Each week, Christianity Today'sFilm Forum summarizes and links to several online sites that review current movies from a religious perspective. Many of these sites also comment on mainstream music. However, very few do the same for television.

This is not to say Christian sites do not comment on television. Many do, but they do it as media watchdogs instead of as media critics. You can easily find out how much sexuality or violence is in a show, but it is hard to find religious critics to tell you about a program's artistic merit or entertainment value.

American Family Association offers action alerts on television programs and commercials. The Dove Foundation reviews television movies. Christian Spotlight and Parents Television Council rate shows based on their family-appropriateness. And a handful of other sites exist but are apparently rarely updated. Focus on the Family's online site for its Plugged In magazine is perhaps the only site out there regularly giving full reviews of shows—but primarily in a watchdog fashion.

Why don't Christian critics analyze the creative content of television as they do with movies? It may be a question best left to TV detectives.

The halfway point of the 2001-02 TV season has now arrived, providing a good time to look at the new shows making headlines and building audiences , including: 24, Alias, Doc, Maybe It's Me, Scrubs, Undeclared, Philly, and Enterprise.

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One of the most critically acclaimed new shows of the season (though its ratings haven't even broken the top 25) has been Fox's ground breaking and inventive 24. The season will be composed of 24 hour-long episodes shown in real time. An hour for the viewer covers an hour for the characters. In its entirety, the suspense-driven ...