‘American Idol’ emphasizes silliness over singing The “American Idol” season is heading into its final stretch (Wednesday and Thursday, 7 p.m., Fox), but it’s not the must-see TV of yore. Ratings are dropping, rival singing competitions are coming on strong, and the last half-dozen winners have been nondescript. We’ve been
Read More →‘All the President’s Men Revisited’ takes a fresh look at the Watergate scandal You couldn’t ask for a better reevaluation of the Watergate scandal than “All the President’s Men Revisited” (Sunday, 8 pm, Discovery). Robert Redford narrates the story of President Richard Nixon’s downfall, drawing on interviews with the journalists
Read More →Alien races try to coexist in the post-apocalyptic ‘Defiance’ Syfy boasts that “Defiance” marks the first conversion of TV and online gaming. The drama will unfold as both a series and a multiplatform videogame, with connections between the two mediums. That’s an intriguing gimmick — but luckily there’s nothing gimmicky
Read More →A new sitcom explains ‘How to Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)’ “How to Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)” (Wednesday, 8:30 p.m., ABC) is the rare sitcom where everyone in the cast is a great comedian, down to the child actor.
Read More →‘Crypt Collectors’ takes reality TV six feet under It seems no one is safe from the woes of economic turmoil. And as it often goes in Hollywood, if there’s a devastating plight out there, some TV show producer is ready to exploit it. Now not even the dead can rest
Read More →‘Phil Spector’ tries to humanize the notorious music producer “Phil Spector” (Sunday, 8 p.m., HBO) has a startling premise: that the freaky music producer might be a human being. Against the backdrop of his 2007 trial for murder, writer-director David Mamet tries to figure out what makes Spector tick. The
Read More →‘Bates Motel’ is an appealingly eccentric sequel to ‘Psycho’ One has misgivings about a prequel series based on “Psycho,” Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 horror masterpiece about a misfit’s murderous fixation on his mother. But the eccentric “Bates Motel” (Monday, 9 p.m., A&E) gives you reason for hope, starting with the actress
Read More →‘The Client List’ features the most wholesome prostitute ever I like shameless soap operas as much as the next guy, and “The Client List” is more shameless than most. Jennifer Love Hewitt plays Riley, a former Texas beauty queen who works as an erotic masseuse (read: prostitute) to support her
Read More →In “Enlightened,” Amy (Laura Dern) is a troubled woman making crazy-ass stabs at transcendence. This season she has committed herself to doing something meaningful on this Earth by exposing corruption at the company where she works. Friends and relatives think she’s out of her mind, and Amy can’t help wondering
Read More →“Golden Boy” (Tuesday, 9 p.m., CBS) is a new cop drama that takes an original approach to its protagonist. Walter Clark (Theo James) is not only a smart, capable police officer with a vulnerable streak (nothing new there), but an opportunist. He has a lean, hungry look, watching for the
Read More →
