Posts Tagged ‘soap’
 

 

THE SKED’S PILOT + 2 REVIEW: “Magic City”

> A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and production of episodes for the regular season:  a writing/producing team is hired, audience focus groups weigh in, networks and studios (which may hav...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED’S PILOT + 1 REVIEW: “Deception”

  DECEPTION:  Monday 10PM on NBC A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and the production of episodes for the regular season: a writing/producing team is hired, audience focus groups weigh in, ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED’S SERIES PREMIERE REVIEW: ABC’s “Mistresses”

MISTRESSES:  Monday 10PM on ABC – If Nothing Else Is On… These days, primetime soap operas usually try to be something else as well:  comedies (Desperate Housewives), musicals (Glee), thrillers (Revenge), medical ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED’S SEASON PREMIERE REVIEW: “Revenge”

  REVENGE:  Sunday 9PM on ABC WHERE WE WERE:  Discovering that the long-vanished mother of Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp), who’s really Amanda Clarke (don’t get us started), is actually alive.  This was among ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “Scandal”

  SCANDAL:  Thursday 10PM on ABC Sex is both currency and kryptonite on SCANDAL, a tool and a compulsion.  Shonda Rhimes’s series is coming off a genuinely phenomenal second season, one which saw its ratings rise b...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED SERIES FINALE REVIEW: “Smash”

  Nothing ever came up roses for SMASH, and tonight, after two misbegotten NBC seasons, on a holiday weekend buried against reruns and NASCAR, the show’s Broadway curtain came down for the last time.  The saddest th...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED MIDSEASON PILOT REPORT: ABC’s “Red Widow”

  RED WIDOW:  Midseason TBD on ABC – If Nothing Else Is On… Disclaimer: Network pilots now in circulation are not necessarily in the form that will air in the Fall. Pilots are often reedited and re-scored, and...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED SEASON PREMIERE REVIEW: “Damages”

  DAMAGES:  Wednesday 9PM on DirecTV Audience Network   WHERE WE WERE:  Recoiling from Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), the most untrustworthy attorney in New York.  Patty is a spider, constantly setting traps for everyo...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED SEASON PREMIERE REVIEW: “Treme”

  TREME:  Sunday 10PM on HBO   WHERE WE WERE:  New Orleans, of course, and hip-deep in the lives of a dozen struggling, striving, stubborn, idiosyncratic natives and recent arrivals.  These include the feckless tro...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED PILOT REVIEW: “The LA Complex”

> THE LA COMPLEX:  Tuesdays 9PM on CW – If Nothing Else Is On… By CW standards, THE LA COMPLEX is close to gritty realism, which is to say it’s a shade less glossy than 90210 and Gossip Girl.  Set in...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED’S SEASON PREMIERE REVIEW: “Hart of Dixie”

  HART OF DIXIE:  Tuesday 8PM on CW WHERE WE WERE:  The bedroom of Dr. Zoe Hart (Rachel Bilson) in Bluebell, Alabama, where the New York transfer was finally getting some action after an entire season of dithering.  On ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED SEASON PREMIERE REVIEW: “Scandal”

  SCANDAL:  Thursday 10PM on ABC WHERE WE WERE:  Washington DC, where Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) is the best fixer around.  Not a lawyer (although she has a law degree), not a publicist (although she’s expert ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Smash”

  And so the curtain drops on the first season of SMASH, which may have set the all-time television speed record for going from shining beacon to punching bag.  Tonight’s season finale, written by now-deposed showru...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “Downton Abbey”

  DOWNTON ABBEY:  Sunday 9PM on PBS In its fourth season as the most successful regular series in PBS history, DOWNTON ABBEY operates as smoothly as a well-staffed ancestral estate.  Even though the larger subject of the...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED’S SERIES PREMIERE REVIEW: “Devious Maids”

  DEVIOUS MAIDS:  Sunday 10PM on Lifetime – If Nothing Else Is On… Technically, DEVIOUS MINDS isn’t a spin-off of Desperate Housewives–there are no significant shared characters or storylines.  Bu...
by Mitch Salem