This show is a great idea but- judging just by the pilot- it doesn’t really work. The first family is a great focus. There have been lots of movies and TV shows that featured a similar fictionalized clan to great success. Even the actual first family is plenty engaging to watch with two teenage daughters, […]
If you’re not watching the BBC’s The Hour, you’re missing an exquisite drama featuring a very talented, very British cast. Romola Garai and Ben Whishaw star as best friends and should be lovers Bel Rowley and Freddie Lyon. (Full disclosure: Garai and Whishaw are two of my favorite young actors, so I was predisposed to […]
ABC’s Nashville purports to be about an aging classic country star unhappily joining forces with a rising pop-country star. I put off watching the first episode because I kind of hate watching pilots whose only function is to set up whatever wacky situation on which the show rests. Luckily, I underestimated Nashville: four episodes in, […]
At first glance, ABC’s bizarre new alien sitcom The Neighbors is abismal. So, as I try to do with shows I hate on contact, I gave it an extra week to grow on me. And, for the first time since I implemented that policy, it actually did grow on me. I wouldn’t go all the way […]
Fox’s extra Tuesday comedy is fine. It’s cute, it’s good for the occasional chuckle and sympathetic quirk. But that’s about it. The reason I call Ben & Kate Fox’s “extra” Tuesday comedy is that it’s programmed alongside New Girl, The Mindy Project and Raising Hope in what I think is the strongest comedy block on […]
Let’s just start here- I am a Mindy Kaling girl. For awhile I thought I might be a Tina Fey girl- idiosyncrasies, writerly personality, glasses – or a Rosie O’Donnell girl- commanding, opinionated, occasionally funny. But that’s just because I didn’t know about Mindy Kaling. It’s uncanny; I feel like she’s quoting me half the […]
I can’t stop smiling. Really, you’ve got to believe me, no pilot has made me this unexpectedly* gleeful in recent memory. I love Partners. I love it. It’s hilarious and heartfelt and just nostalgic enough to hit that allusive brand of happiness that almost nothing else can. First of all, I love the concept. My […]
Okay, let’s keep this simple. The New Normal is generally well written- though full of Ryan Murphy hangups and predictability- and has an incredibly charming cast, highlighted by central couple Justin Bartha (as David- a practical, sort of nerdy, endlessly sweet, perfect man) and Andrew Rannells (as his flighty, dramatic, quick-witted partner- Bryan). I was […]