Arrrr first impressions of 'Pirate Master'

Thursday (May 31) night marked the premiere of Pirate Master, Mark Burnett's attempt to produce a summer installment of Survivor without diluting his already strained CBS franchise. [The following post will contain spoilers from said premiere episode, but you probably already knew that.] It's not Survivor because they aren't living in camps as tribes, they're living... More »

You may know Shonda Rhimes as the creator of ABC's Grey's Anatomy (and the upcoming Private Practice) but did you also know that Rhimes is a spelling bee fanatic? In what has become an annual tradition, Rhimes is blogging on the Scripps National Spelling Bee over at A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago. Sample... More »

Among the truly dizzying array of unscripted shows being thrown against your TV screen this offseason is a truly strange little show in the talent-contest subgenre: ABC's The Next Best Thing. Its goal is not to find a singing star or a comedian or anything that could potentially lead to household name-type fame. It's really,... More »

Quite frankly, ever since Tabatha and her foul mouth left, I haven't been that excited about who was left to win Bravo's haircutting reality show Shear Genius. Nevertheless, I tuned in to the Wednesday (May 30) finale to see who would snag the title and more importantly, the $100,000. As someone who champions the underdog,... More »

That, pre-literary One Tree Hill fans, is what we call Chekhov's Gun, as textbook and border-line infantile an example of that particular device as you're likely to see in your lifetime. So kudos OTH scribes. You just earned a gentleman's C in freshman comp! [Spoilers to follow, duh.] After Wednesday (May 30) night's original CW line-up,... More »

Ah finales. Sweet finales. That glorious time when writing staffs scribble themselves into seemingly insurmountable narrative corners that they'll almost certainly scribble out of with disarming ease come fall. [From here, I'm going into spoilers for House, so scoot off if you don't wanna know...] I'm referring here to Tuesday (May 29) night's season finale of... More »

Hidden Palms' angst-ridden, possibly supernatural mystery buried beneath the characters' superficial indolence is just as oppressive and maddening as the Palms Springs heat that purportedly drives its denizens crazy. As far as summer programming goes, the show's painful deficiencies in writing, character and story are perfect reasons to slather on the SPF and find entertainment... More »

So I watched On the Lot on Monday (May 28) night so that we'd have things to talk about, dear readers. The only problem is that none of you watched with me. The audience for the first Monday night airing of On the Lot was small. All together now: How small was it? I don't have... More »

Now that we've seen some of the pilots for the new fall shows, we explain the delicate difference between previews and reviews before giving out more-informed takes on two new CW fall shows: Reaper and Aliens in America.We also have lots to say about the disappointing first-season finale of NBC's Heroes, the gripping third-season bow of... More »

If you've been watching ABC any in the final days of the season, you've probably seen a few promos for the new show Sam I Am, which debuts in the fall. You'd be forgiven, though, if you're not sure which show that is, because the network hasn't gotten around to telling you that that's the... More »