MANIFEST:  Mondays 10PM on NBC Of all the Lost rip-offs we’ve seen over the years, NBC’s MANIFEST seems from its pilot to be the laziest, and perhaps the worst.  Creator Jeff Rake (he has the eminently forgettable The Mysteries of Laura to his credit) has replaced the dense mythology of Lost with a set-up […]

  MULANEY:  Sunday 9:30PM on FOX – Change the Channel MULANEY arrives with a fair amount of goodwill.  It’s a multicamera sitcom modeled after Seinfeld, and produced by Lorne Michaels.  Its creator/star, John Mulaney, is one of the relatively few SNL writers to have achieved some measure of fame for himself, mostly thanks to his […]

  BLACK-ISH:  Wednesday 9:30PM on ABC – Worth A Look   PLAYERS:  Star and Executive Producer Anthony Anderson, and recurring guest star/EP Laurence Fishburne.  (And Executive Producer Larry Wilmore, although he’s leaving the show to take over the Stephen Colbert slot on Comedy Central.)  Series creator Kenya Barris.  Pilot director James Griffiths.  A supporting cast headed […]

  THE CATCH:  Thursday 10PM on ABC – If Nothing Else Is On… Not much remains of the original pilot for ABC and ShondaLand’s THE CATCH, beyond its basic premise and some of the cast.  Original series creator Jennifer Schuur has been discarded in favor of showrunner Alan Heinberg, a ShondaLand veteran (Schuur retains a script credit […]

  TEN DAYS IN THE VALLEY:  Sunday 10PM on ABC – Potential DVR Alert TEN DAYS IN THE VALLEY is very ABC, in a good way.  Created by Tassie Cameron, who co-created the network’s longtime summer hit Rookie Blue, it’s a purportedly closed-end mystery soap, about a successful TV-producer mother whose 8-year old daughter goes […]

  KEVIN (PROBABLY) SAVES THE WORLD:  Tuesday 10PM on ABC – In the Queue ABC’s KEVIN (PROBABLY) SAVES THE WORLD is the closest any broadcast network has to a Big Swing this fall, and as such, it deserves some respect.  But wow, is it a mess.  The only reason the fantasy-inspirational dramedy holds together even […]

  THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA:  Wednesday 8PM on NBC starting September 24 (premieres 10PM on September 17) – Change the Channel PLAYERS:  Star Debra Messing, and central co-stars Josh Lucas and Laz Alonso.  The Spanish TV series on which it’s based.  US series creator Jeff Rake, who’s worked on an assortment of shows over the past decade […]

  BEYOND:  Monday 9PM on Freeform (Preview Tonight at 9PM), also available on VOD/streaming – Change the Channel Add BEYOND to the growing pile of genre shows that have failed at Freeform since Pretty Little Liars became the network’s signature series, joining Guilty, Twisted and Dead of Summer.  (Shadowhunters returns on Monday but with new […]