Sep 24, 2009
TV
ABC
There’s more than a fine line between Lost and Heroes, there’s a friggin’ gulf. But despite its many faults, Heroes is the only sci-fi show in five years that’s managed to replicate any level of Lost‘s success. And so, in an attempt to maintain the viewership they’ll lose once Lost ends next spring, ABC has once again churned out another sci-fi serial, this time revolving around the mystery behind the entire world’s population blacking out for just over two minutes and flashing forward to six months in the future.
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Sep 19, 2009
TV
Web Exclusive
The glass is still half empty when HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm returns for its seventh season Sunday night, but Larry David just might be adding more water. Although he’s always sneered at NBC’s offers for a Seinfeld reunion, David realizes if he agrees he can swoon his actress ex with the part of George Costanza’s ex-wife. That setup seems classic, especially with who’s involved.
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Sep 18, 2009
TV
Web Exclusive
You almost have to feel bad for Jason Schwartzman, in that during the decade since he stole hearts in Rushmore, no one besides Wes Anderson has really found a suitable vehicle for him. So here he is again, this time starring as novelist/journalist Jonathan Ames in HBO’s adaptation of Ames’ amateur private detective novella, published earlier this year in The Double Life Is Twice As Good.
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Sep 17, 2009
TV
Web Exclusive
The Soup’s Joel McHale plays Jeff Winger, a lawyer who faked his college degree and now faces disbarment unless he attends community college and earns his diploma.
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Sep 17, 2009
TV
Web Exclusive
After a hiatus of almost 10 months, the Paddy’s Pub crawlers, Mac (Rob McElhenney), Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Charlie (Charlie Day), Sweet Dee (Kaitlin Olson), and Frank (Danny DeVito) return to exploit, harass, scheme, and rile the denizens of Southern Philadelphia. The endlessly quotable, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelpia, may have started out as a low budget sitcom with Seinfeldian itches in the most disgusting places, but the last two seasons of their nobrow antics saw the fivesome tapping into a comedic wellspring.
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Sep 10, 2009
TV
CW
The people at the CW network must think they’ve hit the jackpot, or at least hold the winning lottery ticket. Cashing in on teen girls’ current vampire craze (Twilight etc.), The Vampire Diaries would seem to have the markings of a hit for the fall season. Based on a series of young-adult novels from the ‘90s, the show has all the ingredients that would seem to add up to a teen sensations: high school cliques, sibling rivalry, adolescent angst, drugs, family trauma, and of course, the aforementioned undead. Add in that it’s written by Scream scribe and Dawson’s Creek mastermind Kevin Williamson, and you’ve got what would seem like a sure thing.
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Sep 09, 2009
TV
Web Exclusive
Once you get past Glee’s uneven pilot, the real heart of the show starts to reveal itself with its next two episodes. What saved the hiccupping start were the musical interludes that were so jaw-dropping the rest of the story took a backseat.
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Sep 08, 2009
TV
Web Exclusive
The new Melrose Place falls somewhere between the yawn-fest the original started out as, and the backstab-fest it turned into after the network realized being pretty wasn’t enough to propel a show.
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Aug 27, 2009
TV
Web Exclusive
Showtime’s water-cooler thriller Dexter is essentially The Shield at its core, with a rogue police officer working against his own department to cover up his criminal involvement with cases of interest—in Dexter, though, that rogue cop has the added twist of being a serial killer, albeit one guided by a rigid moral code. It’s an entertaining setup with ample opportunity for cat-and-mouse intrigue, and like The Shield, Dexter understands the power of a dynamo guest star to spice up the show before the formula wears thin.
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Aug 24, 2009
TV
Web Exclusive
Whereas most of the main characters on teen dramas like The O.C. or Beverly Hills, 90210 seem to be pure of heart but, like most real-life teenagers, prone to mistakes, the Gossip Girl group doesn’t have the same set of morals. This is the show’s stroke of genius, and what makes it the most fun to be found in primetime television.
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