Posts Tagged ‘serialized drama’
 

 

THE SKED Season Finale Review: “The Fosters”

  THE FOSTERS seemed sturdier in the first half of its season than in its second.  Series creators Brad Bredeweg and Peter Paige loaded up so strenuously on sudsy, often ham-handed melodrama that it’s threatened to ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Hell On Wheels”

  The fourth (and as it turns out penultimate) season of AMC’s HELL ON WHEELS was its most conventional and choppily focused.  Under showrunner John Wirth (the show’s 3rd in that post), the neo-western has aba...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Fall Finale Review: “Scandal”

  The concept of a “finale” as an event calling for special plot revelations and narrative shockers is almost irrelevant to SCANDAL, where every episode brings massive twists.  This is a show, after all, set i...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “Shades of Blue”

  SHADES OF BLUE:  Thursday 10PM on NBC – If Nothing Else Is On… SHADES OF BLUE is the weak tea brewed by broadcast network executives who dream of airing something like The Shield.  Both shows center on corr...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Finale Review: “The Astronaut Wives Club”

  THE ASTRONAUT WIVES CLUB never achieved much in the way of lift-off, and although ABC knew it was coming–there was a reason it was pushed to a summer run as the lead-in to Mistresses–the show’s flat qua...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Pilot + 1 Review: “Gracepoint”

  GRACEPOINT:  Thursday 9PM on FOX Previously… on GRACEPOINT:  In the small seaside town of Gracepoint, in the western US (as opposed to the small seaside town of Broadchurch in the UK, where the BBC version of the...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Pilot + 1 Review: “American Crime”

  AMERICAN CRIME:  Thursday 10PM on ABC Previously… on AMERICAN CRIME:  In Modesto, California, former serviceman Matt Skokie was murdered in his home, and his wife Gwen was viciously injured in the attack.  The l...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “The Good Wife”

  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 o...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “Hannibal”

  HANNIBAL:  Thursday 10PM on NBC The languidly brutal art-horror thing HANNIBAL has returned, much to the joy of its acolytes.  The series is, without question, unlike anything to be found on even the most adventurous c...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Season Finale Review: “Witches of East End”

  In this new era of serialized television drama, plot–and the skill with which it’s doled out–is more important than ever.  An overall clumsiness with the handling of its storylines is what’s held...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Season Finale Review: “Tyrant”

  TYRANT wasn’t the summer’s worst show, but it’s been the most piercing disappointment of the mini-season,  wasting a potentially thrilling premise–behind the scenes at a Middle Eastern military d...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “The Knick”

  THE KNICK:  Friday 10PM on Cinemax Previously… on THE KNICK:  New York’s Knickerbocker Hospital circa 1900 is a highly respectable institution, funded by wealthy benefactors and with a conscientious staff, ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “Mistresses”

  MISTRESSES:  Thursday 9PM on ABC MISTRESSES lost its marquee star this season, when Alyssa Milano declined to move with the show to its new (cheaper) Vancouver shooting location.  We’ll see what effect, if any, t...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Under the Dome”

  UNDER THE DOME went rather bonkers in its second season, apparently flummoxed by the fact that it existed at all.  Dome had originally been conceived as a limited summer series that, like the Stephen King novel which in...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Season Finale Review: “Beauty & the Beast”

  With a full season of experience and audience feedback under its belt, it’s not unusual for a TV series to improve in its second season.  What’s considerably less typical is for the reverse to happen.  Yet ...
by Mitch Salem