“Portlandia” Thursdays (IFC) One of the selling points of “Portlandia” has always been, if you don’t like one sketch, there’s another coming along in a minute. In Season 5, Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein are going a different route and spending a whole episode with one pair of characters (last
Read More →“Archer” Thursday, Jan. 8 (FX) Season Premiere: After last season’s cocaine ’n’ country detour, Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) and crew are back in the spy game — but no longer as ISIS, since that name’s been, uh, compromised. After he’s done wallowing in “cobra whiskey and lady-boy hookers,”
Read More →
Posted December 31, 2014in On The Tube
“You’re the Worst”(FX) Like the equally surprising “Broad City,” “You’re the Worst” shattered preconceptions of the “edgy” cable comedy with smarts, heart, bracing moments of relationship realism (and outright debauchery), and a fearless cast led by relative unknowns Chris Geere and Aya Cash. No worries that the Toxic Twosome
Read More →
Posted December 24, 2014in On The Tube
(Almost) everything you should revisit, or discover, from the past year. “True Detective” (HBO) Creator/writer Nic Pizzolatto probably screwed himself by launching this mesmerizing crime anthology with stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson at the top of their respective games. Good luck following up these eight near-perfect episodes.
Read More →
Posted December 17, 2014in On The Tube
“Anger Management” finally reaches 100 episodes. In other news, “Anger Management” is still on. In March 2011, Charlie Sheen was fired from CBS’ “Two & a Half Men” for being, well, more Charlie Sheen than he had been during production of the sitcom’s previous seven seasons. He then went on
Read More →
Posted December 10, 2014in On The Tube
“Marco Polo” Friday, Dec. 12 (Netflix) Networks are jumping on the sweeping, quasi-historical period piece bandwagon: HBO set it off with “Game of Thrones,” History has “Vikings,” Starz has “Outlander” and “Black Sails,” AMC has “Turn” and “Hell on Wheels,” The CW has “Reign,” and now Netflix is dropping the
Read More →
Posted December 03, 2014in On The Tube
Peter Pan Live! Thursday, Dec. 4 (NBC) Special: Last year, it was “The Sound of Music”; in January, it’ll be “The Music Man”; tonight, “Peter Pan” — NBC can’t launch a TV series anymore, but at least they have the high school musical market locked down. As with “The Sound
Read More →
Posted November 26, 2014in On The Tube
Cinema Insomnia (Roku’s Zom-Bee TV) “Your host” Mr. Lobo has presented late-night horror-cheese showcase Cinema Insomnia for 13 years through a smattering of regional cable outlets and, probably, subliminal mind control. Last year, Zom-Bee TV (available through streaming service Roku) picked up Cinema Insomnia, exposing the campy creature-feature to a
Read More →
Posted November 19, 2014in On The Tube
“An En Vogue Christmas” (Lifetime; Saturday, Nov. 22) The singers of En Vogue (as played by the current legally recognized singers of En Vogue) reunite for a holiday benefit concert to save the nightclub that gave them their start and to forgive the sleazy manager (David Allen Grier) who “broke
Read More →
Posted November 12, 2014in On The Tube
[B] State of Affairs Monday, Nov. 17 (NBC) Series Debut: Katherine Heigl was great in Grey’s Anatomy, and then Knocked Up—let’s pretend she joined the Peace Corps in 2007 and is just now returning to acting, OK? In State of Affairs, she plays a CIA analyst/adviser with a special relationship
Read More →
