The fall television season is once again upon us, and overall the results are pretty depressing: there’s a decided lack of originality to much of the broadcast networks’ new offerings, as if they were somehow injured by the lack of interest in last year’s riskier programs.
In fact, there is a whole lot of formulaic fare coming to your televisions, and a ton of new (mostly awful) comedies this year. But fret not: it’s not all doom and gloom, as there are at least a few promising new shows on the horizon, from the Connie Britton-led country music drama Nashville to the sweet charms of offbeat comedy Ben & Kate.
Once again, the broadcasters have opted to hold back many of the more interesting new shows until midseason, which means we’ll have to wait until January for the launch of Kevin Williamson’s serial killer thriller The Following against James Purefoy in a murderous game, and Bryan Fuller’s television adaptation of Hannibal, which finds a young FBI agent (Hugh Dancy) meeting the cannibalistic psychopath Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) for the first time. Which isn’t to say that midseason is entirely promising either: the winter will also find NBC offering us the truly terrible Dane Cook comedy (and I use that word loosely), Next Caller.
In the meantime, however, while we’re waiting for the rise of the serial killers on the broadcast nets, here’s a look at the best and worst of the new fall television season.
By Jace Lacob
Clockwise from top left: CBS; ABC; Neal Street Productions; CBS
Former Friday Night Lights star Connie Britton is back, y’all! In Nashville, Britton plays country music queen Rayna James, whose once-grand career is fading amid competition from a younger generation embodied by slutty and manipulative singer Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere), with whom she is forced to tour or lose support from her record label. Despite the omnipresence of country music within the plot, one doesn’t need to be a fan to fall in love with this winning and intriguing drama, which blends music, romantic intrigue, and politics, along with an insightful examination of how popular entertainment devalues aging women. Plus, Britton delivers the type of stirring and sympathetic performance we’ve come to expect from her, rendering Rayna likeable but realistically flawed. The result is equal parts heartbreak, hope, and All About Eve-style rivalry. A must watch. (Launches October 10.)
Craig Sjodin / ABC
From creator Dana Fox (and showrunners Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan, late of Community) comes the utterly charming comedy Ben & Kate, about a pair of adult siblings—a single mother/waitress (Dakota Johnson) and a slacker nomad (Nat Faxon)—and their misfit friends. While this could have been another saccharine comedy, there’s genuine emotional intelligence and wit to the dynamic between the titular characters, and an offbeat sensibility that keeps this from straying into overwrought or formulaic territory. Plus, British import Lucy Punch (The Class), who plays sexually aggressive waitress BJ, steals the pilot with her demonstration of how to keep a guy’s attention focused on her mouth. We can hope that she and this adorably quirky show will get the attention they deserve. (Launches September 25.)
Miranda Penn Turin / Fox
While the shot pilot didn’t quite live up to the dazzling promise of the script, CBS’ stylish period drama Vegas—which stars Dennis Quaid, Michael Chiklis, and Carrie-Anne Moss and which is set in 1960s Las Vegas—still tantalizes. Quaid is quite comfortable as Ralph Lamb, the real-life rancher turned sheriff of Las Vegas who battled mobsters during the rise of Sin City, and Chiklis offers a palpable threat to the sense that happiness is attainable in Las Vegas, even if the odds are against you. I’m hoping that there’s a clear sense of overarching story among the mystery-of-the-week plotting, and that those mysteries become far more intriguing and clever as the series goes on. (Launches September 25.)
From creators Shawn Ryan (The Shield) and Karl Gajdusek (Dead Like Me) comes this military thriller, which imagines a United States nuclear submarine going rogue when, after refusing to launch its missiles at Pakistan, it is fired upon by the American military. In order to prevent the outbreak of a nuclear war, the crew of the sub—which includes Andre Braugher, Robert Patrick, and Scott Speedman—set themselves up as a sovereign nation on a South Pacific island that is home to a NATO outpost. While at times veering into ludicrous territory, Last Resort manages nonetheless to fuse political intrigue (there’s a conspiracy afoot back in Washington) and high-octane action with romantic subplots and banana republic skirmishes with the local warlords, none of whom are too happy to see a nuclear sub turn upon in their fiefdom. Just where the plot is going remains to be seen, but I’m intrigued enough to want to watch a second episode. (Launches September 27.)
Craig Sjodin / ABC
While Elementary doesn’t come close to approximating the dizzying heights of BBC/PBS’ Sherlock, the CBS update of the classic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle consulting detective is inherently watchable, particularly if you’re a fan of procedurals. Johnny Lee Miller is engaging as Elementary’s famous sleuth, newly relocated to Manhattan and in recovery from addiction. Lucy Liu plays Joan Watson (groan), his sober companion and eventual sidekick, though Liu displays none of the raw heat she displayed earlier this year on her stunning Southland arc; instead, her Watston is icy and withdrawn. Still, if the mysteries are smart and twisty, this could make for a fun (if somewhat derivative) show. (Launches September 27.)
There is a moment within The Mindy Project—the single-camera comedy created by and starring The Office’s Mindy Kaling—that solidifies just how wonderfully weird both the show and its star truly are: as a drunk Mindy flees a wedding on a bicycle and swerves around traffic (shouting “racist!” at the driver who dares honk at her), she goes flying into a swimming pool… and has an entire conversation with a Barbie doll, who taunts Mindy for her lack of a boyfriend. Wacky? Absolutely, but also telling, as the entire concept of romance that’s embedded in frazzled OB-GYN Mindy’s head is derived straight from the oeuvre of Nora Ephron. Ultimately, The Mindy Project manages to be funny, fierce, and oddly feminist, even as the show sets its lead character up for a potentially rude awakening. (Launches September 25)
This British period drama, which aired earlier this year on BBC One in the U.K. and broke ratings records, heads to PBS at the end of the month. Based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, the bittersweet and surprisingly addictive Call the Midwife recounts the professional and personal crises of a group of young midwives (and the nuns of nursing convent Nonnatus House) in a working class East London neighborhood in the 1950s. Tackling childbirth, death, and broken hearts with humor and genuine pathos, Call the Midwife is more than just a tea cozy drama; it connects the viewers to the wonder, spectacle, joy, and trauma of childbirth, and mines the lives of the midwives responsible for bringing babies into the world for drama that is universal and timeless. (Launches September 30; check your local listings for details.)
Fifteen years after a mysterious event causes a permanent global blackout (leading to the return of an agrarian/feudal lifestyle), a band of survivors, including the daughter of one of the men who may have caused the incident, set out to solve this mystery. While the pilot had some gorgeous and majestic shots of desolation (courtesy of director Jon Favreau), there is an overabundance of Hunger Games-esque imagery, with Tracy Spiridakos’ Charlie clearly filling in for Katniss Everdeen, and way too much corny humor and sappy melodrama for a post-apocalyptic action show. The tone ricochets all over the place, settling unfortunately in high camp. I like my dystopian visions dark and dire, please. (Launches September 17.)
Creators Max Mutchnik and David Kohan (Will & Grace) have tried to set this concept up for years, and it shows: the premise—two men, one gay (Michael Urie) and one straight (David Krumholtz), are lifelong friends and business partners—feels so incredibly dated it feels like we’ve traveled back in time to the 1990s. The concept isn’t the only thing that’s stale: so are the jokes, and it’s painful to see Brandon Routh, who once played Superman, reduced to playing third banana on a hackneyed CBS sitcom. When poor Routh—playing a male nurse, no less (shock, horror!)—is forced to utter lines about having a “heart on,” we’ve truly hit rock bottom. (Launches September 24.)
Paul Lee, what were you thinking? That’s the question on most critics’ minds as we watched the painfully unfunny pilot for aliens-among-us-in-suburbia comedy The Neighbors, which not only left me slack-jawed but also made me question the taste level of the ABC entertainment president and his development team. Creator Dan Fogelman previously wrote the witty and winning Crazy, Stupid, Love, but the flashes of inspiration and wit there are virtually undetectable here. One only hopes that this ghastly comedy will be as mercifully short-lived as last year’s ABC comedy disaster Work It. (Launches October 3; sneak peek on September 26.)
Made in Jersey, you are not The Good Wife. CBS already has one legal drama on its ledger, and the far more intelligent, slick, and sophisticated Good Wife doesn’t seek to incapacitate us with the shrieking New Jersey accents on display here. As Martina Garretti, British actress Janet Montgomery proves herself willing to don the stereotypical patois and fake nails and engage in shouting matches with her sprawling Jersey Shore reject family, but there’s nothing compelling or engaging about this faux-professional legal drama, which seeks to parade the Paramus Payless pumps of Montgomery’s aspiring lawyer among the well-heeled set of this Manhattan white-shoe firm. Can this Jersey girl impress the high-powered attorneys and make a name for herself? Who cares. Case dismissed. (Launches September 28.)
Apparently, the producers of Guys With Kids (which, surprisingly, includes Jimmy Fallon) didn’t get the memo that the idea of men caring for their offspring lost its humor about 20 years ago. Instead, we’re treated to every cliché imaginable about these three best friends (Anthony Anderson, Jesse Bradford, and Zach Cregger) who are forced to take care of their kids while failing horrifically at growing up themselves. Not a funny joke to be found anywhere within, nor anything interesting to say about modern fatherhood, marriage, or maleness. (Launches September 26; sneak peek on September 12.)
Fans of the 1980s CBS supernatural drama Beauty & the Beast, which starred Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman, may want to avert their eyes altogether, as the CW’s update of the Ron Koslow-created drama bears little resemblance to its forebear. Gone are the subterranean city and its tunnels and the cat-like visage of the Beast. The new version’s Beast (Jay Ryan) is a “scarred” Afghan war veteran who was the subject of an experimental military program that gave him super-strength, speed, and reflexes. Kristin Kreuk plays an NYPD detective (has there ever been a less convincing description than that one?) whose past—including the mysterious murder of her scientist mother—is connected to the Beast, and the two find themselves on a collision course with each other and… yawn. I previously said that there were “drinking games with more substance,” and I stand by that. (Launches October 11.)
If it was difficult to buy Kristin Kreuk as a tough-as-nails NYPD detective, it’s even more impossible to accept the notion of the egregiously miscast Jordana Spiro (My Boys) as a cardiothoracic surgeon who is secretly in bed with an organized crime family and acting as—if the title didn’t already give it away—a mob doctor. Yet that’s the premise of this hokey and awful drama from creator Josh Berman (Drop Dead Diva), which tries to amp up the glacial action with car chases, attempted murder, and gunshots, but is actually entirely dead on arrival. (Launches September 17.)
