9PM on CW The opening hour of the fourth and final season of CW’s BEAUTY & THE BEAST was practically meta, what with the characters seeming to spend half the episode complaining about the fact that just when they thought they were finished with it all, here they were […]

  MURDER IN THE FIRST:  Monday 10PM on TNT – If Nothing Else Is On… Steven Bochco practically invented modern television with Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue, so even though it’s been a while since his glory days were in full swing, attention must be paid when he takes another turn at bat.  His […]

  SHAMELESS:  Sunday 9PM on Showtime The Gallagher family is undergoing transitions as Season 4 of Showtime’s SHAMELESS begins, and the tone is considerably less rambunctious than in previous seasons.  That’s not to say that bad behavior doesn’t still abound, but it’s a less brazen and unfettered, and comes labored with thoughts about consequences. As […]

  THOSE WHO KILL:  Monday 10PM on A&E – Worth A Look It has the accoutrements of a basic cable crime drama–the heroes are seriously screwed-up, and occasionally say “shit”–but THOSE WHO KILL is a surprisingly conventional procedural in its initial hour, especially given its adjacency on the A&E schedule to the more perverse and […]

  PITCH:  Thursday 9PM on FOX – Potential DVR Alert Dan Fogelman is a busy man.  He’s not only the creator of This Is Us, which debuted strongly two nights ago, he’s also co-creator (with Rick Singer) of the buzzy PITCH.  And gues what, this pilot has a twist in its final moments too. The Pitch twist is the […]

  UNDATEABLE:  Thursday 9PM on NBC – Change the Channel UNDATEABLE, whose episodes NBC is burning off two at a time on summer Thursday nights, may not be quite bad enough to earn the obvious “unwatchable” or “unbearable” labels its title seems to demand–not at the tail end of a season in which NBC gave […]

SUITS – Thursdays 10PM on USA   WHERE WE WERE:  On a precipice.  Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) was a hustler with limited formal education but a photographic memory.  He used his talents, among other things, to take tests for those who paid him–including the bar exam, which he passed many times.  Fate brought him […]

  I’M DYING UP HERE:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime Showtime’s I’M DYING UP HERE is a behind-the scenes showbiz story, and fittingly the series itself is part of one.  Despite terrible ratings and reviews that were generally less than enthused, the network picked it up for a 2nd season just days before also announcing that […]