CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.
CBS
TV Review: ‘Golden Boy’ Piles Up Clichés Despite Interesting Structure
Submitted by BrianTT on February 26, 2013 - 11:47amCHICAGO – As the 2012-13 midseason continues to shock with its complete inability to produce a new hit and shows like “Do No Harm” and “The Job” get canceled after only two episodes while other failures like “Cult,” “Zero Hour,” “Deception” and “1600 Penn” limp to their non-renewals, networks keep throwing things at the wall and hoping they stick.
TV News: Audiences Refuse to Check Into ‘666 Park Avenue’
Submitted by BrianTT on October 1, 2012 - 9:10amCHICAGO – The new Sunday ABC line-up of “Once Upon a Time,” “Revenge,” and “666 Park Avenue” looked very promising on paper. I think I even called it one of the smartest moves of the season. I was wrong. While the first two sophomore programs had decent ratings on their first night of the ‘12-13 season, “666” is empty, producing the kind of numbers that start the cancellation clock ticking. ABC just can’t win at 9pm on Sunday nights.
TV Review: Charismatic Janet Montgomery Can’t Acquit ‘Made in Jersey’
Submitted by BrianTT on September 28, 2012 - 11:10amCHICAGO – Sometimes a strong cast can save weak writing but such is not the case with CBS’s “Made in Jersey,” a show with one of the most charismatic leading ladies of the new season but also some of its weakest plotting. The legal drama of the premiere is so ridiculous, manipulative, and just silly that it’s almost remarkable how watchable the beautiful Janet Montgomery makes the proceedings but she can’t stop the TV jury from convicting for bad writing.
TV News: CBS Wins Thursday Nights, Audiences Check Out ‘Elementary,’ ‘Last Resort’
Submitted by BrianTT on September 28, 2012 - 9:35amCHICAGO – Two of our most promising new shows of 2012 were respectably sampled last night on the first Thursday of the Fall season as viewers turned “Elementary” into a solid first-week hit and enough people checked out “Last Resort” opposite the #1 show of the evening to call that a success as well. CBS won the night easily while ABC has plenty to be happy about. FOX should be more concerned and NBC may just want to go dark on the night that they used to own in the ratings.
TV Review: Jonny Lee Miller, Lucy Liu Carry CBS’s ‘Elementary’
Submitted by BrianTT on September 27, 2012 - 1:43pmCHICAGO – “Elementary,” starring Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu and debuting tonight on CBS at 9pm CST, is a tough show to review. Yes, it’s another procedural mystery show and I wouldn’t blame you if you’re just not interested in one of those. Who has time for all the fictional crimes being solved on TV every week?
TV News: NBC Struggles on Wednesday Nights, CBS Wins Close Ratings War
Submitted by BrianTT on September 27, 2012 - 11:42amCHICAGO – The first new Wednesday of the Fall 2012 season told a predictable story — CBS and ABC are doing well, FOX is still under-delivering, and NBC is in dire shape. As for new shows, “The Neighbors” was well-sampled out of mega-hit “Modern Family” but we’ll see if that lasts while “Animal Practice” and “Guys with Kids” can practically feel the blade of the cancellation axe already.
TV News: CBS Leads First Tuesday Night, FOX Plummets
Submitted by BrianTT on September 26, 2012 - 10:25amCHICAGO – Network ratings continued to erode across the board on the first full Tuesday of the Fall 2012 schedule but the news is relatively good for fans of the new show “Vegas” and not so good for anyone who likes what FOX is doing on Tuesday nights with “New Girl,” “Ben and Kate,” and “The Mindy Project.” Meanwhile, NBC’s “Go On” and “The New Normal” appear to have stabilized to the point that they will likely stick around for awhile.
TV Review: Dennis Quaid, Michael Chiklis Bring Blinding Star Power to ‘Vegas’
Submitted by BrianTT on September 25, 2012 - 10:09amCHICAGO – There’s something still magical about the way that charisma can make faulty screenwriting or mediocre design easy to overlook. And I’m not even really saying that either of those are significant problems on “Vegas,” debuting tonight on CBS.
TV News: CBS Struggles on Most Competitive Night of the Week
Submitted by BrianTT on September 25, 2012 - 9:35amCHICAGO – “Dancing with the Stars,” “The Voice,” “Castle,” “2 Broke Girls,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “Bones,” “Revolution” — Monday nights have officially become the most crowded and competitive night of the week. And, as is often the case when a night gets overcrowded, ratings dropped across the board last night, the first official night of the Fall TV season.
TV Review: CBS Misses Comedy Mark with Grating, Clichéd ‘Partners’
Submitted by BrianTT on September 24, 2012 - 12:10pmCHICAGO – The bad show most likely to be on all year is CBS’s “Partners,” a program that doesn’t deserve its cushy timeslot between “How I Met Your Mother” and “2 Broke Girls” on Monday nights and will likely succeed through ratings osmosis despite being generally pretty horrendous.