VALOR:  Monday 9PM on CW – Change the Channel VALOR is the CW version of a military drama, which makes it markedly different from NBC’s The Brave and CBS’s SEAL Team.  For one thing, it’s significantly lacking in production values, even in its pilot, which would typically have a higher budget than regular series […]

  LEGION:  Tuesday 10PM on FX The first season of Noah Hawley’s LEGION was enthralling, and a bit of a disappointment.  Hawley’s adult off-shoot of the X-Man franchise toyed with narrative structure, temporal and spatial displacement, and extravagant shifts in tone, until it seemed like Hawley might blow up the entire superhero genre.  Instead, it […]

  LEGACIES:  Thursday 9PM on CW CW’s LEGACIES brings the Vampire Diaries extended universe once again close to its roots, after the older-skewing adventures of The Originals.  We’re not only back in Mystic Falls, Virginia, but in a version of high school, although one that looks a lot like Hogwarts.  (The connection is so blatant […]

  WESTWORLD:  Sunday 9PM on HBO   With most other forms of new entertainment content sidelined for at least the next several weeks, television is likely to be even more at the center of our culture than it already is, and Season 3 of HBO’s WESTWORLD, with its dense mythology and high philosophical ambitions, seems […]

> CALIFORNICATION has been a fairly reliable performer for Showtime, although not a breakout hit (last season, airing at 9PM, it was doing around a 0.2 in 18-49s, about the same as The Big C and a little below the network’s other signature comedies Weeds and Nurse Jackie).  It returns for its 5th season in […]

  GRIMM:  Monday 9PM thru Sept 10; Friday 9PM starting Sept 14 on NBC – Worth A Look   WHERE WE WERE:  Meeting Mom.  Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) is a Portland homicide detective who’s also a “Grimm,” with the hereditary ability to see the fairy tale monsters lurking within seemingly ordinary human beings, and the […]

  GOSSIP GIRL:  Monday 9PM on CW WHERE WE WERE:  Blair (Leighton Meester) with Chuck (Ed Westwick), and then not.  Serena (Blake Lively) with Dan (Penn Badgley), and then not.  Mix, then repeat.  Other things happened:  Serena was Gossip Girl for a while, but that didn’t turn out well for anyone–particularly the show.  Nate (Chace […]

  BATES MOTEL:  Monday 10PM on A&E The idea of a pilot is to provide a template for the series that’s to come, but while the first hour of BATES MOTEL is accomplished and well-acted, it’s difficult to tell what kind of show it plans to be.  The premise is straightforward enough:  a prequel (although […]