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State of a Affairs is an ongoing NBC semi-fast paced procedural political drama trying to ride the success of Madam Secretary. Like Madam Secretary, it boasts a strong female lead capable of getting things done in a world of fillibusters and stall-tactics.

Charleston Tucker (Katherine Heigl) plays an Ex-CIA agent that now leads a team of former-analysts whose job is to prepare POTUS's daily briefing by gathering the latest intelligence on world crises.

While the show deals with controversial political and international issues, it lacks a cast of strong characters and plays to much into Charlie's Spy past, leaving much to be desired. While State of Affairs is not a bad show, it is a no Madam Secretary, The West Wing or even Crisis

This review is based on the Pilot for "The Sinner" which aired August 2nd, 2017.

The Sinner, based off the German novel "the Stranger" which in turn was based off a song by the Cure, is a new mini series, or "limited series" on USA Network starring Jessica Biel. Biel plays a seemingly normal wife and mother, who one day on the beach snaps and brutally murders a relative stranger. Rather than focusing on the whodunit, The Sinner focuses on the why. Cora Tanetti (Jessica Biel) has no idea why she killed this man, only that she had to do it. Detective Harry Amrbrose (Bill Pullman) finds this case most interesting, as Cora does not fit the profile of any killers he's ever heard of in his 20+ year career as a detective.

The pilot episode had pacing of an episode of the Walking Dead, focused solely on Carl.
In other words, it was quite possibly the slowest thing I've ever seen. And then 15 minutes in, all of a sudden, you're giving a truly brutal murder. Cool. And then it goes back to being slow. The Sinner is, inherently interesting. You absolutely want to find out why she did it ... but it is NOT entertaining.
This is the kind of story that would make for a truly compelling book. However, as a mini-series for television, visual mediums are not like books in that they must constantly provide something for us to look at. The Sinner might have worked as a book, with a plethora thought-provoking themes, but as a TV show, it falls flat. Its a good thing this show is a mini-series, because if you have the free time, and the fast-forwarding capability of a DVR, it may just be worth watching The Sinner. Were they to be a full 13 episode season, I'd tell you to forget about it. It's not compelling TV.

This Review is based on the pilot of "Legion" which premieres 2/8/2017, Wednesday's at 10:00 on FX.

As far as pilots go, this is one of the very best I've seen. (I've seen hundreds).
The series is thought-provoking, has immaculate attention to detail, and is presented to us through the mind of a deeply disturbed individual -- or so he thinks. There are definitely similarities to be drawn between David (Dan Stevens) and Eliot of Mr. Robot. But whereas Eliot is introverted and anti-social, David is more like this sane guy who sees things and now believes he's crazy and his thoughts are all over the place. He's scared of whats happening to him, and so are we. The pilot is masterfully done and you really grow attached to the characters. It's a full 90 minutes, and when it was over, I found myself wishing it would go on forever. This is truly good TV.

I have no idea where they plan to go with this show, but I'm really excited to tune in next Wednesday and find out. Maybe we'll get to see some TV re-imaginings of Mutant's we've seen on the big screen.

I read an article a little while ago on Michael Rosenbaum's decision to leave Smallville for comedy. I respected it, but the article was saying that his decision hadn't yet really resulted in anything noteworthy. Well, I'm going to have to disagree because Impastor is a little gem. Just binged the entire first season tonight and I couldn't stop, much like Kimmy Schmidt.

Impastor is not a sitcom. It's a unique comedy about a smalltime criminal in a world of trouble who steals the identity of a recently deceased man, and decides on a whim to assume his identity - that of a gay pastor.

The acting in this show is fantastic, and the writing is really smart. The town is filled with quirky and colorful individuals and each episode has fun little b and c stories while the A is always Father Barlow (Michael Rosenbaum) trying to protect his identity.

I highly recommend everyone check this show out. It's short and quick and a lot of laughs and well worth your time. Good for you Mr. Rosenbaum. I miss smallville, of course, and your role as the ridiculous boyfriend in Breaking in (FACE!!!), but Impastor is perfect for you and I hope it continues for a while!

This review is based on the pilot of "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" which aired 10/22/16.

Dirk Gently is based on a book, and has another televised variant from 2010, also on the BBC -- and yet somehow it feels almost exactly like the spiritual successor to Channel 4's Utopia -- providing not only the same composer, the legendary Cristobal Tapia de Veer, but the same utter insanity.

If you haven't seen Utopia, or the pilot of Dirk Gently's holistic Detective Agency - let me first tell you what its about, then what its like. So; the premise of the show revolves around the character of Dirk Gently, who is a self-proclaimed detective whom for whatever reason believes that absolutely everything is interconnected and like a blood hound, merely follows alleged connections rather than finding actual clues; hence "holistic." it is a serialized show focusing on a grizzly murder case and the unusual circumstances that led up to it.

Now that probably sounds to you like a conventional series but with a slightly quirky detective, as I expected It would be -- only, thats not what it is, at all.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is an acid trip of one insane character after another, each with their own psychoses frolicking about as obstacles through which the protagonists must avoid and survive in order to solve the case and get their lives back on track. All we have is Dirk Gently's word and bond that absolutely everything is connected -- somehow. And I believe him. One does not provide a pilot with such utter chaos and insanity without having a master plan for how it all fits together in the end. Think of Dirk Gently as a broken vase. In the pilot, this vase is smashed into pieces, and each week one additional piece will be glued together, until it is finally is restored by the end and you wonder why anyone had purchased it in the first place because its got a clown painted on one side, and frankly, it freaks you out a bit. Yes -- I suspect that even when things come together, the chaos and the insanity will be as prevalent as they were in the pilot. And that's what makes it so fun.

For the pilot however, I have to go with 3 and a half stars - because I only have the word of Dirk Gently that everything is connected. Right now it just seems very hectic and crazy, and while it was fun, and I know from Utopia that its going to be one hell of a crazy journey, It was weird as hell XD. It will take some getting used to for people who are used to normal TV shows. This is not Elementary, this is not Sherlock, and if you haven't seen Utopia, there really is no show that has this same level of craziness. Maybe Weeds ....

UPDATE:
I take it all back, its just pure madness. It's like someone let their 6 year old sketch pictures and made it into a TV show. Not a single character reacts with any rationale. Its chaos....

Going to have to wait for .. at LEAST one more episode to give an accurate review.
That was the strangest pilot ....
I get that this show deals with inception-like themes, blending dreams with reality
but all the first episode did was confuse. I do like the mystery, and I'd certainly hope
that it comes together in a coherent and rather brilliant way, but I've no way of telling at this point
as all we've been given so far is pure confusion ... Tune in next week for an actual review.

First off, Why is no one talking about this show?
While it's true that It only came out on September 30th, and its only October 2nd, with "Stranger Things" it seemed as if the entire world had binged the show in the day it came out. No one on twitter is even talking about this show yet. Nevertheless, as a self-proclaimed TV critic, its my job to finish it first and to get people talking about it. So here goes my review.

There are two ways to think of Marvel's "Luke Cage" as a series, and, depending on which way you look at it, 'how good it is' various rather drastically. Now this is inherently interesting on its own, because simply by changing your perspective of how you view the same content, you will perhaps, like me discover that your opinion of the show can be switched back and forth, almost as if comparing and contrasting the english dub with the original japanese version of an anime. So what are these two ways to look at Luke Cage, and why is this show so special that it gets 2 ways of thinking about it? And why am I asking myself questions? (thats a joke)

So; The reason there are 2 ways to look at Luke Cage is because it is a netflix series where all 13 episodes come out at once, as opposed to a traditional series where each episode is aired once per week. Simply by releasing the series all at once, it creates a 2nd way of looking at the show; to view each episode as part of a larger collective whole, like a movie -- as opposed to seeing them as individual episodes.

Now. If you think of Luke Cage's 13 episodes individually, like a normal series -- the show has a LOT of problems. It starts out very boring, with slow pacing, and little-to-no action. It isn't until episode 5 that things start getting interesting, and it just continues to improve from there. If you think of this in terms of normal TV, its terrible, because after the first 2 boring episodes, you might quit and not want to tune in next week. Which is why, with this series in particular, you really need to think of it as one long-ass 13 hour movie. And you will find that when you do, like magic, suddenly it becomes quite good, quite good indeed.

Think of a movie. Any movie. Even an action movie. EVERY SINGLE MOVIE, the first 20-35 minutes are slow and boring, building up settings, characters, and establishing a plot. Its necessary. Now imagine your movie was 13 hours long. If you do the math and compare 20-35 minutes of a 2 hour movie to a 13 hour movie, those 20-35 minutes become the first 4-5 episodes! And there you have it. 4-5 episodes of character building, stage setting, and plot orchestrating that prepare you for the rest of the movie, which continues to get more and more exciting.

Now, Ideally, in my opinion... a truly "excellent" show would just have action the whole way through. Alas, Luke Cage is a considerably good show, and not an excellent one. No matter which way you look at it, it still has its problems.

The first, and largest problem is the concept of the show. Luke Cage, AKA Power Man, is bullet proof and has super strength. Therefore, logically.... no trigger happy street thug with an AK is going to be able to kill him. And so now you've got this invicible character going around whom you never have to worry about and that leaves a very dull taste in your mouth. So, running with this concept, one needs to introduce elements capable of taking down such a powerful character. In an excellent show, these elements would be intoduced in episode 2 or 3, after showing how dope he is. In Luke Cage, they are introduced around episode 10 out of 13... so you have mostly 80% of the series where he's essentially invincible, and thats pretty dumb, if you ask me.

Some other problems Luke Cage suffers from as a series are, slow pacing, an extremely high number of utterly pointless scenes, of which, if cut out, the show could really be cut down into 7 episodes. Cornyness, and passivity.

But of course, seeing as how I'm giving it 4 stars, Luke Cage has many good elements as well. Those are, unique and fun characters, over-the-top but controlled and exciting action, a powerful voice, strong acting, and more direction than its predecessor, Jessica Jones, in which the protagonist felt secondary to the antagonist for the whole series.

To conclude, approach Luke Cage like a long movie, accept that "most" of the slow boring parts are nessecary to establish a powerful and meaningful conclusion, trust that the series has a direction, and you will find that by episode 7, you wont want to stop watching it until the end, and you should find it quite enjoyable.

This review is based on the pilot of "The Exorcist" which aired 9/23/16.

So, The Exorcist tries to stay fairly true to the tone of the original movie, without the incredibly dated effects and campyness. It feels more like the movie, "Exorcist: The Beggining" but less creepy because its on TV and TV shows are never as creepy or scary as movies (Still not sure why there has never been a truly scary TV show). So... without the "Scare" factor, what is "The Exorcist"? Well, the pilot didn't offer us much in terms of Lore, pacing, or action ... but it did deliver us a handful of potentially interesting characters, a couple of Damien-esque demonic tropes such as freaky ravens and the eye thing that demon shows always do, and one, or two exorcisms. But these exorcisms really fell short compared to ones we've seen before in the movies. That being said, they were far from the worst we've seen, and the effects were pretty good.

The first episode tells us that there are forces in play we can't begin to understand, and I hope the roll with that, because it was a fairly sleepy pilot. So, judging the show solely based on the pilot, Way better than "Outcast" but not as good as "Damien" and "Damien" got cancelled.

HOWEVER. However, he says; the previews for the season looked much better. It seems like a lot of stuff will happen, and the stakes will continue to get higher.

It should also be mentioned, for those of you who care, that Brianne Howey is in it, and she is so so so gorgeous. I bet none of you have any idea who she is. Well, that's what IMDB is for.

3 1/2 stars for a decent pilot, and potentially exciting season.

This review is based on the pilot of Macgyver which aired 9/23/16.

So first off, I'd like to thank CBS (never thought I'd ever do that) but, they made Macgyver available on demand right after the pilot aired, so I was able to watch the full episode rather than my recording which missed the first 13 minutes x.x

CBS now has the smartest shows on TV, between Macgyver and Scorpion, and the most action packed, with Hawaii Five 0. Macgyver was everything we wanted it to be. Smart, sexy, fun, fast-paced, taking us to exotic countries. All that and more. It sort of feels like a blend between NCIS: Los Angelis, Strike Back, and Scorpion. You've got a team of agents working for a subdivision of the CIA, each with their own unique skillsets. You've got ... Angus Mcguyver (Lucas Till) ((WHY ANGUS?!!!)) the good looking life hacker, Jack Dalton, the Bruce Campbell in Burn Notice guy, Riley Davis, the cute hacker girl, and Patricia Thornton (Sandrine Holt) as their boss. Didn't get much of a personality from her yet, but Sandrine is hella nice to look at, so I'll forgive that.

The show has a lot of things working for it. Whenever Macgyver builds a contraption, the camera freezes over the object, and some text overlay tells us what it is and whats its for, in addition to Macyver explaining it in a voiceover. However, a lot of this goes by really fast, so you may have to pause and rewind a few times, if you care. The only problem I had with the pilot is that a couple of the scenes were too farfetched even for my taste. Hacker girl in 5 seconds pulls up software better than anything the CIA or NSA have in every other show i've ever seen (really?) and at one point, Macgyver chases down a plane talking off ... on his feet, and catches it. (Really?)

One thing to note that I found rather humorous, Macgyver's roommate Wilt Bozer (Justin Hires) ((What kind of name is Wilt Bozer...?)) plays almost the same type of character as Gerald on Rush Hour, another CBS show, which Justin actually starred in, but did not play Gerald. I wonder if he's taking inspiration for the role from Gerald. This is great because Gerald was an amazing character and should be on everyshow.

This review is based on the pilot of Lucifer which aired 1/25/16

If you've seen the trailers for Lucifer, you've essentially seen the show. There isn't much more too it than a brazen,
immortal character, oozing with equal parts charm, sarcasm and witt that he can get away with because he's more or less
untouchable. Lucifer, like the Shinigami in Death Note has gotten rather bored of ruling over hell and decided to have some fun up here with us human jerks. And that's essentially what Lucifer is; fun. Lucifer can go one of two ways now. They can fall back on this somewhat easy-to-write character and have it be a procedural, in which case it could fall flat -- or, they can focus on strong cases and interesting mysteries and not rely to heavily on this obviously iconic character, in which case I could see it doing well. Right now it's too soon to tell. Criticisms aside, It was a very strong pilot. It's now up to the writers what to do with it.