Entertainment News - TV

THIS ISSUE: Person of Interest, Animal Kingdom, The Mindy Project, Wrecked TOP MOMENT OF THE NIGHT Save The Machine, Save Earth? CBS BECAUSE: With only one episode left in Person of Interest's five-season run, what better way to spend the series' penultimate hour than going full-onIt's a Wonderful Life. As Finch grappled with the idea that using the Ice-9 virus to destroy Samaritan would also likely destroy his Machine, The Machine went ahead and showed him what the world would have been like if he'd never created her at all. As it turns out, it wouldn't have necessarily been better or worse, just different. In the episode's last moments, The Machine aids Finch in deploying the virus; Samaritan begins to glitch, and The Machine... well, there's got to be something left for the finale.

Animal Kingdom TNT WHAT HAPPENED: TNT's new series Animal Kingdom is loosely based on the 2010 Australian film of the same name, though it's "more closely resembling a TV version of Point Break than anything else," writes EW recapper Kyle Fowe. "There's coke, neon lights, sunny beaches, weed, robberies, violence, and Ellen Barkin. What more could you ask for?" The series follows 17-year-old J (Finn Cole) as his mother dies of a heroin overdose and he moves in with his estranged grandmother Smurf (Barkin) and her sons. They're high rollers with money to spare for their young relative, but they're also, uh, running a major crime ring -- and it seems there's a price to pay for young J to be taken care of by his family. In the first two episodes that premiered on Tuesday night, J was forced to pull a gun, steal a car, and endure all the creepiness that oozes out of Smurf and his uncles. Whether J can truly tolerate getting on board with the family business remains to be seen. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: Many critics agree that the television adaptation of Animal Kingdom is trying pretty hard, and that is its greatest strength and weakness. As The Hollywood Reporter says, "The pilot can't resist spelling out what it's doing even when it's pretty obvious what it's doing...trying to prove acrobatically how rough and wild and crazy and adrenalized the family at the core of the show really is." But Time follows up a similar sentiment with the idea that there's one "pleasant jolt" that elevates the show: Ellen Barkin's performance. "It's little wonder that there's no father in the picture," reads the review. "Barkin convinces you that Smurf has the sheer force of will to generate children from her ribs. ... Her bordering-on­-incestuous leering would feel like a cheap bid for edginess in the hands of a performer less able to sell a taste for extremity, but it only emphasizes Barkin's talent. She's spinning an eerie tale of maternal devotion on the margins of a conventional crime story." Is she enough? READ OUR RECAP

The Mindy Project Hulu WHAT HAPPENED: Dr. C has left the building. In Tuesday's episode of The Mindy Project, we're reminded courtesy of a large downward-pointing arrow (that does not represent hell, Beverly) that Danny has also left Shulman & Associates, making for a 15 percent loss of their patients. To get the practice's rep out of the gutter, they'll need to win the hospital's upcoming softball tournament. (Sure, okay.) Mindy is already tied up with her secret Princeton boyfriend Drew coming to visit, but once Colette knocks sneezing Courtney out with a sisterly softball to the face, Mindy has to step in. Even though the dermatologists forfeit for fear of sun exposure -- "This isn't safe, sunscreen's a lie!" -- Mindy can't help but stick around to play once she hears the orthopedics talking smack about Schulman's decline without Danny. So she tells her team to "get in a sports circle with your butts sticking out," remembers that her secret boyfriend is actually a sports coach, and wins the day in a classic sports montage. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: The Mindy Project doesn't need Danny! At least that's what Tuesday's episode posits with its transparently meta softball plot. The A.V. Club says the episode "does show the series' Danny-less strong suits. Beverly, Tamra, and Jeremy all get some fun moments. Fred Grandy's Dr. Ledreau returns. And the softball MVPs are the Duplasses, who always manage to add a lot to this show. Mindy's right about Drew, he does seem to be the first guy in a while who could rival Danny for Mindy's affections, especially since, like Danny, he doesn't put up with a lot of her nonsense." We, on the other hand, will take all the nonsense Mindy has to offer.

Wrecked TBS WHAT HAPPENED: If the plot of Wrecked felt a little familiar during its Tuesday premiere, that's because it is: TBS' new series takes the general setup of the hugely popular Lost. Yes, there's a plane full of charactersstranded on a desert island, but then it turns into a sitcom. Once the plane goes down in the opening act, and the survivors are revealed, so are the parody mechanisms of Wrecked. There's Liam, the former British Special Forces member who darts all over the island to save his fellow survivors from looming danger, only to die. Thus, a new "manly man" must be named. The roles of techy guy suffering from electronic withdrawals and independent woman with a knack for killing boars are already taken by Pack and Brooke, respectively, so Danny pretends to be a police officer and steps ups to the plate. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: The Lost source material in Wrecked is purposefully obvious from the jump, but the New York Times compares the program to a classic in its review of the premiere: "If you have long complained that Gilligan's Island needed a lot more crotch humor, your voice has finally been heard." Having seen multiple episodes in time to form his opinion, reviewer Neil Genzlinger calls Wrecked "gleefully unsophisticated, full of caricatures and gags that are just a notch above frat-house humor." However, "There's nothing wrong with this kind of humor if it's done with some originality, and Wrecked, after an unimpressive premiere, gradually finds an amusing groove."

One More Thing...

Try to Curb Your Enthusiasm for This HBO NINTH TIME'S A CHARM: What do we have to say about HBO's announcement that Larry David will be returning for a long-awaited ninth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm? Pretty, pretty, pretty good. (Duh.)