The challenge for network television to gain more eyeballs is even more daunting than ever. Pay-TV, Netflix, Hulu, and other live-streaming vehicles have upped the ante when it comes to television programming. There are just so many places other than the big five to see good tv. So what’s a network to do when the competition is steep and there’s everything to lose with shows like Game of Thrones, The Americans, American Horror Story, Orange is the New Black, and Fargo taking over the game — release a new fall season full of shows that they hope will finally find resonance with audiences who are looking for audacious, risk-taking programming. Can the networks deliver?
Well, they can certainly try. Below we’ve listed a few of the shows that seem worth checking out. Note: We’re only discussing shows that are totally new here. That means, “We’re not talking about NCIS: Let’s Wear Our Leisure Suits to the Park to Feed the Pigeons or CSI: Cyber Crime in 2014 or Wow, the Internet.” You can look at those things on your own time.
ABC
How to Get Away with Murder
The latest entry into Shonda Rhimes’ female-driven series domination has Academy Award Nominee, Viola Davis, playing a law professor with an unconventional way of teaching. The premise? If you can try a case from the visitor’s bench successfully, using all the elements taught in class, you just may have a shot at joining her team as a full-fledged lawyer. Of course there’s scandal and intrigue and some sexy winks and smiles. This wouldn’t be Shonda Rhimes without that, but we’re going to say this looks really promising. It just better be. For a mega-watt star like Davis to join, we’re expecting it to be nothing less than the best Rhimes has to offer.
Thursdays at 10pm.
Black-ish
This show falls into the “We really hope our audience is ready for a show like this” category. This means expect moments where it will try too hard for possibly little payoff. OR It could be one of those shows that finds its groove relatively early by landing in that sweet spot where the audience doesn’t overthink it and embraces the overall premise and wants to get on board with its message — even if it’s a bit of a hard sell what with all the hokum and at times eye-rollable amount of over-extension of the bigger themes — which scuttle it into canned laughter territory. The bigger theme being “How are black people supposed to act in ‘post-racial’ America?” There’s a big potential for that question to end with an “Oy.”
Wednesdays at 9:30pm.
CBS
Madam Secretary
Remember Téa Leoni? We’ve been kind of confused by Leoni’s career for a while now. She’s had several smaller parts in bigger movies over the years, see A League of Their Own, Wyatt Earp and, well, we guess…Jurassic Park III. Mostly though, she’s been plodding along in comedies as of late; so playing a big serious role as the Secretary of State seems like a bigger chunk to chew that you’d normally see the likes of someone like Maria Bello take on. However, Leoni seems to fit this role. She’s calmer, more likable, and radiates that bit of maturity she’s been lacking in her career thus far. She still has that raspy voice and smoker’s cough, but that kind of grizzled, woman of stature thing plays really well here. It’ll be curious to see how she measures up against say, Katherine Heigl, who takes on a similar role in another series this fall.
Sundays at 8pm.
Scorpion
This is your “Nerds Assemble” show of the fall season. Which is fine, we guess. Nerds are still hugely popular. The thing CBS will have to be careful of is the constant drumbeat of the “super special person” genre that’s starting to get a little old. People who can intuit things uncannily, or who are wunderkinds at doing that thing they do that makes them special is becoming a bit of a much-used trope. So, the one thing this drama needs more than anything else is humor. It needn’t take itself so seriously. After all you guys are a team of smart, mumbling, socially awkward people who are set to save the world! There should be nothing but jokes about how really smart people can barely form sentences with other humans…or not. CBS, OR NOT! Not, we say!
Mondays at 9pm.
Stalker
If you could pare down Law & Order: SVU and make it all about stalking, this is probably what you’d get. That’s not to say that it doesn’t look compelling. It does. The trailer goes for shock value and pretty much delivers. However, what’s not really clear is what role Maggie Q is playing. Is she law enforcement? Is she a vigilante? Is she a part of a special strike team? That’s the part of this that could make the show lose some of its smarts. Bringing attention to stalking as a crime is a noble thing, but saying there’s some fantastic, albeit “scary” woman out there who will threaten stalking perps into submission thus making it safe for victims is something else entirely. If so, why the law enforcement wrapper? With a show like this, we think less is probably more. We’re not sure we really need this character to be an offshoot of Olivia Benson meets La Femme Nikita. Let’s take it down a notch.
Wednesdays at 10pm.
CW
The Flash
So to continue on with the CW’s spate of superheroes, vampires, medieval queens and stuff, the CW would like you to get involved in the Andrew Garfield as The Flash version of this particular superhero story. We’re not going into the lore of The Flash. Why? Because….go read a comic book, seriously. Geez. Mostly, though, the CW seems to have spent a good amount of money on special effects and their usual amount on backstory and what have you. It’s basically what the network is good at; young people in unusual situations having to make the best of it and so on. That’s fine. This fits right in. The production values look good and the befuddled, yet lovable lead character is in place. There’s not much more the network could ask for.
Tuesdays at 8pm.
Fox
Gotham
You know what’s dark? The Batman. Everything about The Batman? Yup. Why would we say this? Well, because Fox’s Gotham would like you to know that Gotham is a dark place, full of dark people, where no one smiles unless sinisterly. No one has a moment of joy or elation…ever. It’s like a city made of prison inmates and wardens. So basically Australia. That’s it. No one’s a fun, jaunty PR rep from New Mexico. Or a perky meteorologist from North Dakota. Nope. It’s dark, dank and full of people who cause hurt all the time in Gotham. “Go eat your lima beans, kid. That’s all you get in Gotham. ” So there’s that.
Mondays at 8pm.
Mulaney
Remember when Seinfeld was a thing people watched? You know, when stand-up comics playing themselves as stand-up comics was a fun thing for television? Where you got a bit of their routine during the breaks, and then you saw how they lived, in their scruffy apartments, with their struggling gaggle of misfit friends who all lament about not having normal lives because we’re a kinda weird group of people who make self-deprecating observations about our lives ALL THE TIME? Haha! Well, that’s what this show is about. We’d just like to say that if you’re going to do a show like this…again, you might as well get someone pretty funny to deliver the jokes. John Mulaney is that guy and we can’t think of a reason why he shouldn’t have his Seinfeld moment. He also brings veteran Martin Short along for the ride.
Sundays at 9:30pm.
Red Band Society
Leave it to Fox to make us have all the feels. It’s over Glee kids. We are rapidly coming to the end of hearing, “Next week on a very special episode of Glee…” so to that end, there’s nothing more feel-licious than a group of kids in a pediatric hospital ward. *Gulp* You see that? Feels. The creators are basically calling this The Breakfast Club in a hospital, so that much tells you they’re going to be discussing some heavy stuff, with a bunch of heart and a bit of humor. We hope this one works. It seems tricky to do a show like this and not make it too maudlin or overly sunshiny. We’ll have to see if they strike the right balance.
Wednesdays at 9pm.
NBC
AtoZ
Are we ready to see Ben Feldman attempt a successful relationship that doesn’t end in Nipplecide? Maybe. That is if we can get beyond NBC’s attempt at stealing directly from indie movie 500 Days of Summer in which we saw cute, charming, affable guy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt try to woo and continue wooing, sparkle-headed, awkward, big eyed giggle menace, Zooey Deschanel. This television show looks just like that. There’s a meet cute and a misunderstanding, and a beguiling true confession all in two minutes of trailer time. So basically NBC is setting this up to be the couple you fall in love with every week and say “Awwww” when one or both says something like, “You, yes you, complete me at hello” or something else equally tooth achingly sweet. OMG! The first time these two have sex, Twitter will probably keel over dead.
Thursdays at 9:30pm.
Constantine
Oh, God. Well, sure, NBC. Grimm is a hit and all that, so why not another demon and saints show? We never thought NBC would be the network fanboys built, but why the hell not? And possibly good on them for trying to make Friday nights, “Supernatural Fist-Fight Night” we guess. This is better than NBC’s past attempts at “Sci-Fi Laughapalooza Night” or “Can You Believe We Have A Doctor Monkey Show Night?” Well done.
Fridays at 10pm.
Marry Me
Oh, Casey Wilson. We were wondering what happened to all you Happy Endings folks. And basically we thought “You in danger girl!” after we saw where some of your friends ended up. So, Penny, we’re so happy to see you and hear that you’re finally getting married just like you always wanted. Oh, ha! Wait. You’re not Penny on this show. BUT YOU SO ARE! That’s NBC’s point, right? They wanted to make a show that would tell us what would happen if Penny actually did get married. We say this because you’re basically the same Ah-mazing character you were in that other show. That’s not a bad thing necessarily because “Penny” didn’t always get a lot of screen time. However, we will just say that sometimes Penny got a little annoying with all her shenanigans and goofball, zany happenings. So let’s tone it down just a scooch, eh?
Tuesdays at 9pm.
State of Affairs
Rom-com socialite, Katherine Heigl, has decided to throw all her chips into the high-strung political series crap shoot boat while hoping for the kind of success that made The Blacklist some sort of Super Agent Phenom show. Is it very likely that lightening with strike twice on NBC? Well, we’ll just say only if that lightening comes from the 1990’s and skips right over the last five years. So maybe it will happen. This show however seems a bit long on emotion and rather short on edge. And if you’re going to do a nail biter political drama you want to be right on the very edge of edge. Especially if you’re competing with Homeland and The Americans and even Scandal on another network. There’s no room for namby-pamby reasons for why we’ve got to get those terrorists, right?! Right! Tighten up, lady, you’re doing super serious TV now! There’s no going back to this!”
Mondays at 10pm starting in November.
All new shows, like the worst of the bunch (Selfie!) including the ones for the old people can be found here, and a list of times for the entire network schedule can be found here.
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