Tonight Showtime launches another great series that examines comedy, "Inside Comedy," as, hopefully, a supplement to the brilliant series "The Green Room With Paul Provenza." --- "The Office" has a spinoff next year. --- TV news & The TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan. more ›

Check out our 2011 Honorable Mentions list powered by reader submissions here on LAist and via Twitter. Thank you for your contributions! There were so many good shows, you can appreciate the difficulty in even attempting a "Top Ten." more ›

Must-watch hot list: Jimmy Fallon hosts SNL this weekend! "Dexter" and "Homeland" season finales! "After Lately" hijinks! --- We also have a podcast of our interview with "The League" and "NTSF" star Paul Scheer! --- All this and the listings + Must-Watch Plan inside. more ›

Showtime's "Homeland" and "Dexter" premiere on Sunday, jamming up our schedule, but here's to more great TV! --- We bitch about laugh tracks. --- KCET's "SoCal Connected" returns. --- More news items + The TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan for your weekend. more ›

At the top of the TV Junkie Must-Watch list tonight is the season finale of FX's "Louie." This great show has always been more than just another 'half-hour comedy,' please support it. --- Also please support "The Green Room With Paul Provenza" by signing the petition to bring it back for another season. more ›

The Parents Television Council just released another one of its "reports" which is yet another thinly veiled call for censorship. This time Adult Swim is the target, yes, the network with the word "Adult" in its name. --- If you like baseball then you should watch "The Franchise," nuff said. --- All this and the TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan. more ›

Lisa Kudrow brings her "Web Therapy" show from the web to Showtime starting tonight. --- If I thought that the Emmy nominations were lacking in quality, I think the Television Critics Association made some mistakes as well. --- Stephen King's "Dark Tower" will not be making it to TV anytime soon. --- All this and the TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan. more ›

Check out our reviews of CBS' "Chaos," Starz' "Camelot," AMC's "The Killing," Showtime's "The Borgias," and HBO's "Mildred Pierce." --- All this plus the TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan and listings for the weekend. more ›

"Nurse Jackie" is back tonight on Showtime at 10pm and we're jonesing for her at least as much as she joneses for her next hit of Oxy. --- Marc Maron's WTFpod _finally_ talks to Bobby Slayton (whom we interviewed 4 years ago). --- We visit a great season of "Shameless" which had its finale last night. --- All this and the TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan & listings more ›

Several journalists were assaulted in Egypt during the last 6 hours including CNN's Anderson Cooper and ABC's Christiane Amanpour - we hope this situation changes soon. --- Showtime is providing free access to their new series "Episodes" - if you haven't seen it, we recommend you check it out and stick through the first 3 episodes, it just gets better and better. --- Check out these stories and more as well at the TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan for tonight. more ›

Topping our must-watch list for the weekend are "SNL" with Jim Carrey as host on Saturday, while our Sunday will revolve around Showtime's launch of a 2-hour block composed of: "Californication," "Episodes," and "Shameless" - all great shows that deserve your time and if you are a Showtime subscriber, these shows are the reasons why you subscribe. We've already written up "Episodes" and "Shameless" (just watch them already), and today's column focuses on season 4 of "Californication" - a bittersweet shamble peppered with jokes and ridiculous situations that compelled us to watch the entire season in one sitting. more ›

Showtime will be premiering several new series this Winter including "Shameless" and "Episodes" which are both worth your time. "Shameless" stars William H. Macy as an alcoholic single dad with a huge brood of kids that he criminally neglects - but it's funny! "Episodes" stars Matt LeBlanc as a version of himself, a former TV star needing a new show. Both of these shows are very funny and are a departure from the "women on the verge of a breakdown" series that Showtime has been offering us as of late. They're both very funny but in completely different ways. more ›

As we approach Christmas we'll see fewer new episodes of new programs and that is fully in evidence with tonight's available lineups. Be sure to see our Must-See Plan for tonight as well as the full listings for your options. --- Tell us what you thought of the "Dexter" finale. --- "SNL" had 2 Pauls - how'd they do in your opinion? This coming weekend features Jeff Bridges and Eminem. --- The 2nd edition of our podcast is up - let us know what you'd like to hear in it. more ›

Send a note to user@fxnetworks.com and urge them to renew "The League" which finished off it's season last night with 2 incredibly funny episodes. While FX hasn't said they're not renewing the show, they haven't said they _are_ renewing the show. Give them a nudge. --- Are you excited about Sunday's "Dexter" season finale? Are you a Lumen-hater or do you appreciate the new serial killer serial killing team of Dexter-Lumen? What do you think is going to happen? --- See the full post for weekend listings and more news: "Party Down" party on Sunday, VGAs, etc. more ›

It's been an eventful season for Showtime's critically acclaimed "The Big C", the "comedy" series about how a woman, Cathy Jamison, deals with her diagnosis of stage 4 melanoma. Jamison, a teacher played by executive producer Laura Linney, goes through a major attitude adjustment without letting on about her condition to friends and family until very late in the season: she goes out to dinner and orders cocktails and desserts, she dumps her husband (played by the incredible Oliver Platt), and gets in the face of one of her students, Andrea Jackson, played by Gabourey Sidibe, determined to affect changes on her lifestyle (or not?). more ›

One last megablast of premieres this weekend with at least 21 series and season premieres over the next 3 days. We have our eyes on "Dexter" and "Bored To Death". Also, "Saturday Night Live" returns with Amy Poehler as host. more ›

If you're a Showtime subscriber you have to watch "The Big C" with Laura Linney tonight. Sure, go ahead and watch "Weeds" beforehand, there really isn't anything else to watch at 8pm, but we're not sure what that show is about anymore - it ceased to be funny a couple seasons ago and seems to be more about absurdism than character or plot development. David Bianculli of TVWorthWatching.com and NPR has given "The Big C" a largely negative review while continuing to fawn over "Weeds" - I couldn't disagree with him more. more ›

The TV Junkie Plan: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, "Boston Med", "The Daily Show" (Arcade Fire), "The Colbert Report" (Chuck Close), Fallon (Mickey Rourke; Kids in the Hall) more ›

We talked to LL Cool J last night at the TCA after-party and he gave us some inside info about the next season of "NCIS: Los Angeles": "I've been doing a ton of training. My tech advisor is a Master Gunner so I've been learning a lot. I can 'consciously aware' put my weapons together in the dark, but I'm not 'self-consciously' aware yet - I can't play the piano blindfolded yet. I went down to Camp Pendleton to do some training with the Marines, they've got their own Special Ops group now. There's going to be a _lot_ of action this coming season, it was a lot of fun." more ›

The TV Junkie Plan: "Penn & Teller: Bulls...!", "The Green Room With Paul Provenza", "Boston Med", "The Daily Show" (Adam Sandler & Chris Rock), Letterman (Thomas Friedman), Ferguson (Lisa Kudrow, James Dyson) more ›

Happy Summer Everybody Tonight the show to watch is "GasLand" on HBO at 9pm. This movie will disabuse you of the notion that there's anything "clean" about natural gas obtained by fracking which is pretty much the only way we can get it now that the easy sources of the fossil fuel have been depleted... more ›

The TV Junkie Plan: "Disaster in the Gulf", "Hollywood's Magical Island: Catalina", "Penn & Teller: Bull!", "The Green Room With Paul Provenza", "The Daily Show", Fallon (John C. Reilly) more ›

The TV Junkie Plan: "How I Met Your Mother", "Rules of Engagement", "24", "Nurse Jackie", "United States of Tara", "Chelsea Lately", Letterman (Mickey Rourke), Fallon (Sarah Silverman, Joan Rivers) more ›

In less than two days, the TCM Classic Film Festival begins with more than 50 screenings, panel discussions, Q&As, and parties slated. With everyone from Eve Marie Saint and Martin Landau, to Tim Roth and John Carpenter introducing and discussing the creation of and influence of classic films, it's a festival that shouldn't be missed. If there isn't any decent new television on, and that's frequently the case, we always find ourselves switching over to TCM and you'll often find us highlighting a film in the TV Junkie. more ›

There's a lot of new TV on tonight with plenty of premieres and finales. Foremost among the premieres are Showtime's "Nurse Jackie" (see today's interviews w/Edie Falco, Peter Facinelli, etc.) and "The United States of Tara" - both half-hour dramedies with more of an emphasis on drama than comedy. With "Nurse Jackie" (10pm) you have the incomparable multi-Emmy winning Edie Falco supported by a more than capable cast with Peter Facinelli in a role much better suited to him than you will ever see in the Twilight film series. We've seen most of season 2 and it inspired us to go back and re-watch the season 1 DVDs, it is that good. more ›

To kick off the second season of their popular series "Nurse Jackie", Showtime held a charity fundraiser in NYC's Gotham Hall. The "Nurse Jackie" Rx Games was an invite to watch real nurses from NY Presbyterian, Mt. Sinai, Sloan Kettering, NYU Medical Center and St. Vincent's and nursing students from Columbia Medical School... more ›

Although Michael C. Hall, who is still receiving cancer treatments, did not walk the red carpet to speak to the press last night, he received a standing ovation as he walked onto the stage at the Saban Theatre for the Paley Center for Media's PaleyFest2010 "Dexter" night. The standing ovation was a first for PaleyFest as noted by this observer and several others in the crowd. more ›

Tonight is a huge night for Showtime with season premieres of "Secret Diary of a Call Girl", "Tracey Ullman's State of the Union", and the series premiere of "La La Land" - an ambush comedy project by British comedian Marc Wootton that is somewhat in the style of Sacha Baron Cohen but much more relevant to Los Angeles residents as they are his exclusive targets. more ›

We talked with Bakula about "Men of a Certain Age", one of the best shows on TV right now, he gave us some hints about the rest of the season (Sarah Clarke aka Nina from "24" will be coming back!) and also let us in that he's hoping friend and former co-star Matt Damon will walk away with an award on Saturday. more ›

Don't forget to check out our suggestions for missing WGA and Golden Globe Award nominees and our predictions for winners. --- As you can see, our listings (below) are starting to thin out and with only about a dozen premieres and finales between now and the first week of January be forewarned we'll be looking at a lot more of the movie listings and holiday marathons to fill out our viewing time... more ›