ABC, Thursdays, 8 p.m. ET/PT |
DRAMA
FlashForward premiered with the most audacious narrative of any new series: The world blacks out, and everyone comes to with a vision of where they'll be in six months. As the show has developed, though, its impressive strength has been less with time-bending tricks--Joseph Fiennes, as an agent investigating the phenomenon, follows leads in the present based on future clues--than with an essential, often sad, emotional element. The agent and his wife (Sonya Walger) have had a troubled marriage. A recovering alcoholic, he falls off the wagon in his flash-forward--does that have anything to do with hers, where she's involved with a new man? What hurts the marriage more, actual things to come or a presentiment? This is a lesson from Lost: The craziest mysteries count for nothing compared to human want.
Grey's Anatomy
ABC, Thursdays, 9 p.m. ET/PT |
DRAMA
Last season ended with a spectacular stunt--George (T.R. Knight) was literally thrown under the bus--but the long-running ABC hit remains in a creative slump: In recent episodes Seattle Grace has merged with another hospital, flooding the corridors with unpleasant new medical personnel, who'll only have to be winnowed down. Grey's already has a large, meaty cast, all in stiff competition for scenes of full-throttle screaming, crying (well done, Sandra Oh!) and apoplectic fury. And 24's Kim Raver, who tends to be quiet but just as intense, arrives soon as a surgeon. It's exhausting!
Ann Rule's Everything She Ever Wanted
Lifetime Movie Network, Nov. 14, 8 p.m. ET/PT |
DRAMA
Gina Gershon stars in a two-part crime melodrama that makes up in coarse nerve what it lacks in brain cells. Pat Allanson is a southern schemer who'll stop at nothing to pad her bank account with other people's money. (Rich in-laws have an odd habit of expiring after drinking her tea.) Gershon, hips swinging and bow lips parted in a come-hither smile, makes a terrifically amusing she-devil.
