“Houdini” begins with a striking image of the escape artist Harry Houdini (Adrien Brody) perched on a bridge, shackled, as he works up the nerve to jump into the icy water below. The first sound we hear is a ghostly woman’s voice whispering, “Harry, can you hear me?” We have
Read More →I was going to start talking about the overrated shows nominated for this year’s Emmy Awards (Monday, 7 p.m., NBC), as I don’t understand why critics have fallen for “Masters of Sex,” “Homeland” and “Boardwalk Empire.” But I got sidetracked by the much bigger list of nominated shows that are
Read More →Martin Odum (Sean Bean) is a CIA agent who transforms himself into a different person for each undercover job. For example, he goes to great lengths to style himself as a creepy outsider to infiltrate a domestic terrorist group, masking his British accent with a stutter. “Legends” keeps you on
Read More →At first glance, “Jersey Belle” (Monday, 9 p.m., Bravo) comes on like one of those housewife reality series everyone loves to hate. Jaime is a brash Jersey girl with an Italian/Jewish heritage who follows her husband to a high-society suburb in Alabama. You brace yourself for the usual inanities, but
Read More →In the reality series “#RichKids of Beverly Hills,” the rich kids aren’t icky in that Kardashian way (Sunday, 9 p.m., E!). They’re smart and self-aware, even self-mocking at times. As a result, you don’t laugh at them, but with them. It’s fun to hang out with Dorothy, Morgan, EJ and
Read More →Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) returns to “Masterpiece Mystery!” with his waxed mustache, three-piece suit and formal manner — so formal that he even refers to himself in the third person (Sunday, 8 p.m., PBS). Poirot cuts an odd figure, but he’s so good at piecing together
Read More →Finally, after a summer’s worth of awful new sitcoms, I’m laughing again. In “Married,” Russ (Nat Faxon) and Lina (Judy Greer) are a once-happy couple weighed down by three kids (Thursday, 9 p.m., FX). Russ is frustrated by their nonexistent sex life, and Lina is frustrated by everything else. “Look,”
Read More →Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”) co-wrote and directed the first episode of “The Strain,” a stylish thriller about a virus with vampiric origins (Sunday, 9 p.m., FX). Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll), head of a Centers for Disease Control unit in New York City, is called in to investigate the
Read More →In the opening scene of “Finding Carter” (Tuesday, 9 p.m., MTV), 16-year-old Carter (Kathryn Prescott) shares a tender moment with her mother over frozen yogurt, then heads off to party with her friends. A bit of low-level recklessness lands them briefly in jail, but the authorities don’t release Carter along
Read More →With “Reckless,” CBS tries to create a sexy summer series — and succeeds (Sunday, 8 p.m.). Jamie (Anna Wood), a gorgeous Yankee lawyer in Charleston, South Carolina, is introduced in stiletto heels first, the camera practically drooling as it pans up to her tight miniskirt. You might think that’s offensive,
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