Category: TV Reviews

So two big-budget science fiction shows with “mainstream” appeal (meaning they aren’t some crappy Syfy channel shows for fanboys only) and major league talent involved debuted this week. However, not all things are equal… “Extant”…I had a hard time keeping my eyes open for the premiere of this soft, strangely Hallmark-feeling sci-fi conspiracy drama. CBS…

This review won’t be terribly long because the headline pretty much says it all: season 2 of “Orange is the New Black” is even better than the first one, which wasn’t too shabby to start with. The first season was strong, but suffered slightly from too many unwieldy subplots, gross out gags, and an over-reliance…

“Californication” might be the worst show that I’ve ever watched for 7 seasons, and never missed a second of (although usually caught up with On Demand months or even years later). Still, endings make me sentimental and I have to admit that there was always something weirdly soothing about this show. Like the combination of…

Even in the summertime, it’s not all “Devious Maids,” “Mistresses,” and margaritas. There are a couple of semi-pretentious summertime angsty shows to hold us over to the Fall. However, not all angst is earned… “The Leftovers”…Something isn’t clicking for me and this show. Sure, I’ve only seen the pilot. Sure, you’ve always got to give…

It feels good to experience a great new TV show from the pilot onward. The same way it might mean more to invest in a company before the whole world knows about it, well, that’s roughly the way I feel when I watch a show like Breaking Bad or Arrested Development from the pilot episode the…

Last night brought some of the final season finales for broadcast TV, as three shows that had rather disappointing seasons finally drew to a close… “Modern Family”…As has become the formula for Modern Family—-which borrows a lot more from 90’s sitcoms than we might realize—-last night’s episode mostly featured one character saying something and then…

Last year, there were few shows I enjoyed more than the first season of FX’s The Americans. Each episode felt tense, exciting, layered, and complicated in a good way. It was the rare show that could have tight plotting without sacrificing character depth. So what’s gone so wrong this season? In a nutshell, the show…

I never watch the Syfy Channel. That might sound like snobbery—-and maybe it is—-but I’m just not down with watching intentionally awful TV movies and unintentionally awful TV shows. So a small little Syfy reality show about people who want to make amazing puppets for a living wasn’t exactly on my radar until very recently….

I wanted to like NBC’s new sitcom About a Boy (with back-to-back episodes tonight serving as the season finale), I really did. For starters, I love both the Nick Hornby book it’s based on and the movie adaptation that (in my humble opinion) is still the best of the Hugh Grant rom-coms. Secondly, who isn’t a fan…

Cinemax’s violent and pulpy drama-noir “Banshee” and HBO’s sobering (but exciting) R-rated news magazine “Vice” may not seem like natural fits but they are both premium cable breakouts that air on Friday nights and are mostly enjoyable even when (or perhaps especially) when going over the top.   “Banshee”  …This season of Banshee didn’t live…

It takes a big reviewer to admit when he’s wrong, and wrong I was about HBO’s Winter sensation “True Detective.” My review of the pilot was only lukewarm (the exact grade was a B-) because I felt the series was taking itself a little too seriously and the dialogue felt obtusely poetic to the point…