> CALIFORNICATION has been a fairly reliable performer for Showtime, although not a breakout hit (last season, airing at 9PM, it was doing around a 0.2 in 18-49s, about the same as The Big C and a little below the network’s other signature comedies Weeds and Nurse Jackie).  It returns for its 5th season in […]

  Season 6 of THE GOOD WIFE has a tough act to follow:  its own dazzling Season 5, which brought the show back from previous signs of subdued middle age and established it once again as one of the best shows on any form of television.  It being a broadcast network series, we have 22 […]

  THE NEIGHBORHOOD:  Monday 8PM on CBS The opening half of CBS’s doubleheader of new Monday sitcoms has one joke to tell in its pilot, and it spends half an hour telling it over and over.  THE NEIGHBORHOOD is almost exclusively about the hilarity of a midwestern white family moving into a black Los Angeles […]

> It’s not an exaggeration to say that many people probably had to check their cable and satellite listings just to find out where their local PBS station was, once it became clear that the first season of what’s now called Masterpiece Classic’s miniseries DOWNTON ABBEY was not to be missed.  Now, after a year-long […]

  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 […]

  THE WALKING DEAD:  Sunday 9PM on AMC Based on everything we know about THE WALKING DEAD, it seemed a safe assumption after the Season 4 finale that we’d be spending a large chunk of Season 5 trapped with our heroes at Terminus, the supposed sanctuary they’d spent most of the season seeking that turned […]

  ESCAPE AT DANNEMORA:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime Although the star currency of producer/director Ben Stiller and leading players Benicio del Toro, Patricia Arquette and Paul Dano doubtless were responsible for the 7 hours of ESCAPE AT DANNEMORA being produced by Showtime, the limited series is far from a glossy big-name vehicle.  As an actor, […]

  LAST MAN STANDING:  Friday 8PM on ABC If your heart beats faster when you hear the retro sound of a voice saying “Last Man Standing Is Recorded Before A Live Studio Audience,” then to paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy, you just may be the audience for Last Man Standing.  It’s found a smallish but loyal crowd […]