Posts Tagged ‘Showtime original’
 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Billions”

  The lesson of the 2d season of Showtime’s BILLIONS is that a show doesn’t have to dramatically reboot itself in order to improve.  Billions Season 2 had the same premise and core characters as Season 1:  he...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “House of Lies”

  HOUSE OF LIES:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime HOUSE OF LIES deserves some credit for nailing the Wolf of Wall Street vibe before there was a Wolf of Wall Street.  Marty Kaan (Don Cheadle) and his “pod” of busines...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Twin Peaks”

  Debates about what, if any, garments a television emperor has been wearing have rarely been as polarizing as the ones surrounding Showtime’s reboot of TWIN PEAKS, 25 years after the ABC original arrived in a blaze ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “Shameless”

  SHAMELESS:  Sunday 9PM on Showtime John Wells comes from the broadcast network school of showrunning, where he kept ER going for 22 (or more) episodes per year for more than a decade, and barely missed a beat when Aaron...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “Penny Dreadful”

  PENNY DREADFUL:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime Previously… on PENNY DREADFUL:  In 1890s London, a mysterious set of figures exist in a world where literature’s classic horror characters are as real as Jack the Ri...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Homeland”

  In a way, tonight’s off-key Season 4 finale of HOMELAND was the hour its seriously odd season deserved.  As bipolar as its main character, Season 4 began with misguided attempts to recapture something of the early...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Season Finale Review: “Episodes”

  Showtime’s EPISODES has improved markedly from its first season, which mostly invited viewers to join British television writers Sean and Beverly Lincoln (Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig) as they turned their noses...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Pilot + 1 Review: “The Affair”

  THE AFFAIR:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime Previously… on THE AFFAIR:  Several years from now, Noah (Dominic West) and Alison (Ruth Wilson) sit in police interrogation rooms and separately recount, in connection with a...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “Dice”

  DICE:  Sunday 9:30PM on Showtime – Change the Channel The journey of Andrew Dice Clay from an explosively successful poster child (and, many would say, cynical exploiter) of comedy political incorrectness to a lon...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “I’m Dying Up Here”

  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 attent...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “The Affair”

  THE AFFAIR:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime THE AFFAIR was one of last year’s most confounding shows.  It was at once carefully observed and gimmicky, precise and willfully vague, compulsively watchable and annoying. Th...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “Masters of Sex”

  MASTERS OF SEX:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime MASTERS OF SEX was one of television’s best surprises last season.  Despite a title and premise–the groundbreaking study of human sexuality by Dr. William Masters an...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “The Affair”

  It’s difficult, even after a full and absorbing season, to know exactly what to make of THE AFFAIR.  The series hasn’t fit neatly into either of the genres it seemed to be invoking:  despite the title and o...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Penny Dreadful”

In its second season, John Logan’s gothic horror mash-up PENNY DREADFUL remained an elaborate conceit that pays off only from time to time.  Logan has gathered together a host of characters for his saga.  Some hail from...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “Episodes”

  EPISODES:  Sunday 10:30PM on Showtime EPISODES, written from beginning to end by David Crane (a creator of Friends) and fellow sitcom vet Jeffrey Klarik, improved considerably in its second season, adding some shading t...
by Mitch Salem