"Episodes": TV's Funniest Show?

Tasmin Greig and Stephen Mangan  (tv equals)

I flat out forgot how darn funny Showtime's "Episodes" was until it resumed last week with its second season. 

Season one was technically a mini-season, as the show ran a teasingly brief seven episodes. Season two has been mercifully extended to nine half-hours of acutely observed, tartly clever satire. It's target? The cultural Anglo-American gulf as experienced by a pair of screenwriters lured out to Hollywood to adapt their hit British TV series for the US market.

One the sharpest, most incisive comedies currently on telly, it is hugely funny, yet not necessarily for those American patriots too thin-skinned to appreciate the immensely focused, trenchant observations of the often shallow, narcissistic tendencies of the network television industry.

"Mad Men" is the Definitive TV Drama of our Time

Jessica Pare and Jon Hamm  (wetpaint)

Cable upstart AMC's crown jewel "Mad Men" has just concluded yet another quietly astonishing fifth season.

Don Cheadle Heads Biting "House of Lies"

Don Cheadle in "House of Lies"  (eurweb)

Don Cheadle is currently heading the cast of one of television's funniest shows, "House of Lies" on Showtime.

BBC America's "Luther" Classes up the Joint

Idris Elba  (wbur)

It's no surprise that BBC America is responsible for some of the most inspired network television in the US. A handful of cable channels have elevated the quality of domestic TV tremendously in the past score or so. HBO was the standard bearer back when it's roster included "Six Feet Under" and "The Wire," two of the most engrossing American TV series of the past 20 years.