Brian Tallerico

CHICAGO – When he gets a part that he can bite his teeth into, James Spader chews it up. He got such a part when his agent got him the lead role on NBC’s “The Blacklist,” premiering tonight, September 23, 2013.

CHICAGO – CBS must have a whole wing of their headquarters dedicated to Chuck Lorre. Why not? He paid for it. He has been such a key part of their success over the last decade that it’s hard to think of any network-creator relationship that’s been more financially notable. “Two and a Half Men,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Mike & Molly” — all winners of acting Emmys and at least the first two stand among the most popular comedies of their era. Can he do it again with “Mom,” premiering tonight, September 23, 2013? Don’t bet against him.

CHICAGO – CBS’s “Hostages” is the first interesting new drama of 2013 (well, tied with NBC’s “The Blacklist,” which airs at the same time tonight, Monday, September 23, 2013). It’s not an instant hit creatively but there’s a lot to like here, particularly in its great cast and clever concept, one that engages the viewer enough with the promise of excitement for all fifteen weeks of this shortened season.

CHICAGO – The 65th Annual Emmy Awards, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, were handed out on September 22, 2013. The awards were spread around to a number of shows, including “The Newsroom,” “Homeland,” “Veep,” “Breaking Bad,” and many more. The winners were as follows:

CHICAGO – We hit your calendar and your wallet earlier this week with a special TV-only edition of What to Watch and now we’re back to fill in the films that were released this week on DVD, Blu-ray, and streamimg services that may catch your attention. Want to watch a movie this weekend? Why not make it one of these five? If I had to rank them in order of preference, here’s how it would go…

CHICAGO – For the first time, all 12 films in the legacy of Jason Voorhees are available on Blu-ray in one box set, “Friday the 13th: The Complete Collection,” and the results are wonderfully comprehensive if not overly impressive. It’s great to have all of these films in one place, especially for hardcore fans of this insanely inconsistent but influential series, but the true opportunity to provide something new other than packaging, a few HD transfers, and physical collectibles is disappointing.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Haifaa Al-Mansour’s “Wadjda” is a deceptive film. It feels like a relatively slight story in that it’s about a headstrong girl who wants a bike. That’s it. Pretty simple stuff. And yet it’s not simple at all in Wadjda’s part of the world. She is a 10-year-old Saudi girl and not only are Saudi girls not supposed to ride bikes, they’re not supposed to even show their faces if men could possibly be in their line of sight. With a strong breakthrough performance at its core, “Wadjda” is a film about how cultural and social revolution starts quietly in neighborhoods and homes where girls want to ride bikes.

CHICAGO – What would you do if your child was in jeopardy? We all love to answer quickly and instinctually that we would do absolutely anything but the fact is that we’re incredibly lucky to never be put in that situation. Would you torture someone else? What if you weren’t sure they were responsible?

CHICAGO – The 65th Annual Emmy Awards, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, will unfold on Sunday night and I’m back for that annual game of guess the winners. More than any other show, the Emmys seemed designed to make those of us who try to figure them out feel stupid.

CHICAGO – Like so many great plays, Joshua Sanchez’s debut drama “Four,” adapted from the stage by Christopher Shinn, is a tale of people who can find sexual connections but long for something more. It is about two hook-ups on the Fourth of July, both of which seem to do little to break their participants from their melancholy, and one of which has the potential to tear a family apart.