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What to watch on Thursday, April 4...

8pm, CBS
The Big Bang Theory
A tenure opportunity pits the fellas against one another in “The Tenure Turbulence,” in what I can only imagine is the transmedia prologue for this summer’s most hotly anticipated video game, Mortal Kombat vs. Big Bang Theory Universe ($59.99 retail for Xbox and Playstation).

8:30pm, NBC
Parks and Recreation
“Partridge” is the name of both tonight's episode and the Minnesota hamlet a young Ben Wyatt once ruled with an iron fist and grandiose dreams of Ice Palaces as far as the eye could see. The former teen mayor returns with Leslie at his side this week, while back in Pawnee, Councilman Jamm sues Ron. That is plain not going to end well for Councilman Jamm even a tiny bit.

9pm, ABC
Grey’s Anatomy
Meredith and Derek take precautions for their kids’ futures after learning some worrisome news in “She’s Killing Me,” while April fesses up to Matthew about her bedroom experience. On the medical front, one doctor fears she may be responsible for the infections afflicting multiple pre-op patients, and Grey Sloan Memorial hosts a group of Syrian doctors seeking basic surgical skills.

9pm, CBS
Person of Interest
In “Trojan Horse,” Finch goes undercover to determine whether the latest POI, a high-level tech exec, is working to sabotage her own company from the inside. Not to tell Finch how to do his job, but her feverishly updated Tumblr tribute to Enlightened might be a clue. At the NYPD, Carter is rankled when Beecher turns over incriminating information about another detective.

9pm, Fox
New Girl
For the second straight week, Fox decides that what your Thursday night could use is a dash of Tuesday comedy. Will gobs of carryover viewers from American Idol fully appreciate the magnitude of “First Date,” which sends Jess and Nick off to solidify their fitful romance with a proper courtship? Will Schmidt and Winston’s attempts to sabotage their evening quash the dreams of the internet’s legion of shippers?

9:30pm, Fox
The Mindy Project
“Pretty Man” gender-bends rom-com classic Pretty Woman, as Mindy inadvertently befriends a male prostitute right when she needs a date for Danny and Alex’s dinner party. Did someone say, “I feel like I’ve read this episode summary before?” Yes. Yes, you did. Because Fox had originally scheduled this one for Tuesday and “My Cool Christian Boyfriend” for tonight, but then flipped them on us. Because Fox is a wily trickster nemesis. This isn’t over between you and me, Fox. Not by a longshot.

9:30pm, NBC
Go On
And lookee here, the Peacock’s also getting into the “let’s toss our Tuesday comedies onto Thursday night and see what shakes out” game. In “Fast Breakup,” K-Ball’s new mascot awakens the green-eyed monster in Ryan, who’s also trying to make sense of both Lauren’s love life and a booze-sodden come-on from his secretary. Is it any wonder he wishes he could solve his problems with a giant foam head and a T-shirt cannon?

SERIES PREMIERE, 10pm, NBC
Hannibal
Showrunner Bryan Fuller brings you the latest spin on popular fiction’s most cultured and charismatic cannibal, played here by Mads Mikkelsen. “Apéritif” opens the series with the not-yet-notorious Dr. Lecter teaming up with an FBI agent (Hugh Dancy) to track a serial killer, though probably not the one who's laid waste the dozens of other shows that’ve occupied this timeslot in the last four years.

10pm, ABC
Scandal
“Molly, You in Danger, Girl” finds Team Olivia realizing they may have flubbed an old case. And not in a “we’ll laugh about this one day at the office holiday party” kind of way. More like a “welp, now we’re all in mortal peril” kind of way. In relationship developments, Olivia and Jake’s romance is on the upswing, while Fitz and Mellie plumb new lows.

10pm, FX
Archer
Cheryl sets off on a salubrious voyage to the Bermuda Triangle alongside her loving brother Cecil and his squeeze Tiffy (guest-stars Eugene Mirman and Kristen Schaal). There, the Tunt siblings and companion encounter mystery, adventure, and quite likely a cliffhanger ending, if the title “Sea Tunt: Part I” is to be believed.

LATE-NITE:
– From Atlanta, Charles Barkley and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis on Conan, 11pm, TBS
– Guest host Ross Matthews on Chelsea Lately, 11pm, E!
– Danny Boyle on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 11pm, Comedy Central
– Dr. Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, on The Colbert Report, 11:30pm, Comedy Central
– Eva Longoria, Terry Crews, and a performance from Cavalia’s “Odysseo” on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 11:35pm, NBC
– Martin Short and Tyler, the Creator on Late Show with David Letterman, 11:35pm, CBS
– Goran Visnjic and Seth Sentry on Jimmy Kimmel Live, 11:35pm, ABC
– Melissa McCarthy, Chris Jericho, and Ryan Bingham on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, 12:37am, NBC

View the original article here

What to watch on Tuesday, April 2...

SEASON 1 FINALE, 9pm & 9:30pm, NBC
The New Normal
Ryan Murphy’s sitcom winds up its freshman season with back-to-back episodes. First, in “Finding Name-O,” Bryan and David’s struggles to think up a quality baby name sparks tension, while Brice’s advice leads Clay to consider pouring his heart out to Goldie. Then in the finale, “The Big Day,” Bryan and David’s determination to seal their nuptials before the baby arrives may be thwarted, since no wedding in sitcom history has ever eluded at least mild thwarting.

9:30pm, Fox
The Mindy Project
Mindy dates a man of the cloth in “My Cool Christian Boyfriend,” but when he questions her ethical bona fides, she decides to prove him wrong by joining the medical practice’s volunteer excursion to a women’s prison. Meanwhile, I question the ethical bona fides of Fox flipping this episode with the one scheduled for Thursday, "Pretty Man," at the last minute, solely to flummox viewers and writers of summary blurbs alike.

SEASON 4 FINALE, 10pm, FX
Justified
Detroit brings the fight to Raylan for a final showdown as “Ghosts” concludes the stellar fourth season. Meanwhile, Boyd and Ava try to bury a past misdeed once and for all, while Constable Bob is probably off recuperating with a hearty take-out order from KFC.

10pm, NBC
Smash
“The Parents” finds Tom’s hands full when the Bombshell cast welcomes Leigh Conroy (guest-star Bernadette Peters)—as well as her years of animosity with Ivy, dating back to a 1989 flare-up of the Tastes Great-Less Filling Wars. In developments that won’t inspire me to date myself via beer commericial references, Karen and Jimmy’s relationship is put to the test, and Derek uncovers more details about Jimmy’s past as the first chunk of “Hit List” goes public.

10pm, CBS
Golden Boy
A subway shooting may be linked to the years-ago murder of McKenzie’s brother, leading her to pursue justice for her family in “McKenzie on Fire.” Meanwhile, Owen is troubled by the prospect of retiring in two years, even though TV bylaws dictate that if this show runs long enough, he can take advantage of the George Feeny Clause governing non-retiring retiring mentors.

10pm, ABC
Body of Proof
When a rash of rabies cases in “Skin and Bones” leaves Tommy bitten by one rabid victim, Kate and Megan turn to new health commissioner Luke Perry for help with the investigation. “Could it really be zombies?” ABC’s press site asks, nudging us in the ribs assiduously and hoping we’ll all play along as if the network’s execs are “down” with the zombie zeitgeist the kids are into these days.

10pm, TBS
Cougar Town
Dear TV.com readers: We accept that the fact that we have to mention Cougar Town’s extended Breakfast Club riff, featuring inner monologues by all the Cul-de-Sac Crew, in this blurb about “The Criminal Mind.” But we think you’re crazy to make us write something about what we think happens in it. You see TV episode summaries as you want to see them, in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what've we found out is that each one of us is hang-out sitcom... and a reality show competition... and a pop-culture parody... and a family drama... and a gritty cable serial. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, What to Watch Tuesday. *Pumps fist*

LATE-NITE:
– From Atlanta, Paul Rudd and Von Grey on Conan, 11pm, TBS
– Busy Philipps on Chelsea Lately, 11pm, E!
– Historian Jonathan Sperber on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 11pm, Comedy Central
– Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey on The Colbert Report, 11:30pm, Comedy Central
– Blake Shelton and Jim Rome on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 11:35pm, NBC
– Regis Philbin and a performance by the Broadway cast of “Cinderella” on Late Show with David Letterman, 11:35pm, CBS
– Bill Maher, Giancarlo Esposito, and Cold War Kids on Jimmy Kimmel Live, 11:35pm, ABC
– Tracy Morgan, Andy Cohen, Deerhunter, and B.J. Thomas on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, 12:37am, NBC

View the original article here

It's been a hell of a fall season so far, hasn't it? Typically by the time we get to this point (omg how is it November already?), half of the new fall shows have already been canceled. But somehow only two freshmen series out of 21 total have gotten the axe—so which ones do we think are going strong, and which ones would we've killed weeks ago? We started to answer that question just over a week ago with the first installment of our patented 4-Episode Test, and now we're back with round two.

Episode ratings are out of five stars.

Arrow

Verdict: Keep watching.

While by no means the best new drama of the fall season (hi there, Last Resort!), Arrow offers fun, comic book-y fare plus Stephen Amell doing parkour and, oftentimes, not wearing a shirt. There are still kinks to work out (those expository voiceovers! Finding a balance between action and drama!), but there are also plenty of interesting mysteries surrounding the narrative (what's Moira up to? What happened on the island?), and the series features a strong dynamic between Amell's Oliver Queen and David Ramsey's John Diggle. Perhaps most interestingly, though, Arrow has shown early signs of wanting to think about class and racial tensions, making it something worth keeping an eye on as the TV season progresses. —Noel Kirkpatrick

Beauty and the Beast

Verdict: Quit watching.

I did not care for the pilot of this show. In my opinion (which is by definition subjective, but in this case also 100 percent accurate), Beauty and the Beast is the worst new show of the fall season. However, I will allow that this show had the potential for becoming a watchable guilty pleasure if it ever embraced its own weirdness and became something much different than what we saw in the pilot. Over the course of four episodes that didn't happen, but Episode 3 did show signs of life when it cut to the chase and turned the two title characters into essentially flirtatious teenagers (seriously, a scene in which they exchanged phone numbers was downright charming). Unfortunately, the entire police procedural angle remains a disaster; it's the least plausible police station since Cop Rock and the actual cases of the week are deadly boring. The serialized storyline—mostly to do with a top-secret organization called Muirfield that once employed the lead character's mother and also CREATED the beast—is a step up, but still falls short of any other show with a shadowy conspiracy element. Beauty and the Beast has still not found a way to make the beast's constant stalking of the beauty anything less than disturbing. Actor Jay Ryan does what he can with the non-character he's being asked to play, but the world's worst haircut is doing him no favors. Finally, we're starting to get to see more of "the beast" in actual beast form and the prosthetic makeup is laughably terrible. Sorry, makeup artist, but if you were a contestant on Syfy's Face Off, you would've been berated by Glenn Hetrick and sent home for this. Anyway, yeah. Still terrible, still boring. —Price Peterson

Chicago Fire

Verdict: Quit watching.

Chicago Fire isn't a terrible show—but it isn't terribly interesting, either. The action sequences lack the kinetic quality you would expect from people walking into fire, the dialogue ranges from basic to intolerable, and the stories are rote at best. The biggest issue the series faces is its Superman problem: Station 51 is filled with white hats lacking character flaws. I respect firefighting as much as the next guy, but Chicago Fire's hero worship for those riding the big red truck is so overwhelming that it reduces the opportunities for anything compelling. In Episode 3, a villain (Detective Voight) is finally introduced to act against the whitest hat of them all (Casey) but his weapons so far have been a gravelly voice and minor vandalism. It's like he's taking revenge classes from Carrie Underwood. If this show isn't going to be a case-of-the-week kind of series, it's going to need to raise the stakes for its characters—and with the quickness. Otherwise, it's just an opportunity for hot actors to get topless. And that's what cable is for.
—Nick Campbell

Emily Owens, M.D.

Verdict: Test results inconclusive.

If we were doing half stars, I would have lowered each of these grades by half a star, but I was feeling generous and rounded up. This show is completely driven by the other-worldly adorableness of its star, Mamie Gummer. I don't mean that in a bad way; the episodes are tolerably written, the characters decently interesting, but Gummer lights up the screen. Still, I'm wondering how long it'll be before that glow wears off. In the pilot Emily gave Will, her buddy from med school, a very unfortunate speech about how she'd been crushing on him for years. I'd hoped his rejection of her would allow her character to move on to bigger and better things, but she keeps awkwardly orbiting the guy, trying all sorts of immature things to get over him. The show is also trying waaay too hard to be Grey's Anatomy: The Early Years. —Julia Bergen

Elementary

Verdict: Keep watching in hopes the show solves its problems.

What is ever, ever to be done about a procedural where you thoroughly love the main characters yet seriously detest their weekly adventures? Dogged by unflattering comparisons to BBC's knockout Sherlock series, Elementary's concept of an NYC-based Sherlock Holmes struck me as well worth investigating, and for leads you'd be hard pressed to find actors easier on the eyes and more singularly fascinating than Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu. However, the pilot's early promise has been continually eroded by ham-fisted, preposterous cases that depend more on the audience's suspension of disbelief than Holmes' deductive reasoning to make any kind of sense. A criminally stupid police department and crimes neither logistically possible nor emotionally probable weaken Elementary as a mystery series. Still, the settings, leads, and character development are all there—the day someone brings an Agatha Christie book into the writer's room, this show could take off. —Lily Sparks

The Mindy Project

Verdict: Keep watching, it's getting weirder in a good way.

The Mindy Project's pilot felt—like pilots are wont to do—overworked, over written, and sort of wooden. Thank goodness I was contractually obligated to watch the three episodes that followed it, or I might have missed out on the very original, odd comedy it became after it was greenlit. Since the addition of former felon/extremely charismatic Nurse Morgan (Ike Barinholtz, a.k.a. Ivan Dochenko from Eastbound and Down Season 3) in Episode 2, there's been a sharp uptick in the level of comedy and surreality (Mindy was also revealed to have a chocolate fountain on her desk in that episode). Perfectly, the absurd humor is grounded in beautiful, glossy production values and solid story structure. My only complaint is the two dreamy doctors. They're meant to provide a love triangle for Mindy, but both suffer from a total lack of chemistry. No chemistry with Mindy, with each other, or with the audience. As a pure comedy though, my hopes are high. —Lily

Nashville

Verdict: Love it. Definitely keep watching.

Nothing about Nashville's premise looked like anything I'd choose to watch, but its cast and pedigree guaranteed I'd at least check it out. Boy am I glad I did. Nashville's pilot was one of my favorites of the season; it mixed soap elements with a plausible behind-the-scenes drama of famous people and their powerful svengalis without ever losing the organic character work of obvious forefather Friday Night Lights. The second, third, and fourth episodes continued the high-quality writing, but an obvious element of telenovela plotting began to set in (shoplifting! Affairs! Drug addiction!) that made Nashville seem sliiiiightly less grounded than it did in the pilot. Still though, no other show currently on TV is as good at summing up the characters' emotional states via musical performance (nope, not even Glee). A particularly charged duet between Connie Britton's character and her hunky longtime collaborator in the second episode was one of the most stirring and emotional moments I've seen on TV in a while. Also, even a plotline as hoary as Hayden Panettierre's character's shoplifting incident still bore higher-quality fruit than expected: Juliette's disastrous attitude about it in the press was surprising and hilarious. So while it's not clear whether Nashville can maintain its initial grace and realism or if it will lapse into cheap drama (a new subplot involving Rayna's husband's ex-girlfriend looks worrisome), for now Nashville is one of network TV's best series, bar none. —Price

Vegas

Verdict: Pretty even money.

CBS jumped into the period-piece game with Vegas, which boasts a great cast but also a bland premise: There's a new sheriff in town! The character of Ralph Lamb is old-school country and solves crimes the old-fashioned way, with old-fashioned detective techniques and good-old knuckle sandwiches. See how many times I used the word "old"? Vegas is a comforting procedural drama with costumes, and doesn't aspire to be much more than that. So far the cases appear to hover somewhere near the "tolerable" level, with slight swings in each direction, and the long-term season arcs have barely been tapped. Vegas could turn into something much more interesting, but for right now, it seems content to play with pennies instead of taking risks for big bucks. —Tim Surette

View the original article here

What to watch on Tuesday, February 5...

SEASON 3 FINALE, 8pm, PBS
Pioneers of Television
Epic miniseries—including Roots, Rich Man, Poor Man, and The Thornbirds—are spotlighted in the documentary series' Season 3 finale. LeVar Burton, Susan Blakely, and Richard Chamberlain are among the stars interviewed.

8pm, CBS
NCIS
In "Canary," the team pursues a hacker with ties to the world's most nefarious cyber-terrorist. On the heels of last week's Person of Interest, CBS procedurals have clearly decided cyber-terrorism is the hot new trend for this sweeps month. I can't wait to see how Vegas shoehorns in a plot about guys attacking a '60s-era, room-sized IBM mainframe.

8pm, NBC
Betty White's 2nd Annual 90th Birthday Special
Rumor has it Comcast has quietly been buying up biotechnology and medical research companies, covertly pouring billions into R & D for extending the human lifespan. Why? Because Betty White pulls ratings for NBC, and the network is going to celebrate her January 17 birthday during February sweeps every year for decades to come, dammit. In attendance this year are Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, the cast of White's Hot in Cleveland, and more.

SEASON 2 PREMIERE, 9pm, NBC
Smash
It's time to play the music. It's time to light the lights. It's time to meet a new cast member Jennifer Hudson on the two-episode season premiere of Smash tonight. It's time to put on makeup. It's time to dress up right. It's time to raise the curtain on the retooled musical drama with "On Broadway" and "The Fallout" tonight!

9pm, Fox
New Girl
Tonight's installment is either called "Marriage" or "Table 34," depending on which Fox press release you consult, which is interesting because OH WHO CARES ZOMG JESS AND NICK KISSED LAST WEEK YOU GUYSSSS!!!! Tune in to see what comically romantic fallout results, especially now that hunky Dr. Sam is back in the equation.

SPECIAL NIGHT & TIME, 9pm, ABC
The Bachelor
Sean and the nine remaining ladies vying for his lunkheaded affections jet off to majestic Canada. Deep in the heart of the Rockies, they'll enjoy such "adventurous" dates as monster-snow-truck-riding and cliff-rappelling, before three more contestants are dismissed with a rose and a parting gift of three gallons of maple syrup.

9:30pm, Fox
The Mindy Project
Mindy's troubled that new squeeze Jaime (guest-star BJ Novak) is so attached to his female best friend, so she schemes to match the gal up with Danny in "Harry & Mindy." Nothing says "Valentine's Day" like double dates and ulterior motives!

10pm, TBS
Cougar Town
Bobby Cobb already lives on a boat, and with his new burger-based food truck venture underway in "Runnin' Down a Dream," all aspects of his life will soon center on repurposed modes of transportation. A hollowed-out submarine for a putting green! Penny Can from hang gliders! It's all on the table for Bobby Cobb, folks.

10pm, FX
Justified
"Raylan encounters unexpected danger," says the least-helpful episode summary of all-time about "Kim." Gosh, episode summary, does he also wear a cowboy hat? Maybe he fires off a few one-liners in a weathered deadpan, and then shoots a guy? THROW ME A FRIGGIN' BONE, EPISODE SUMMARY!

LATE-NITE:
– Jennifer Lawrence, Nick Kroll, and Randy Houser on Conan, 11pm, TBS
– Guest host Dave Grohl on Chelsea Lately, 11pm, E!
– New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 11pm, Comedy Central
– Julie Andrews on The Colbert Report, 11:30pm, Comedy Central
– Josh Duhamel, Kathryn Bigelow, and LiAnne La Havas on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 11:35pm, NBC
– Eric Stonestreet, Pauley Perrette, and Brandon Bennett on Late Show with David Letterman, 11:35pm, CBS
– Bradley Cooper, Kata Mara, and Emeli Sandé on Jimmy Kimmel Live, 11:35pm, ABC
– Justin Bieber, Naomi Campbell, Local Natives, and Jim James on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, 12:37am, NBC
– Amanda Peet and Paul Williams on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, 12:37am, CBS

View the original article here

FOX WANTS MORE OF ITS OTHER NEW GIRL NEWS

... The back-nine order Fox awarded to The Mindy Project earlier this month apparently wasn't enough. Fox is asking for an additional two episodes of the Mindy Kaling comedy to bring its first-season order up to 24 episodes. Now if only Fox would actually air an episode of The Mindy Project; the show has been preempted due to presidential debates, might miss time due to baseball, and will also make way for some silly election coverage in the first week of November. [Deadline Hollywood]

GOOD SIGNS FOR THREE NEW SHOWS NEWS

... ABC has ordered a pair of scripts for both Last Resort and 666 Park Avenue, two bubble shows that are fighting for full-season pickups. This is far from a guarantee that the shows will survive, but it at least means ABC is considering keeping them. I mean, hey, ABC didn't ask for more scripts of The Neighbors, right? Oh wait... [Deadline Hollywood]

... Fox sent out its November schedule today, and normally this wouldn't be news, but The Mob Doctor is on it. We all figured the freshman drama—which has been getting killed in the ratings—would be canceled by now, and that Fox maybe wouldn't make an announcement because it was hoping we'd all forget The Mob Doctor existed while the World Series took over its schedule. But nope, it's still coming back on November 5 as planned. [Fox via press release]

IN DEVELOPMENT

... Craig Robinson (The Office, that time-traveling hot-tub movie) has signed on to star in a potential comedy from The Office's executive producer Greg Daniels. The untitled project centers on a musician who takes over the music department at a middle school. [Deadline Hollywood]

... Memphis Beat creators Liz Garcia and Josh Harto have sold a supernatural drama idea to CBS. The Big Easy follows a trumpet player who also happens to investigate paranormal mysteries in New Orleans. [Deadline Hollywood]

... Rules of Engagement creator Tom Hertz has another comedy cooking at CBS. And it sounds just as awesome as Rules of Engagement! The new project is a multi-camera (duh) comedy about a young couple that moves in together and next thing you know she's all like, "Why is the toilet seat up?" and he's all like, "Yo I just want to watch football and drink my beer!" [Deadline Hollywood]

SCHEDULE-STRAIGHTENING NEWS

... Next Tuesday will be a bit of a mess on Fox as the network tries to clean things up after this week's baseball rain delays. An hour-long The X Factor will start at 9:30pm and air the portion of this week's episode that was lopped off due to baseball overrun. That means The Mindy Project will miss another week! [TV Guide]

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In what universe does a show that scored a 1.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic and just over 3 million viewers in its second episode get a full-season pickup? The wacky, crazy universe that we call this one, apparently! Fox is apparently putting numbers aside, as it has ordered full seasons of its new comedies Ben and Kate and The Mindy Project, just two episodes into both of their infancies.

The Mindy Project gets a full back-nine order, bringing its Season 1 episode count to the standard 22 episodes. But Ben and Kate will be a little shorter, with just six more episodes added to its count.

The new shows have been boosted by Fox's live-action Tuesday comedy block, where they're paired with Raising Hope and New Girl. Last season, New Girl was the beneficiary of a quick full-season pickup after two episodes, but it filled out the stat sheet nicely as an instant megahit to the tune of a 4.4 rating in the adult demo and 9.26 million viewers. The same can't be said about Ben and Kate and The Mindy Project, which tallied 3.32 million viewers with a 1.6 rating and 3.68 million viewers with a 1.9 rating, respectively, in their second episodes. Do ratings even matter anymore? In case you're wondering, last week's New Girl, the third episode of the show's second season, drew 4.99 million viewers and a 2.8 rating.

With few series waiting in the wings as possible replacements, it looks like Fox is going to ride this one out instead of taking drastic measures. The Mindy Project and Ben and Kate join NBC's Revolution, Go On, and The New Normal as the only new series picked up for full seasons so far.

View the original article here

When I first watched the pilot of The Mindy Project this summer, I thought it was a bust, and not just because the title sounds like everyone blew off the "naming our show is important" meeting. It was interesting, even a little dark for a sitcom, but during my first watch, the episode got broader and broader to the point of diluting its promising bit of originality. The trope of a woman who is a mess in her social life but amazing in her professional one is usually not irritating, but as of late The Newsroom has abused that dichotomy by employing a couple of hysterical savants. Many of the jokes in the pilot were tepid and, while it didn't turn me off from wanting to watch more, my promised perseverance was only in hopes that it would get better fast. Instead of being excited for a new show from a strong female voice, I'd basically started my countdown to the four-episode decision.

Then I finally got around to reading Mindy Kaling's book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and Other Concerns). I don't want to sound like an infomercial so I'll just tell you it's good and funny and walks a fine line between candid and TMI, like you might expect from Kaling. But, more than anything, it made me reconsider The Mindy Project.

The show and the book are not supposed to be intentionally linked (I don't think), but it's hard not to draw on one to fill in the other. I'll recount the characteristics that reminded me of each in Kaling's own "pliest" style. In her book, that's how she describes essays "with a list-y quality." You might know it better as "80 percent of all professional blog entries."

Note: For all our sanity, I'll refer to Mindy the writer/actor as Kaling. For the character in the show (the OB/crazy person), I'll use her last name, Lahiri.

My first pass of the opening narration made me think of Carrie Bradshaw's "clever" meditations on the trivialities and tragedies of first-world life—if not in content, at least in tone and cadence. Kaling mentions in one of her chapters the grip Sex and the City had on the city of New York in the early aughts. How soon I forget that telling someone they were a Charlotte used to be a legitimate thing to say and not reason to stop a conversation.

So the book reinforced my initial reaction. My initial, such-a-boy reaction. After the pilot became available. I read that viewers, women specifically, felt Lahiri's asides and soliloquized quips reminded them of their own inner monologues. And while I feel that Carrie Bradshaw's columns weren't representative of women so much as embodiments of unchecked and often-encouraged evil, her narration is frequently considered part of that same conversation, a voice for a gender whose voice is so often misrepresented, ignored entirely, or reduced to nagging set-up for a fat man's punchline. That's not to say I think Lahiri is derivative as a character or that Kaling is copying the SATC model. Girls often gets unfairly saddled with that accusation. Putting Girls and The Mindy Project in the same sentence with SATC is more of a compliment to Lena Dunham and Kaling that there's room for the voices of confident women who inspire emotional connections in a female audience.

While it would've been easy and interesting for Kaling to set her show within the realm of her actual career, I understand the need to fictionalize a universe (because we don't want to follow Tina Fey all the way down the rabbit hole), and I thank Kaling profusely for sparing us a Hollywood-based sitcom. My first viewing of the pilot had me seeing the parallel between Lahiri's position of birthing children/holding the hands of women as they move into the next phase of their lives and Lahiri's own transition... but the impact was later compounded by knowing that Kaling's mother is also an obstetrician. Write what you know, sure. Write the life where you follow in a parent's footsteps? That's just good karma.

Kaling fictionalized the world of the show by changing a few key factors about her own life—her occupation, and making Lahiri essentially an ambitious Kelly Kapoor (who Kaling insists is not anything like her in real life). One important thing the author and the character share, however, is the way romantic comedies figure into their lives. Both the book and the show document how Kaling/Lahiri always made time for rom-coms, to the detriment of a social life. But the result of that life is where the personality and the character diverge. Look, I can only assume things about Kaling based on the media-spun interviews and PR-biased interpretation of her, just like I can only assume Olivia Wilde is the coolest, hottest humanitarian this side of Angelina Jolie who would be totally into a polyamorous relationship with me and my girlfriend. That's what I get from interviews, anyway.

But from Kaling's book you get the impression that her romantic perspective is hopeful, even naive at times, when it comes to the subject of true love. Lahiri, meanwhile, is jaded—spurned by the reality of storybook love not working out and surviving its existential aftermath. It's almost as if Kaling is exploring the other side, the Sliding Doors dark side, one where she emerges from the pain to find the perfect partner while Dido is playing somewhere.

Lahiri's best friend is a beautiful blonde woman named Gwen (Anna Camp). Kaling's best friend is a beautiful blonde woman named Bren. Not exactly revelatory.

Chris Rock visited The Daily Show a couple months ago to promote Two Days in New York (do you remember that was a movie?), and he and Jon Stewart discussed the constant need for new material in the age of YouTube, where people broadcast everything you say and there's a constant demand for new content. I see both sides of the issue: I've watched Eddie Izzard's Dress to Kill about 90 times, but if I saw him do it live tomorrow, I'd be a little disappointed.

So what I will say is this: While the jokes in the pilot were mostly asides or quick punchlines, they're jumping-off points in the book. The essays almost become footnotes or writer's commentary to the episode itself. It might be a little early in Kaling's celebrity to say they're "callbacks," but the one-liners that were supposed to elicit a chuckle in the pilot are actually the suggestion of deeper material. Which leads me to...

After Lahiri suffered her heart for nearly the entire pilot, the man you can only assume will be the actual, eventual love interest—Daniel—interrogated his coworker as to whether she thought her latest date was a boy or a man. In the book, Kaling dedicates an entire essay to this subject, saying how she used to be scared of "men" and would only date "boys." Kaling says that, once she crossed into the realm of the thirty-year-old, males who were "committed" and "entrenched" were more appealing than the kind of boys who still carry around skateboards for transportation.

The Daniel character is the Kaling voice of experience speaking with a Jersey accent. Watching the pilot alone, the speech might get diluted by both the fact that Daniel is obviously talking about himself as the perfect male specimen for dating and the possibility that the show is setting up sexual tension between Daniel and Lahiri. The book as a companion reinforces that this is honestly a step toward being all growed up. The transition from boys to men is a sign of Lahiri busting free of her arrested adulthood, the necessary turnaround to kick off the series. Although it's almost assured that none of the men Kaling discusses in the book would punch a dude at a Springsteen concert for wearing the wrong T-shirt, you get the idea.

All told, the episode came to life for me after reading the book. It was elevated from pedestrian and uneven; I made a connection to the episode through the celebrity persona of Mindy Kaling. Whether or not she considered the book to be a companion piece while developing her show is irrelevant. Providing a candid document as source material for a show that is superficially fiction is an interesting tactic to make a show more compelling. It makes you question what's real and what's completely fabricated. It contextualizes heartbreaking or ridiculous circumstances. Maybe most importantly, it connects the audience with the central character in a way that a 22-minute pilot can struggle to do. Mindy Kaling is your friend. And you want to watch your friend do well.

That being said, don't feel like you need to read the book to enjoy the show. The pilot itself may have been uneven, but the characters and series have potential. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? isn't a Rosetta Stone necessary to fully understand Kaling's story. It's more like commentary, contextual winks that flesh out the thought process behind her televisual creation. No, you don't have to do homework to enjoy the show. I'm just saying it doesn't hurt to do some extra credit.

View the original article here

What to watch on Tuesday, September 25...

The premieres just keep flowing in and I couldn't be happier to report it. Mostly because it gives me something to write about in these intros! Woohoo! Time to check out what's on TV tonight:

SEASON 2 PREMIERE, 8pm, Fox
New Girl
Zoey Deschanel will swoop in to take over for the So You Think You Can Dance time-slot, now that it has run its course. And we couldn't be happier to have her back—twice, technically, because New Girl will air two new episodes tonight: One at 8 p.m. and the other at 9 p.m. In the first, the second season premiere called "Re-launch," Jess gets laid off from her teaching gig and so decides to work as a shot girl at Schmidt's 'rebranding' party. Of course, Winston gets a little loose after a couple of drink-tastings. And in other news, Cece introduces her new boyfriend to the gang. Oh! And Parker Posey guest stars as an apathetic cocktail waitress.

SERIES PREMIERE, 8:30pm, Fox
Ben and Kate
Smack in the center of two New Girls, it's Fox's new Ben and Kate. In it we meet Kate, a single mom whose older brother Ben shows up one day to "help out," but it soon comes to light that Ben is really back in town because he's planning on trying to reunite with an ex—who's engaged to be married. In the meantime, Kate prepares for a date after years of being out of the game. Will this quirky duo win your hearts and thusly this Tuesday night time-slot? It's yet to be determined!

SERIES PREMIERE, 9:30pm, Fox
The Mindy Project
Mindy Kaling jumps networks and stars as Mindy Lahiri in this new Fox comedy: Lahiri is an Ob-gyn struggling to make sense of the disaster that is her personal life. The pilot kicks off with a toast no one will forget at her ex-boyfriend's wedding... that's just the beginning. As events unfold, Mindy bumps elbows with the law and it turns out to be even more embarrassing than the toast.

SERIES PREMIERE, 10pm, CBS
Vegas
Hey, it's a network that's not Fox on this list! CBS's new drama is set in 1960s Nevada where ex-rancher Ralph Lamb reigns as the reluctant sheriff for a little town called Las Vegas. In the pilot, Ralph begins to investigate a murder that involved the governor's niece—and it casts him into high waters with a mobster from Chicago who runs a posh casino on what will one day be called the Vegas strip. Based on historical facts (though I'm not sure how closely), this one should be fun for anyone who liked to imagine how "sin city" first built its reputation.

SERIES PREMIERE, 10:30pm, Comedy Central
Brickleberry
Comedy Central is trying its hand at another animated series. In "Welcome to Brickleberry" we are introduced to the completely inept forest rangers who roam the grounds of Brickleberry National Park. Steve, who has Ranger of the Month on lockdown, starts to worry about his position on the team now that new ranger Ethel is arriving to the park. Also, Malloy gets put on a diet after his taste for chocolate becomes too much for him to handle.

PLUS ALL NEW EPISODES OF...
Dancing With the Stars: All-Stars, 8 p.m., ABC
NCIS, SEASON 10 PREMIERE, 8 p.m., CBS
The Voice, 9 p.m., NBC
19 Kids and Counting, 9 p.m., TLC
Dance Moms, REUNION PART 2, 9 p.m., Lifetime
Face Off, 9 p.m., Syfy
Frontline, 9 p.m., PBS
Go On, 9 p.m., NBC
Hard Time, 9 p.m., NatGeo
Mysteries at the Museum, 9 p.m., Travel
New Girl, 9 p.m., Fox
NCIS: Los Angeles, SEASON 4 PREMIERE, 9 p.m., CBS
Property Virgins, 9 p.m., HGTV
Top Gear, 9 p.m., History
The New Normal, 9:30 p.m., NBC
Abby & Brittany, 10 p.m., TLC
Addicted, 10 p.m., Discovery Fitness & Health
All the Right Moves, 10 p.m., Oxygen
Bomb Girls, 10 p.m., Reelz
Chopped, 10 p.m., Food
Counting Cars, 10 p.m., History
Flipping Out, 10 p.m., Bravo
Gangsters: America's Most Evil, 10 p.m., Bio
House Hunters, 10 p.m., HGTV
Hot Set, 10 p.m., Syfy
Man, Fire, Food, 10 p.m., Cooking
Parenthood, 10 p.m., NBC
Private Practice, SEASON 6 PREMIERE, 10 p.m., ABC
Sons of Anarchy, 10 p.m., FX
Twisted, 10 p.m., Investigation Discovery
Tosh.0, 10 p.m., Comedy Central
TV Guide Magazine's Top 25 Best Oprah Show Moments, SPECIAL, 10 p.m., OWN
House Hunters International, 10:30 p.m., HGTV

LATE-NITE PICKS:
Kaley Cuoco on Late Show With David Letterman, 11:35 p.m., CBS
Ann Romney and Seth MacFarlane on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, 11:35 p.m., NBC
Melanie Griffith, Kerry Washington, and Dancing With the Stars' runners up on Jimmy Kimmel Live, 12 a.m., ABC
Jerry Seinfeld, Anthony Anderson, Zach Cregger, and Jesse Bradford on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, 12:37 a.m., NBC
Tom Selleck and June Diane Raphael on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, 12:37 a.m., CBS

What are you watching tonight?

View the original article here

The Mindy Project S01E01: "Pilot"

In the 1950s, women had very few options and were culturally expected to feel like failures if they didn't get married. Today, women can become doctors, astronauts, professors, politicians, and are culturally expected to feel like failures if they don't get married.

Or maybe just TV characters think that? Strong female leads have to either be in love with rutting fresh meat or obsessed with finding "the one" who will walk hot soup to them through the pouring rain or whatever. Mindy Lahiri's kind of a little column A but mostly column B. She's always loved rom-coms and she's waiting for a rom-com to happen to her in real life like ALL YOU LADIES OUT THERE IN TVLAND. OH YES that's what it's all about, right ladies?! Is this not the brutal ennui that stalks your lives, having to impose some four-act arc onto the soul-murdering flesh-market that is modern intimacy to feel like it's all real and not just random?!

I always romanticized stuff like Nancy Spungen's love story/mmmmmmaybe-murder-suicide so don't look at me. I can't really 100 percent relate to this show in that I'm not rom-com-obsessed and getting married isn't a foremost concern for me because I got married (and it's great! I still worry about being a failure, though, so watch out for that, singletons!). But I recognize the rage of worthwhile women who feel like they're incomplete until someone puts on a ring on it, while concurrently understanding that they are complete entities who are waaaay above that trope. And yet the relatively brief child-bearing window forces us ladies into a biological-clock situation and, as The Mindy Project points out, we're culturally indoctrinated to zzzzzzzzz.

Okay look: Was this show funny? Often it had very funny moments. Visually interesting moments, like a well-animated conversation with a Barbie doll at the bottom of a pool. As she's proved with eight years of kicking ass on The Office, Mindy Kaling is more than capable of cutting glass, and the first ten minutes of The Mindy Project were cinematic and carefully planned to hit like a perfect gymnastic landing. The entire episode was gorgeous, with a nice amount of edge, and it felt like a rom-com: great music, great production value, great acting. A woefully single OB/GYN made a mean toast at her ex's wedding to another woman, biked into a pool, and wound up in jail... and then we followed her through the next day, learning that she's a little torn between a hot and prickly divorced resident who she's Destined to Be With and a hot British resident who she wants to have sex with. Plus very actually funny moments with date humor! Plus she delivers babies for free for pregnant immigrants! What's wrong with this?

Nothing is wrong with this. It's better than average. If you are angrily single you will watch this and cheer. If you're a guy and that sounds too chick-y to you, you will probably still laugh at some moments. If you're a young woman who looks forward to being a wealthy, privileged, beautiful woman who's sulkily dissatisfied with her life well into her thirties, here's your Life Porn!

If you're looking for a moment of genuine connection, if you're looking for the humanity in the midst of the humor, like, you're not going to find it. It's not that kind of show. Maybe I need to stop comparing everything to Louie but this show is not honest in that way. ITS PERFORMATIVE! A show being performative, imagine that! How dare it! That's a criticism of something that might not bother anyone but me... but it does bother me. Oh man, it bothers me so much!

The women I know who honestly hate being single and silently grieve their unborn kids and find themselves succeeding in their careers yet seriously consider adopting... they are not flip about this stuff, you know? And maybe they would connect with this very deeply and say, "Thank you, Mindy Kaling, for raising our voices to the TV-viewing public with a lighthearted twist!" but there is no sense of failure or rawness or revelation or risk, really. Even when Mindy the character is broken down in her prison cell she's lookin' great and being hilarious. If you don't have a problem with that, and you probably don't, enjoy. But if you're going to take on a legitimate concern that does seem to shake the souls of half the world, and if your main character is continually confronted with being alone by dealing with expecting moms and yet is still so romantic she watches rom-coms in the doctor's waiting room on a loop... there's room to get a little darker? A little grittier? A little sadder—just to make the humor pop more?

For a premiere, it was great! This show is slick. It's glossy. It has a big shiny fence up. There's a beautiful, haunted palace behind that fence. I hope we see it.

QUESTIONS:

– How did you like The Mindy Project?

– Will you watch the next episode?

– Do you think it could have gotten "more real" or is that crazy talk?

– Do you know what I mean, though? It just didn't feel vulnerable?

– Do comedies need to be vulnerable?

– Do you think the concept of "truth in comedy" is an alternative-saddies '90s conceit?

View the original article here

Friends, we've screened the pilot of The Mindy Project, the new Fox sitcom created by and starring The Office's Mindy Kaling. So is it worth your time? Here's a quick FAQ to help you determine this information.

What is The Mindy Project?

The Mindy Project is a half-hour single-camera sitcom about Mindy Lahiri (creator Mindy Kaling), an overachieving OB/GYN who makes tons of terrible life decisions mostly due to the fact that everything she knows about life she's learned from rom-coms. After making a fool out of herself at an ex's wedding and getting herself arrested, Mindy vows to get her life in order. She then immediately finds herself torn between two ill-advised romantic prospects, hunky British doctor Jeremy (Ed Weeks) and hunky New Jersey doctor Danny (Damages' Chris Messina).

When does it premiere?

The Mindy Project debuts Tuesday, September 25 at 9:30pm on Fox.

Who's behind it?

Creator and star Mindy Kaling is best known for playing Kelly Kapoor for eight seasons on The Office (and also writing several dozen episodes of that show). Fellow The Office vet B.J. Novak produces.

Who's the target audience?

Women of all ages should identify with the characters and rom-com tropes, but the humor is just edgy enough to keep men from growing bored. (Women/men generalizations are always accurate, right?)

What's good about it?

The writing is snappy and clever without being show-offy, and the storytelling is compelling and unpredictable. Kaling herself is an incredibly engaging, self-effacing lead. The pilot features appearances by Bill Hader and Ed Helms, so it's clear Kaling has good taste in co-stars.

Are there any not-good parts I should know about?

I'm not totally sold on the love-triangle aspect of The Mindy Project, but I get that it's a major romantic comedy trope. Hopefully we won't become super tired of it too quickly.

Okay, but seriously, should I watch it?

Sure! It's one of the best new comedies of the season.

Do you have a clip or a trailer I can take a look at?

Drink of choice for my The Mindy Project viewing experience?

In the spirit of the lead character, perhaps Green Apple Puckers and/or tequila shots. (Drink to excess.)

The Mindy Project debuts Tuesday, September 25 at 9:30pm on Fox.

View the original article here

What to watch on Tuesday, September 25...

The premieres just keep flowing in and I couldn't be happier to report it. Mostly because it gives me something to write about in these intros! Woohoo! Time to check out what's on TV tonight:

SEASON 2 PREMIERE, 8pm, Fox
New Girl
Zoey Deschanel will swoop in to take over for the So You Think You Can Dance time-slot, now that it has run its course. And we couldn't be happier to have her back—twice, technically, because New Girl will air two new episodes tonight: One at 8 p.m. and the other at 9 p.m. In the first, the second season premiere called "Re-launch," Jess gets laid off from her teaching gig and so decides to work as a shot girl at Schmidt's 'rebranding' party. Of course, Winston gets a little loose after a couple of drink-tastings. And in other news, Cece introduces her new boyfriend to the gang. Oh! And Parker Posey guest stars as an apathetic cocktail waitress.

SERIES PREMIERE, 8:30pm, Fox
Ben and Kate
Smack in the center of two New Girls, it's Fox's new Ben and Kate. In it we meet Kate, a single mom whose older brother Ben shows up one day to "help out," but it soon comes to light that Ben is really back in town because he's planning on trying to reunite with an ex—who's engaged to be married. In the meantime, Kate prepares for a date after years of being out of the game. Will this quirky duo win your hearts and thusly this Tuesday night time-slot? It's yet to be determined!

SERIES PREMIERE, 9:30pm, Fox
The Mindy Project
Mindy Kaling jumps networks and stars as Mindy Lahiri in this new Fox comedy: Lahiri is an Ob-gyn struggling to make sense of the disaster that is her personal life. The pilot kicks off with a toast no one will forget at her ex-boyfriend's wedding... that's just the beginning. As events unfold, Mindy bumps elbows with the law and it turns out to be even more embarrassing than the toast.

SERIES PREMIERE, 10pm, CBS
Vegas
Hey, it's a network that's not Fox on this list! CBS's new drama is set in 1960s Nevada where ex-rancher Ralph Lamb reigns as the reluctant sheriff for a little town called Las Vegas. In the pilot, Ralph begins to investigate a murder that involved the governor's niece—and it casts him into high waters with a mobster from Chicago who runs a posh casino on what will one day be called the Vegas strip. Based on historical facts (though I'm not sure how closely), this one should be fun for anyone who liked to imagine how "sin city" first built its reputation.

SERIES PREMIERE, 10:30pm, Comedy Central
Brickleberry
Comedy Central is trying its hand at another animated series. In "Welcome to Brickleberry" we are introduced to the completely inept forest rangers who roam the grounds of Brickleberry National Park. Steve, who has Ranger of the Month on lockdown, starts to worry about his position on the team now that new ranger Ethel is arriving to the park. Also, Malloy gets put on a diet after his taste for chocolate becomes too much for him to handle.

PLUS ALL NEW EPISODES OF...
Dancing With the Stars: All-Stars, 8 p.m., ABC
NCIS, SEASON 10 PREMIERE, 8 p.m., CBS
The Voice, 9 p.m., NBC
19 Kids and Counting, 9 p.m., TLC
Dance Moms, REUNION PART 2, 9 p.m., Lifetime
Face Off, 9 p.m., Syfy
Frontline, 9 p.m., PBS
Go On, 9 p.m., NBC
Hard Time, 9 p.m., NatGeo
Mysteries at the Museum, 9 p.m., Travel
New Girl, 9 p.m., Fox
NCIS: Los Angeles, SEASON 4 PREMIERE, 9 p.m., CBS
Property Virgins, 9 p.m., HGTV
Top Gear, 9 p.m., History
The New Normal, 9:30 p.m., NBC
Abby & Brittany, 10 p.m., TLC
Addicted, 10 p.m., Discovery Fitness & Health
All the Right Moves, 10 p.m., Oxygen
Bomb Girls, 10 p.m., Reelz
Chopped, 10 p.m., Food
Counting Cars, 10 p.m., History
Flipping Out, 10 p.m., Bravo
Gangsters: America's Most Evil, 10 p.m., Bio
House Hunters, 10 p.m., HGTV
Hot Set, 10 p.m., Syfy
Man, Fire, Food, 10 p.m., Cooking
Parenthood, 10 p.m., NBC
Private Practice, SEASON 6 PREMIERE, 10 p.m., ABC
Sons of Anarchy, 10 p.m., FX
Twisted, 10 p.m., Investigation Discovery
Tosh.0, 10 p.m., Comedy Central
TV Guide Magazine's Top 25 Best Oprah Show Moments, SPECIAL, 10 p.m., OWN
House Hunters International, 10:30 p.m., HGTV

LATE-NITE PICKS:
Kaley Cuoco on Late Show With David Letterman, 11:35 p.m., CBS
Ann Romney and Seth MacFarlane on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, 11:35 p.m., NBC
Melanie Griffith, Kerry Washington, and Dancing With the Stars' runners up on Jimmy Kimmel Live, 12 a.m., ABC
Jerry Seinfeld, Anthony Anderson, Zach Cregger, and Jesse Bradford on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, 12:37 a.m., NBC
Tom Selleck and June Diane Raphael on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, 12:37 a.m., CBS

What are you watching tonight?

View the original article here

Ben (second from left), Kate (third from left), and three other people with names.

"Good things come to those who wait" is a mantra for ketchup and sissies. Grab life by the horns and carpe the diem and take a mile when someone gives you an inch, I say! While other TV fans are going the traditional route and waiting for the fall season to officially start on their television sets, you are going to be smarter and better-looking by watching network previews on your computer!

Fox has released its two new high-profile comedies—The Mindy Project and Ben and Kate, both of which made our Most Anticipated New Fall Shows list—online early in hopes that the internet will generate some buzz, much like it did last year with New Girl. If you do watch them, Fox is hoping you'll shower them with praise on Facebook, Twitter, and your OKCupid profile for all your friends to see.

The Mindy Project stars The Office's Mindy Kaling as a romantic-comedy-obsessed doctor who's unlucky in love. It's Mindy being Mindy, basically, you know, riding bicycles and being drunk. Ben and Kate stars Dakota Johnson and Nat Faxon (I'm obligated to mention that Faxon is an Oscar-winner for co-writing The Descendants) as siblings at odds. She's a single mom, he's a vagabond space cadet! Also, they're both unlucky in love. Both shows will join a new comedy block anchored by New Girl, starring Zooey Deschanel as a woman who is unlucky in love. Fox Tuesdays, where love meets unlucky.

Watch the two pilots (they're not embeddable) at one of the sites listed below, form an opinion using your brain, and come back here and tell the world what you thought. Note: I'm guessing that territories outside of the U.S. are going to have trouble with the videos, so ask your American friends to watch and then describe the shows to you in their sexy American accents.

The Mindy Project: Hulu, Fox, Yahoo

Ben and Kate: Hulu, Fox, Yahoo

View the original article here