TV Review: A Gifted Man

Written by Mark Peikert on September 25, 2011. Posted in Blog, TV

A blue-chip NYC-theater cast (Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Ehle, Marin Ireland, Margo Martindale) can’t elevate CBS’ A Gifted Man high enough to forgive its flaws. Wilson is Michael, a wildly successful Manhattan neurosurgeon whose snobbery and wealth are punished by the sudden appearance of his dead ex-wife (Ehle)
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TV Review: 2 Broke Girls

Written by Mark Peikert on September 21, 2011. Posted in Blog, TV

The most entertaining aspect of 2 Broke Girls, CBS’ latest effort to be hip, is identifying which of the jokes in the pilot were written by Michael Patrick King and which by Whitney Cummings—who is perpetrating comedy murder on not one but two networks this season. King’s are easy to spot: Just follow the pun.
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TV Review: Up All Night

Written by Mark Peikert on September 21, 2011. Posted in Blog, TV

Freed from the restraints of being daffy and arch, respectively, Christina Applegate and Will Arnett manage the neat trick of embodying both the couple you want to be in and the lovable weirdos with whom you’d hang out in NBC’s Up All Night
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TV Review: The Playboy Club

Written by Mark Peikert on September 20, 2011. Posted in Arts & Film, Blog, TV

Turns out, The Playboy Club has more going on than just ripped-off ’60s nostalgia and Playboy Bunnies. NBC’s new drama is actually a noir-ish melodrama about new Bunny Maureen (Amber Heard), ambitious cocksman/lawyer Nick Dalton (Eddie Cibrian, doing a dead-on Jon Hamm vocal impression that lends him gravitas) and their desperate attempts to cover up
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TV Review: Ringer

Written by Mark Peikert on September 11, 2011. Posted in Arts & Film, Blog, TV

Sarah Michelle Gellar is not messing around when it comes to her return to TV. Not only has she chosen Ringer, a campy nighttime drama, as her comeback vehicle, but she’s playing twins: stripper junkie Bridget and rich bitch Siobhan. On top of that, Ringer’s pilot throws in as much plot as it can manage
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TV Review: The Ringer

Written by Mark Peikert on August 27, 2011. Posted in Arts & Film, TV

Sarah Michelle Gellar is not messing around when it comes to her return to TV. Not only has she chosen Ringer, a campy nighttime drama, as her comeback vehicle, but she’s playing twins: stripper junkie Bridget and rich bitch Siobhan. On top of that, Ringer’s pilot throws in as much plot as it can manage in its
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TV Review: The Lying Game

Written by Mark Peikert on July 27, 2011. Posted in Arts & Film, TV

Consider The Lying Game, ABC Family’s latest teen drama, to be the sycophantic sidekick to that channel’s Pretty Little Liars. Lying tries to do everything that Liars does so easily, but, like the handmaiden to the queen bee, the strain is pretty obvious. There’s nothing particularly fresh or appealing about this weird drama, about long-lost twin sisters (Alexandra Chando plays both)
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TV Review: The Killing

Written by Mark Peikert on February 24, 2011. Posted in Arts & Film, TV

By the end of the first hour, you will probably want to punch in the face every character of AMC’s newest brooding drama, The Killing. Detective Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) is packing up on her last day in Seattle, preparing to fly down to San Diego with her young son to live with her fiancé in
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TV Review: Chaos & Breaking In

Written by Mark Peikert on February 24, 2011. Posted in Arts & Film, TV

The revival of the workplace sitcom has given us 30 Rock and even FX’s Archer—but it has also now given us Chaos and Breaking In, two willfully wacky shows that fall flat as they try to add a new twist to the office environment. Chaos, which premiered April 1 on CBS, is an hour-long dramedy about working for the CIA
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TV Review: The Borgias

Written by Mark Peikert on February 24, 2011. Posted in Arts & Film, TV

No one in Showtime’s new soap opera—er, historical drama—The Borgias is having a good time. Not Jeremy Irons as Pope Alexander, not any of the actors playing his children, followers or enemies, and certainly not the audience. The over-the-top story of the Borgia family, fraught with poisonings, treachery, possible incest and papal abuse, cries out for
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