Posts Tagged ‘summer TV’
 

 

THE SKED Season Finale Review: “Salem”

  Sometimes one piece of casting is what it takes to turn a TV series around, and for SALEM, that was the arrival, about midway through the season’s 13 episodes, of Stephen Lang as the Reverend Increase Mather, fathe...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Series Premiere Review: “The Strain”

  THE STRAIN:  Sunday 10PM on FX – Potential DVR Alert Although capable of finer things (notably his Oscar-winning Pan’s Labyrinth), the expert filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is one of those directors–you ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Series Premiere Review: “Welcome to Sweden”

  WELCOME TO SWEDEN:  Thursday 9PM on NBC – Potential DVR Alert WELCOME TO SWEDEN has one of the more unusual provenances of any show on a US broadcast network.  It was commissioned by Swedish television, where it ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Series Premiere Review: “Working the Engels”

  WORKING THE ENGELS:  Thursday 9:30PM on NBC – Change the Channel As summer sitcoms go, WORKING THE ENGELS makes Undateable look like the return of Seinfeld. It’s an inert pile of unfunny cliches, dysfunction...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “The Bridge”

  THE BRIDGE:  Wednesday 10PM on FX THE BRIDGE was simultaneously one of the best and most frustrating series of last season.  Loaded with atmosphere, superbly acted by an expansive cast headed by Demian Bichir and Diane...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Series Premiere Review: “Extant”

  EXTANT:  Wednesday 9PM on CBS – If Nothing Else Is On… CBS’s EXTANT has been at the center of a Hollywood tentpole-sized marketing campaign for months, so it’s a bit disappointing to find that th...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Series Premiere Review: “Finding Carter”

  FINDING CARTER:  Tuesday 10PM on MTV – Potential DVR Alert Most YA drama, in one way or another, is about the emotional dislocation of being a teen, and in recent years, the reigning trope has been to externalize ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

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

  WITCHES OF EAST END:  Sunday 9PM on Lifetime The marketing campaign for Season 2 of WITCHES OF EAST END has been working hard to create the impression of a darker, edgier show this time around.  Apart from the odd deci...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “The Leftovers”

  THE LEFTOVERS:  Sunday 10PM on HBO Previously… on THE LEFTOVERS:  3 years ago, 2% of the world’s population simultaneously and spontaneously vanished, in what may have been the Rapture (albeit a Rapture tha...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “Reckless”

  RECKLESS:  Sunday 9PM on CBS Previously… on RECKLESS:  In an ever-steamy version of Charleston, new City Attorney and general good old boy Roy Rayder (Cam Gigandet) constantly locks horns with Yankee lawyer Jamie...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Season Finale Review: “Undateable”

  NBC was so eager to get UNDATEABLE off its schedule that the network unceremoniously threw 4 episodes onto tonight’s line-up, 1 rerun and 3 new half-hours culminating in the season finale.  That treatment was a bi...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “Taxi Brooklyn”

  TAXI BROOKLYN:  Wednesday 10PM on NBC Previously… on TAXI BROOKLYN:  Cat Sullivan (Chyler Leigh) is a grouchy (but spunky and cute) NYPD detective whose driving is so bad that she’s been demoted to walking ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “Tyrant”

  TYRANT:  Tuesday 10PM on FX Previously… on TYRANT:  Barry Al-Fayeed (Adam Rayner) is a contented Pasadena-area pediatrician–and he’s also Bassam, the younger son of the longtime ruler of a Middle East...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “Under the Dome”

  UNDER THE DOME:  Monday 10PM on CBS The broadcast networks don’t get much in the way of pleasant surprises these days, but last summer’s UNDER THE DOME was an exception.  CBS’s “event” ada...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Series Premiere Review: “The Leftovers”

  THE LEFTOVERS:  Sunday 10PM on HBO – Potential DVR Alert Part of the HBO mystique–what helps keep it so not-TV-ish–is the caliber of shows it doesn’t put on the air.  An adaptation of Jonathan F...
by Mitch Salem