> For everyone journeying to the multiplex this long weekend, some reviews to click on: THE TREE OF LIFE:  An often stupendous achievement that courts ridicule–and sometimes earns it. THE HANGOVER PART II:  It wasn’t broke, they didn’t fix it. KUNG FU PANDA 2:  This franchise has been working out. MIDNIGHT IN PARIS: A tasty […]

>   See A Word About Busted Pilots SMOTHERED, which was produced for ABC by Warner Bros Television, falls into the category of “not as bad as you’d think.”  The concept is Predictable Sitcom 101:  a young couple (Kyle Howard and Brooke D’Orsay) whose daughter is about to celebrate her first birthday, is invaded by […]

  EMPIRE:  Wednesday 9PM on FOX Previously… on EMPIRE:  As he prepares to launch his hip-hop entertainment conglomerate into an even higher financial sphere via an IPO, mogul Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) learns that he has ALS, a disease that will kill him, and he’s forced to decide how to divide his kingdom.  His choices:  […]

At this point in movie history, it’s beside the point to ask why we even need a new film version of GREAT EXPECTATIONS when David Lean’s 1946 masterpiece still exists.  (And for those who want a different slant on the story, there’s Alfonso Cuaron’s 1998 modern-day revamp.)  The industry feeds itself on a diet of […]

  EXTANT:  Wednesday 9PM on CBS Previously… on EXTANT:  Astronaut Molly Woods (Halle Berry) returns from a 13 month-long solo mission in space with a surprise–she’s pregnant.  Although come to think of it, she did have that odd encounter with her dead first husband Marcus (Sergio Harford)–or at least with someone or something making use […]

  ZOO:  Tuesday 9PM on CBS – Change the Channel Of all the broadcast networks, CBS is the biggest fan of branding.  It has its procedural hours during the regular season, its working-class half-hours (which are either multi-camera or feel like they could be), and more recently, its summer sci-fi thrillers.  Under the Dome begat […]

  VEGAS:  Tuesday 10PM on CBS – Potential DVR Alert VEGAS is CBS’s version of swinging for the fences, which is to say that it can also be seen as a neon-lit, gold-edged version of Longmire.  This time the widowed western lawman is Ralph Lamb, a real (although probably quite fictionalized) rancher who became a […]

  A TO Z:  Thursday 9:30PM on NBC Previously… on A TO Z:  Dating website marketer Andrew (Ben Feldman) and lawyer Zelda (Cristin Milioti) have had their meet-cute, they’ve discovered that the office windows in their adjacent buildings overlook one another, so they can signal each other during their work-days, and now they’ve embarked on […]