In the new, post-Dan Harmon episodes, this once-brilliant community college sitcom now looks like a Cliff’s Notes version of itself.
Review
TV Tonight: Love, Hate, or Love-to-Hate It, Smash Is Back
NBC’s musical returns, retooled and apologetic. What you think of season two depends on how deep you thought the problems with season one were.
Super Bowl Watch: A Fiery Stage, Lights Out and a Voice from Beyond (Oh, Yeah, and a Game Too)
The big game is an all-day, bloated TV affair, and yet it was still able to turn on a dime and snatch excitement from the yawning jaws of boredom.
30 Rock Finale: I Lizzed, I Cried
Back in 2006, I would not have described 30 Rock as a love story. But the funny, sweet finale confirmed that, in many ways, that is exactly what it was.
Review: House of Cards Sinks Its Sharp Teeth into Washington
In Netflix’s new drama, Kevin Spacey guides a gleeful tour through a Washington D.C. where you are either eating flesh or you’re on the menu.
The Americans: Do You Pledge Allegiance?
FX unveiled the first chapter of its Cold War story about a fascinating fake (or is it?) marriage.
New Girl Watch: Will They? Won’t They? They Did
Last night, a couple of characters finally “violated the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act.” If you catch our meaning.
TV Tonight: The Americans
FX’s Cold War thriller about a deep-cover Soviet spies in the suburbs is the thriller you’d expect but also an intriguing study of marriage as partnership.
Enlightened Watch: Consider Levi
In a beautiful episode, Amy’s ex goes to rehab, proving that you can lead a man to water, but he has to find the turtle himself.
The Office Watch: Lowering the Boom Mic
Well, things got real there awfully quick.
American Horror Story: Asylum Shows Its Big, Bloody Heart
Though the series might seem all style over substance, the finale of AHS: Asylum showed genuine sympathy for the monsters it created.
The Taste: Do Cooking Shows Really Need the Voice Treatment?
ABC’s cook-off is promising, but for a show that’s “all about the food,” it has plenty of gimmicks
The Following: Bloody Awful
The Following, which premiered to much hype on Fox last night, seems to believe the recipe for ambitious cable-style drama is Karo syrup plus red food coloring.