"Suits" certainly isn't revolutionary television in its casework

The courtroom drama has become such a staple of American television, it is impossible to imagine a program with a completely unique approach to the legal genre. Yet, you always hope a show can tweak the formula and give you something you haven't seen a hundred times previously. While USA Network's "Suits" certainly isn't revolutionary television in its casework, it has brought something quite unexpected to the defense table. Spending more time in the boardroom than in the courthouse, this remarkably engaging show has brought a sense of smarts and sophistication to the proceedings--and trust me, I haven't used the word sophistication to describe a basic cable TV show in some time. A lot of elements work just fine here, but there are two specific things that elevate this show to the next level. First, the dialogue is snappy, genuinely funny and filled with clever wordplay. Second, the two leads (Gabriel Macht and Patrick J. Adams) have uncommonly good timing in serving up that dialogue. Furthermore, their relationship (a blossoming bromance, if you will, of give and take) is electric--a true standout in the television landscape.

 The show, like any other, needs a hook to set up its premise. The conceit here is that Adams is a legal prodigy. Unfortunate life choices have derailed his chosen career path and he exists as a typical mid-twenties slacker. When his life starts unraveling, he has a fortuitous meeting with Macht, a successful and brilliant attorney. Macht, a huge egoist, is looking for "the next me" to be his assistant. Adams, of course, fits the bill--just one problem. Despite his vast and encyclopedic knowledge, he's not really a lawyer. But this being television, this is a slight complication which requires some creative navigation. Is it strictly believable? Not particularly. But it is handled in such a fashion that you want to stick with it. Again, credit must be given to the verbal sparring between the two men.

The cases themselves, from episode to episode, don't always break new ground. The show, however, is reliably good fun with a nice bite. I like the supporting cast as well. Gina Torres, as head of the firm, has some nice moments as a sexy and strong professional. Rick Hoffman plays a largely comedic rival and foil to Macht--and while I like him, it's not always a consistent characterization. Meghan Markle is a suitably appealing paralegal that challenges Adams to be a better man. And the show's silent secret weapon is Macht's receptionist Sarah Rafferty, who with just a few minutes of screen time every episode makes me laugh out loud! But still the show would not exist without the easy charm of Macht and Adams, who play off one another to perfection. When they aren't together, you notice the absence. Add the truly witty banter with the undercurrent of rivalry and respect, and this pairing is the best duo to hit TV in a long time!

Flashpoint is a cop show

Flashpoint is an undiscovered gem, hidden away behind a overused genre. If the phrases "SWAT team," "hostage negotiators," "Canadian television," and "police drama" don't exactly grab your interest, please do yourself the favor of at least reading this review and perhaps watching a couple of episodes. You might be glad you did.

The premise on its own is not terribly new: A fictional SWAT/hostage negotiation team takes on kidnappings, suicide attempts, bank robberies, and the like. What IS new is the approach. The writing of this show is steeped in the humanity, compassion, and psychological realism markedly absent from current TV.

The team members are deeply decent human beings who love their jobs and their team-mates, but Flashpoint does a superb job illustrating the real-life issues such as PTSD, stress, and guilt that come with such work.

Markedly absent is the fictional conceit that events don't have consequences. When team leader and sniper Ed Lane shoots a hostage-taker in the series premier, not only do they show his emotional reaction immediately after the shooting, they follow him through suspension, investigation, and debriefing by a psychologist. The consequences of the shooting continue to appear through the series; Ed experiences flashbacks, is sued, and in season two the hostage-taker's son even tries to kill him.

Flashpoint does not stop at portraying the team in a compassionate and realistic light; the subjects of their calls are rarely black-and-white "bad guys." Psychologically disturbed individuals are portrayed as layered individuals with reasons for their behavior. Sometimes these reasons are morally justifiable, sometimes not. Sometimes we sympathize with them, sometimes we want them dead sooner rather than later - but we are almost always given insight as to how and why they reached their "Flashpoint."

Anyone who has experienced traumatic events or PTSD in their own life or helped friends and family cope with traumas should watch this show. It is deeply validating and provides excellent models of how to cope and how not to, as well as being sensitively and realistically written.

Flashpoint is a cop show with real people and ethical, caring human beings in difficult situations. As one friend of mine put it, "It's the anti-24." If you're tired of television where the writers can't think of any better way to create drama than to set up a crisis and then torture their way out of it, try Flashpoint.

'White Collar' New Episode

"White Collar" returns with a new episode tonight (Jan. 22 at 10 p.m. EST on USA) and the final batch of episodes promise plenty of drama for our favorite con-man, Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer) and his long-suffering partner in fighting crime, Peter Burke (Tim DeKay).

During a recent interview with Bomer, the star previewed a number of twists and turns in the remaining six episodes of "White Collar" Season 4: "Obviously, we're going to expound on the fact that Treat is my father and what does that mean to Neal and who he is and where he's going? And a lot of tension ensues," Bomer said. "There's a whole web of deceit going on in the upper echelons of the FBI that they're trying to sort through, and it ends on an even more dramatic note."

To learn more about this "web of deceit," HuffPost TV sat down with "White Collar" creator, Jeff Eastin, to learn more about what's coming up for Neal, Peter and the rest of the white collar crime division when the show returns all-new with its midseason premiere.

The tough part about breaking the season up the way we do is that we have to do basically double the number of finales. It’s always kind of difficult. But these were particularly tough because we come back for Episodes 11-16, which is like six episodes. It’s very hard to really kick that into gear for the back half.

Really, we started in Season 1 even hinting that it was very important for Neal to know who his dad is. The backstory was set up, and it’s actually out there already. Neal grew up in WitSec, he had no idea his name was Neal. No idea about Neal Caffrey until his 18th birthday. He had always told Ellen and his mom, “Hey, I’m going to go be a cop like my dad,” because his mom would always say, "Your dad was this hero in a white hat who shot at all the bad guys." Then, on his 18th birthday, Ellen tells him the truth, and he freaks out -- it literally unhinges everything he ever knew about himself, which really messes him up. So for Neal, it became this, "I thought this is who I was and I thought my dad was this guy."

And one of the things we never really said but was designed from the beginning was that Peter really is a surrogate father for him. So that starts hitting pretty close to home because now, Neal is sitting there looking at this guy, James, and he’s not happy about it. "I’ve always wanted to meet my dad, but you fucking lied to me, and did all these things." So really, the arc in this short, short piece of the season that we’ve got ... sort of subconsciously, Peter's like, "I’m his dad." He’ll never say it, but Elizabeth [Tiffani Thiessen] finally calls him on it, and says, "You think you’re this kid's father, but you’re not, Peter."

'Pretty Little Liars': Melissa Reveals The Truth About Detective Wilden

Melissa revealed the truth about Detective Wilden to Spencer on the latest episode of "Pretty Little Liars." Well, kind of. When Spencer confronted her about helping Wilden, she said that it wasn't her. In fact, she said, none of them helped him. They were afraid of him.

“Wilden was blackmailing you all because of it," Spencer theorized.

“Wilden wasn’t that smart," Melissa countered. "Somebody was telling him what to do.” She went on to say that it was Wilden who started the fire that burned down the lodge. Jenna and Shana were there, but they didn't start it. They saw Wilden do it.

“Probably the bigger bombshell is that apparently Melissa's been protecting Spencer the whole time. Hmm," wrote Zap2It of the episode. "Jenna and Shana were at the lodge, they saw Wilden set the fire. But someone else (Red Coat?) pulled everybody out ... [and] ‘A’ absolves her of being on the A Team.”

Over at Hollywood Life, though, Andy swift wants more answers. He wrote, "Can we all just agree that Melissa ... is ‘A,’ and call it a day already? The July 2 episode of Pretty Little Liars painted the elder Hastings sister to be guiltier than ever ... So is Melissa the reason Wilden’s now floating in Hot Detective Heaven? Spencer sure thinks so ...”

Things remain clear as mud on "Pretty Little Liars," Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC Family.

Person of Interest so far has my undivided interest

This show takes what seems like a stereotyped theme and really plays with it, leaving the watcher never quite sure what is going to happen next. Good balance between story line and character development.

The relationships move quickly and develop, flashbacks are never quite what you expected, and the typical pattern of "guys on the run who help people" theme never quite gets old because the writers never fall prey to routine.

They also refused to fall prey to the "stretching out the tension" routine. Hidden identities and tensions are often resolved within a couple of episodes rather than stretching them out for dramatic effect. New underlying hidden story lines suddenly emerge. For example, the romantic thing in "Castle" has been drawn out way too far, as well as the "death of Kate's mom" story line. Castle got boring (took two seasons). Burn notice got boring (took three seasons). Glades got boring Took one and a half seasons). we might like the characters, but its business as usual every episode.

But not Person of interest (so far). It keeps coming in fresh and things end at the most random and unexpected times. In a television world where stretching things out to appease the executives and advertisers is common (remember the 4th and 5th season of Lost?)Person of Interest so far has my undivided interest.

Nikita Season Finale Recap

The Nikita season finale, picking up where "Invisible Hand" left off. In true Nikita season finale fashion, "Til Death Do Us Part" is an hour full of major twists and turns, jumping the show's narrative forward in a major way yet again. Whether or not it pays off is a matter of preference.

The show opens with a bang - literally - as Nikita has apparently shot the President in the head in the Oval Office. Because she could totally do that unnoticed without a ton of Secret Service agents swarming her. Uh...anyway, twelve hours earlier, she's wandering around an empty Division when Ryan shows up and tells her everyone's getting pardoned. He asks if there's something she wants to say, but she doesn't because Amanda's in her ear. So Ryan wanders off thinking that everything is fine, at least until Sonya gives him the rundown on the nanotoxin. Then our favorite bureaucrat starts to worry.

Meanwhile, Michael has figured out that Nikita was lying to him about being alone in that aquaduct for twenty-plus minutes last week, and confronts his fiancee, convinced that Amanda has brainwashed her just like she did with Alex previously. Nikita's response is to pull her gun on him. In fact, she doesn't just pull the gun, she starts shooting in his direction. "I don't want to hurt you, but I will," she says, before getting on her motorcycle and taking off. Just guessing, but that might put a crimp in their wedding plans. Even if everyone figures out in about a minute and a half that Nikita's been bugged, and that her ultimate target is President Spencer.

Ending up in Georgetown, Nikita runs into the President's personal aide, and asks if she can get on the President's calendar that day, because it's super-important. When that doesn't work, the gun comes out again. A few threats later, she gets what she wants. Alex and Michael promptly zoom onto the scene, explaining that they know what's going on, and Michael does not like the knowledge that he's got nanotoxin in his super-hand.

Alex thinks there's a Plan B, with a scientist named Kang. As far as we know, Kang does not have a brother named Kodos. Alex and Michael pay him a visit, and ask if he knows a way to counter the nanotoxin. Michael volunteers himself as a lab rat to help the doctor, even though his face says he'd rather swallow a chainsaw. Unfortunately, Dr. Kang doesn't get too far past the front door of his lab before the nanotoxin kills him, too. Is there a Plan C?

Nikita gets into the White House through the restricted-access tunnels that Ryan used to use, and connects with a mole there, who provides her a gun and escorts her toward the Oval Office. No one stops her since she's already on the calendar, but President Spencer knows who she really is, and is not thrilled to see her. Before Nikita can do anything, Michael hijacks Nikita's earpiece and lies to her, saying that he has the antidote for the nanotoxin. This prompts Nikita to tell the President everything she knows...only for the President to grab the gun and shoot herself in the head.

Californication returns for Season

Not since millennium and house, MD has a new television series caught my
This show is really tough to describe in words, but it's a raunchy comedy with lots of dry/dark/sarcastic humor and some incredibly interesting characters. You definitely don't want to watch this with your children, but once you put them to bed it will definitely put some interesting thoughts in your head before you go to bed. All of the seasons are equally entertaining and all of the main characters carry through each season. Once you finish watching this makes an excellent present for friends. 

attention and held on each and every week. This show is smart, sassy, sexy, serious, funny, sometimes sad, and above all REALISTIC! The characters work perfectly off one another. I never watched David Duchovny in X-Files so I wasn't sure what to expect. He is TOP NOTCH fantastic in this show. He has the character of Hank Moody down to a "T" from voice inflections, sarcasm and facial expression, you always know where his character is coming from. The entire show orbits Hank's daily life. Begin with his love and affection for his ex, Karen, and their young pre-teen daughter, Becca, and end with his utter loathing of the literary world of which he is a part, and you will find a man who is struggling daily to look himself in the mirror and try liking what he sees. He drinks too much, parties too hard, and has sex with women whose names he doesn't even care to know. We all have known people like Hank, therefore, he is very real to nearly every adult watching this show. I especially get a kick out of the way his agent, played with precision by Sex and the City's Evan Handler, is fumbling through a kinky fling with his twenty something secretary while his ever suffering, sex-starved wife is begging for "nooners". The show is definitely for an adult audience, and though it can offend some and be quite irreverant most of the time, it is so well written and such fun that it almost doesn't matter. Add to all this some edgy musical tracks from greats like The Rolling Stones and The Foo Fighters, and you have a divine adult drama/comedy series. I'm thrilled with this release of Season One on DVD and keep my fingers crossed that Californication returns for Season Two, Three, and so on. Watch it once, you'll be hooked.