CSI:  Wednesday 10PM on CBS As with Law & Order before it, the franchise that is CSI has dwindled down to a single entry, in this case the original Las Vegas-set version.  The cast has mostly been refurbished, with Ted Danson and Elisabeth Shue now toting the biggest forensics kits, and the ratings are […]

  NASHVILLE:  Wednesday 10PM on ABC NASHVILLE was last season’s biggest underachiever.  In the ratings, it hovered at a meager 1.6-1.8 despite beatable competition, and it would have been a bubble show if its songs (which are dynamite) hadn’t become hits on iTunes–and if ABC weren’t in such general disarray elsewhere.  Creatively, Callie Khouri’s series […]

  MODERN FAMILY:  Wednesday 9PM on ABC MODERN FAMILY has now won the Emmy Award for Best Comedy in each of its four years on the air, putting it one behind Frasier‘s record-setting pace.  The TV Academy nominates smaller, more complex shows like Louie, Girls and Veep, but its heart is with Modern Family, and […]

  REVOLUTION:  Wednesday 8PM on NBC Can REVOLUTION save itself?  It had the splashiest start of any drama last season, leaping to a 4.1 rating on the back of The Voice.  (That’s even higher than this week’s launch of The Blacklist in the same slot.)  But from there it tumbled downward all season, losing more […]

  LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT – Wednesday 10PM on NBC SVU began its 15th season with an atypically dark, serialized episode that served as a showcase for star Mariska Hargitay.  It picked up from the Season 14 finale, in which Detective Olivia Benson (Hargitay) was captured by a sadistic rapist and murderer played […]

  CHICAGO FIRE:  Tuesday 10PM on NBC At a time when network programmers’ fingers are ever-jumpier on their cancellation buttons, NBC has done an unusually good job nurturing CHICAGO FIRE into a success.  The show, which mixes firefighting procedural plots with more serialized storylines, got a slow start, but it was noticeably boosted whenever it […]

  PERSON OF INTEREST:  Tuesday 10PM on CBS You wouldn’t necessarily know it from last night’s ratings, but PERSON OF INTEREST had a smooth segue to its new Tuesday 10PM home.  Although there are some notable changes from the past two seasons, in general the show seems very stable, which is exactly what CBS asks […]

  Every fan of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER came into tonight’s Season 9 premiere knowing three things.  This will be not just the ninth, but the final season of the series; last season’s finale introduced us, at long last, to the still-unnamed Mother (new regular Cristin Milioti); and the entire season will take place […]