The Prime Times: Next Season’s Guest Stars Edition

By on Jun 25, 2012 in In Brief |

This installment of the Prime Times is all about the cool guest stars we’ll all get to see on our favorite shows… in a few months’ time. Sorry for the blue balls, folks. With the seventh-season premiere a torturous three months away, Showtime has released a teaser-trailerfocusing on the fallout from last season’s “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain with a knife” finale. More details are surfacing about the second season of FX’s creepfest American Horror Story. Now we know that Jessica Lange will play a nun and administrator (presumably in the 1960s-era East Coast insane asylum, which was previously announced as the season’s setting). And filling out the cast are Adam Levine and James Cromwell. ER reunion ho! Maura Tierney will recur on the next season of The Good Wife, sharing the screen once again with Julianna Margulies. According to Deadline, Tierney will play “a...

Prime Cuts: Housewives & Sister Wives

By on Jun 18, 2012 in Journal |

…plus impromptu commentary on The Big C, Parks and Recreation, and Mad Men I’ve been blogging for Primetimely for awhile now, and I love it, but I’ll be forthcoming: I’m not always the most regular updater. With a full-time day job to work, dozens of shows to watch, a career in TV writing to which to aspire, a cat to pamper, a roommate with whom to hang out, friends to see, and a fiancé with whom to spend quality time, it’s not always easy to find the time or the energy to dedicate to quality posts! But I think I often wait until I have inspiration for a post, and that means waiting too long. So with this post, I introduce a whole new category of blog update: the stream-of-consciousness-style journal, which I’m (oh-so-adorably) entitling “Prime Cuts.” I’ll try to just ramble and hold forth on the television that I’m watching and hearing about. And in the hope of blogging more often and...

The Shows of Summer

By on Jun 14, 2012 in Previews |

Feeling a certain malaise now that the traditional broadcast TV season is dormant until September? Feeling reluctant to crack that copy of Infinite Jest on your bookshelf? Unenthused about taking in the sunshine and warm weather outside? Have no fear: summer TV is here! And here’s your handy breakdown of the estival new shows (“estival: appearing or belonging to summer”—thanks, Merriam-Webster!), each listing complete with the official description and with my pithy remarks. Never mind the fact that some of these shows are already on the air. Just keep thinking that my blog is the timeliest of all blogs. May 11: Common Law (USA) This series is “about two cops with a problem—each other. Despite their differences, they are incredible detectives. When things come to a head during their ‘seven-year itch’ as partners, their captain forces them into...

Ratings Revelations and Ridiculousness

By on Jun 5, 2012 in Tinseltown |

As reported by TV.com, Nielsen has released a list of all the shows on broadcast networks this past season, ranked by average number of viewers in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic… and the list is surprising on many counts. I’ve transposed the complete list below, but in case you want the abridged version (you impatient ingrates!), I readily relinquish my reflections and ruminations on the ratings ranking. The most-watched scripted show is Modern Family (ABC, #4), and that fact makes me damn proud of America. Good on you, viewers! CBS sitcoms continue to dominate, especially The Big Bang Theory (#6), Two and a Half Men (#7), and 2 Broke Girls (#9). And, against all rational thought, Rules of Engagement (#35) is still surprisingly popular. I mean, I don’t know anyone who watches it, but… Grey’s Anatomy (#10) is doing remarkably well for a show entering its...

2012 Pilot Watch: Winners and Losers

By on May 29, 2012 in Tinseltown |

Upfronts is always a bittersweet time of year for me, since the broadcast networks always order only some of my favorite pilots to series, never all.  (When will the world accept my taste as universal truth, anyway?)  So here are my reflections on the shows that made the cut justly and unjustly, and the shows that were cut justly.  And I won’t dwell on the bad pilots that were passed over—why kick ’em when they’re down? Best of the winners Revolution I’m all about dystopian visions of the future, particularly when they spring from the mind of serial-drama-ninja J.J. Abrams.  So this saga about an energyless civilization looks simply electric, and it’s the series I’m most excited to see. Vegas Shows that tried to capitalize on Mad Men’s appeal this season—like Pan Am and The Playboy Club—didn’t fare so well; but I think...

GenreTV: “British ‘Series’ vs. American ‘Seasons'”

By on May 25, 2012 in Affiliates |

My good friend Kayti at Primetimely affiliate GenreTV ponders the quality-vs.-quantity question by examining the differences between how we Yanks do things and how the Brits do ’em. But I’m still left wondering: if they refer to seasons as “series,” then what’s their term for what we call “series finales”? And, more pressingly, how can I schedule regular shipments of crumpets? BBC’s Sherlock may be my favorite show on television, but, most of the time, it doesn’t feel like it’s actually on television. This is because its series come in sets of three. Yes, the episodes are basically feature-length, coming in at an hour-and-a-half apiece, but it’s still not enough! And don’t even get me started on the fact that I am going to have to wait more than a year for the next installment. I blame my frustrations on my American upbringing, where network...