Rentrak Adds Three Quincy-Owned Stations

Motive, a Canadian crime drama beginning on ABC, reveals early the who did what to whom; it’s the why that’s held for the climax. It’s reasonably smart, reasonably interesting and reasonably well acted without being particularly good. You might enjoy it as a low-key alternative to hyped-up American cop shows, or it might strike you as a mingy and borderline dull reworking of cop-show formulas. Either way, it’s likely to stick around: a second season has been ordered in Canada, and the price point for ABC is probably pretty low.

PBS's four-part Constitution USA With Peter Sagal rides along with the humorous host of NPR's popular Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me! quiz show as he traverses the nation in a too-cheeky-by-half attempt to find and narrate evidence of the U.S. Constitution in glorious action. This mostly means Sagal interviews legal experts, historians and even the people who advocate those low-flow toilets that drive libertarians ape. He also hangs out with gun proponents, medical marijuana sellers and the like, while trying to look casual. Some may find Constitution USA is a fascinating and informative romp, chuckling right along with Sagal. I found myself feeling a tad sorry for his interview subjects, who seem to have been coached and goaded into matching his repartee.

Here's a man who's accomplished the seemingly impossible — making Lewis Black seem upbeat and Larry David positively cheery. He's Marc Maron, real-life host of the podcast WTF with Marc Maron and star sour ball of IFC's darkly amusing new Maron which the network describes as a "fictionalized version of Marc's life." Probably not that fictionalized, though. Maron will probably never be wildly famous, which likely wouldn't please him anyway, but Maron should put him more firmly on the map as a seriously funny guy who takes in stray cats but swears off dogs because they're "too needy." Take it from him, "If there's gonna be somebody crying and panting in my house, it's gonna be me." Meow to all that.

Why, on so many levels; why? It seems tragic that, given the number of comedy writers out there, ABC didn't come up with a stronger vehicle than Family Tools. The show is just another set of prefab sitcom tropes pasted together with cheap jokes. The ensemble, led by Leah Remini and J.K. Simmons, has as much chemistry as an organic farm.