Fall TV Is on the Fritz

NBC musical dazzles critics... mostly

(NEWSER) - If you watched the Super Bowl, you just might have heard of Smash, NBC's new drama about the making of a Broadway musical. It premiered last night, and critics are (mostly) giving it a standing ovation:

• The buzz has gotten so intense that the conversation isn't even about whether it'll be good. "Good? Darling, it's great!" gushes Mary McNamara of the LA Times . The creators have "managed to capture the grand and sweeping gesture that is musical theater and inject it with the immediate intimacy of television," an impressive, unprecedented feat.

Once-dominant drama will end after next season, source says

(NEWSER) - Things might have just gotten a little more desperate than usual over on Wisteria Lane: ABC is canceling longtime stalwart Desperate Housewives, the network confirmed today to the AP. "We want to make sure it has its victory lap," ABC Entertainment President Paul Lee said in making the announcement that the show would end after next season. The show, which has seen once-stellar ratings lag, is also losing creator Marc Cherry as producer next season. More»

Shows are getting smarter, but criticism isn't

(NEWSER) - If it's true that television is becoming the "future of the filmed narrative"—and just listen to all that chirping in academia about The Wire—then it's time for smarter TV critics, writes Vadim Rizov. The job goes beyond just snarking at the latest episode of American Idol. TV critics need to be "amateur sociologists" with historical perspective, and we currently "have very few writers capable of taking the long gaze." More»

This year's network pilots include four with non-white stars

(NEWSER) - The upcoming crop of pilots for network TV offers hope that the industry taboo against minority leads in dramas can finally be put to rest. Four of the most high-profile projects in the works feature non-white actors, notes the Hollywood Reporter , including Forest Whitaker in a spinoff of Criminal Minds for CBS. More»

You're a citizen before you're a couch potato, Roston writes

(NEWSER) - There is perhaps no “greater sign of our civilization’s decline” than the uproar about President Obama’s State of the Union address possibly preempting the season premiere of Lost or an episode of American Idol, Michael Roston writes. “Before we are couch potatoes, we are citizens,” he rants. "The annual address helps remind us of our elected leaders’ solemn obligation to communicate their intentions to a public they so often fail while in office." More»