“American Idol” Tuesday, 8pm; Wednesday 9pm, Fox There was a moment in the last week of the semi-finals where I thought we could possibly salvage this miserable season. But then Lilly Scott, Katelyn Epperly and Alex Lambert got sent home. They each had flaws, but they were musicians with unique voices and points of view. […]
“Life” Sunday 8pm, Discovery In 2006, Discovery aired the BBC Natural History Unit’s sprawling nature documentary series “Planet Earth.” The 10-part program explored our global ecosystem by focusing each chapter on a different kind of habitat (grasslands, jungles, caves, etc.). No joke, it was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Now […]
“The Celebrity Apprentice” Sunday 9pm, NBC I swore off this show last season after Joan Rivers—who I love—inexplicably won, but goddamned Donald Trump has sucked me back in with this cast. Delightful ’80’s pop star Cyndi Lauper! Baseball star/cautionary tale Darryl Strawberry! Disgraced former governor Rod Blagojevich! Hunkalicious wrestler Bill Goldberg! Surprisingly charming hairband refugee Bret […]
“Parenthood” Tuesday 10pm, NBC Loosely based on the 1989 film of the same name, and unrelated to the original NBC adaptation of the movie from the ’90s, “Parenthood” follows the many offshoots of the Braverman family as they try to figure out their screwed-up lives without further screwing up their children. The cast is great: […]
“The Marriage Ref” Sunday after the Olympics, NBC Can someone please explain to me why America still likes Jerry Seinfeld? He was always the least entertaining part of his eponymous sitcom, and since that ended he’s mostly been known for acting like a smug, entitled jackass. And yet, NBC is counting on his new show […]
“16 and Pregnant” Tuesday 10pm, MTV One of the more controversial entries in MTV’s reality programming is “16 and Pregnant,” about young mothers-to-be, which begins its second season tonight. There are two ways to think about the show: First, it’s deplorable because it exploits minors during the most stressful months of their lives, while […]
“Past Life” Tuesday & Thursday 9pm, Fox On the one hand, kudos to Fox for not using “Idol” to try to launch another terrible reality show. On the other, this new drama is yet another procedural. However, it has a twist: it’s about a pair of odd-couple investigators who look into crimes that may involve […]
“Phineas and Ferb” Sunday 8am-5pm, Disney XD You’ve got a big Super Bowl party to put together. You have screaming children demanding to be entertained. What to do? Plop them in front of the electronic pacifier for a whopping eight straight hours of this hit Disney cartoon. “Phineas and Ferb” is a cute comedy about […]
“The Tonight Show” Weeknights 11:35pm, NBC In June, Conan O’Brien took over “The Tonight Show” from 17-year host Jay Leno, who apparently didn’t really want to leave. To placate Leno—and to shore up holes in its pathetic primetime schedule—NBC gave the big-chinned “comic” his own show at 10pm, five nights a week. “The Jay Leno […]
“American Idol” Tuesday-Wednesday 8pm, Fox The big news for Season 9 is, of course, the departure of Paula Abdul from the judging panel. The four-person panel definitely wasn’t working—a number of last year’s episodes ran over because of the judges’ ceaseless prattling—but Paula wasn’t the problem. She might have been totally incoherent and hopelessly uncritical, […]