Posts Tagged ‘tv review’
 

 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Homeland”

  What kind of show, in the end, is HOMELAND?  Focus groups are often asked simply to describe whatever it is they’ve just seen, and Homeland has tried to be a romance, a thriller, an action adventure, a story about...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Dexter”

  Although there was plenty more going on–too much, in fact–it was fitting that Season 7 of DEXTER came down, in the end, to the women in Dexter Morgan’s life.  One could even say that this season might ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED REVIEW: SNL with Martin Short

  How do you launch 90 minute of live television comedy less than 36 hours after one of the most awful crimes in American history?  SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE tried to finesse the moment by starting its telecast tonight with a c...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED MIDSEASON FINALE REVIEW: “The Vampire Diaries”

  Among other things, the midseason finale of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES gets credit for the season’s most subversive use of Christmas carols, playing cheerily under ancient vampire Klaus (Joseph Morgan) as he first slaught...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED MIDSEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Grey’s Anatomy”

  In its ninth season, GREY’S ANATOMY remains a model of smoothly operating network soap.  This week’s midseason finale, written by Consulting Producer Debora Cahn and directed by Rob Corn, had the bonus of be...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED MIDSEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Beauty & the Beast”

  The midseason finale of the purported romantic thriller BEAUTY & THE BEAST delivered almost all romance, no thrills, as it continues to have only a glancing relationship with its title. Plotting has been this show...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED MIDSEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Arrow”

  ARROW, CW’s successful new superhero action series, has found its own best secret identity as a quasi-soap, a fact imperfectly illustrated by tonight’s midseason finale. The tactic of conveying a comic book s...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED REVIEW: SNL with Jamie Foxx

  It felt like 12:55AM for the entire last half-hour of tonight’s SNL, and that wasn’t a bad thing.  Every post-Update sketch had the kind of oddball conceptualism that’s usually reserved for the last mi...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Hunted”

  For reasons sociologists can ponder, we happen to be at a great moment for spy stories.  Last year’s remake of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the superb Homeland (barring last week’s speed-bump episode) and t...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED FALL FINALE REVIEW: “Nashville”

  ABC’s NASHVILLE has reached the midpoint of its season as one of the better dramas on network television, and also one of the more frustrating.  Particularly galling is that it seems to falter worst at the things ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED FALL FINALE REVIEW: “Once Upon A Time”

  Having blown up the initial premise of their show in its Season 1 finale, ONCE UPON A TIME creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz have inventively plotted a Season 2 that came to a satisfying Act 1 culmination in the s...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED FALL FINALE REVIEW: “Revenge”

  REVENGE, in its second season, demonstrates the perils of stretching a good thing too far.  (Also being stretched:  ABC’s concept of a “fall finale,” since unlike shows like Revolution and The Walking...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Boardwalk Empire”

  The Season 3 finale of BOARDWALK EMPIRE, like the season itself, was an exercise in patience and a mix of satisfaction and anti-climax.   Written by series creator Terence Winter and Executive Producer Howard Korder, a...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED FALL FINALE REVIEW: “The Walking Dead”

  It’s odd to think that the biggest hit on American television is centered around the flesh-eating undead, but enough about Fox News…  THE WALKING DEAD is a genuine television phenomenon, in more ways than on...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED FALL FINALE REVIEW: “Revolution”

  One of the many ways in which broadcast networks have started to resemble their cable counterparts is in the structure of a series season.  For years, cable has aired its shows, especially serialized series, in clearly-...
by Mitch Salem