Dust Off the TV - It's Fall Premiere Week

The fall television season is upon us, with the September schedule full of premieres for new shows. There are no less five new programs premiering on network television tonight, plus premieres of returning shows. Just as I have no access to early film screenings I have had no access to the TV pilots that have been in circulation for TV critics for the past few months. I'm not going to try to review everything, but I thought I'd give a quick run-down of the new shows I am interested in and will make an effort to catch in the weeks to come. I'm behind on my TV viewing in general, so I'm not going to get to everything right away, and I expect several shows are going to take a few weeks to get a good sense of. And cable, of course, is a whole other planet. Notably there are far fewer reality show premieres than there have been in the past, which I'm very happy about.

Sunday - There are no new shows being added to any of the networks' Sunday schedules until midseason, though "CSI: Miami" is moving to the 10PM slot opposite "Brothers & Sisters."

Monday - This was the most crowded night of television for nerds for a long time, thanks to the convergence of "House," "Heroes," "Terminator," "Chuck," "24," and "Big Bang Theory." Now most of those shows have been canceled or moved, leaving lots of empty timeslots to fill. Depending on how the new shows perform, it could be very crowded again. "Mike & Molly" will be the new sitcom on the CBS block, about two Overeaters Anonymous members who fall for each other, followed by the new version of "Hawaii Five-O." NBC is rolling out "The Event," which is being described as a conspiracy thriller with a little sci-fi, and "Chase," which follows a manhunt from the POV of both the fugitive and the authorities. Finally FOX is adding "Lone Star," a drama about a Texas con-man, in the old "24" slot.

As a genre fan, "The Event" gets the benefit of the doubt. It looks splashy and fun, and the premiere episodes of these kinds of shows usually turn out to be the best ones, as "FlashForward" proved last year. I'm worried about "Mike & Molly" stating its intention to tackle body image issues so bluntly, but it has very good reviews so I'll try to make room for it later. "Lone Star" is the kind of show that should get better as it goes along if it's worth watching, so that can wait a few weeks until I figure out if "The Event" lives up to its title. As for "Chase," it's a Jerry Bruckheimer production that looks like a "24" knock-off. I was never a fan of "24." NBC will be running the repeats on Saturday for a while if I get curious, which I doubt. However, "Hawaii Five-O" has Daniel Dae-Kim and Grace Park, so Asian-American solidarity requires that I at least give the reboot an episode or two to see if it joins the list of police procedurals I'll be keeping up with.

Tuesday - ABC will be adding the superhero show "No Ordinary Family" and the procedural "Detroit 1-8-7." FOX has pushed Glee up to the 8PM hour and will premiere two sitcoms in the 9PM hour. "Raising Hope" with Lucas Neff and Martha Plimpton is about a dysfunctional family rearing their latest addition, and "Running Wilde," a rom-com with Will Arnett and Keri Russell. How poor Keri Russell has found her way to sitcom hell I have no idea, but I have no interest in seeing the results. The ABC shows feature several actors I like - Michael Chiklis, Julie Benz, and Michael Imperioli - but the premises look derivative and the reviews have not been kind. "No Ordinary Family" is one of the season's more ambitious titles, and has been described as "Heroes"-lite or a live-action "Incredibles," minus PIXAR. It's nice to see family-friendly genre programs on the air, but I'm not the target audience for this one and I know from experience that I should keep my distance. Besides, I'll be busy watching the inevitable "Glee" sophomore meltdown.

Wednesday - Let's deal with the shows I'm writing off sight unseen first. ABC adds one new rom-com sitcom, "Better With You," in the 8PM hour, and the CW has a cheerleader dramedy, "Hellcats" at 9PM. The former looks pretty generic and the latter is about cheerleaders, which is anathema to every nerdy bone in my body. I'm much more interested in NBC's "Undercovers," which is about a sexy African-American couple who are spies. I'll admit a childhood fixation on the old "Hart to Hart" detective series, and this looks to be a similar premise. I've liked all the previews and J.J. Abrams is involved, which is always a good sign, so this one definitely gets a look. However, the real fun on Wednesday is going to be the fight over the 10PM timeslot. All three major networks are premiering new legal and crime dramas: ABC has "The Whole Truth" with Rob Morrow and Maura Tierney, CBS has "The Defenders" with Jerry O'Connell and Jim Belushi, and NBC has "Law & Order: Los Angeles" with Terrence Howard. I think NBC has this one sewed up.

Thursday - I may never forgive CBS for putting "The Big Bang Theory" opposite "Community," but I'll watch anyway since "Big Bang" is harder to find online. In any case, I don't plan to check out "S#!T My Dad Says" with William Shatner, which "Big Bang" will provide a lead-in for. I also don't see anything interesting about "My Generation," a nostalgic hour-long dramedy about Gen Yers in ABC's 8PM slot. The message of that one, apparently, is that you aren't defined by who you were in high school, which anyone over the age of twenty should have figured out already. What is it about the American media's fixation on high school? And wasn't this FOX's "Reunion" five years ago? Anyway, the other two premieres are "Nikita" on the CW, which I've discussed at length already in a previous post, and "Outsourced," replacing "Parks and Recreation" on NBC's comedy block. "Outsourced" is the sitcom about the Indian call center, which every media blog has proclaimed to be terrible. However, I'm still interested to see how bad it is, especially the handling of the cultural divide.

Friday - Not a good night of the week for television in general, so it's safe to say that the weaker pilots ended up here. I'm usually not home anyway, so I doubt I'll be seeing much of any of them. ABC has the closest thing to a new medical drama this year with "Body of Proof," with Dana Delaney as a medical examiner. After several high profile flops like "Trauma" and "Mercy," TV doctors are largely in hibernation. Crime drama "Blue Bloods" with Tom Selleck is in CBS's 10PM slot and will be up against the courtroom drama "Outlaw" with Jimmy Smits on NBC. "Outlaw" may have the year's most ridiculous premise, with a former Supreme Court justice quitting the bench to become a firebrand trial lawyer. As if to punctuate the joke, Conan O'Brien is listed as a producer since his company is producing. No surprise then, why NBC has dumped it on Friday nights. The network also has a new reality series, "School Pride," at 8PM, which is being delayed until October and is described as a school make-over program. Yeah.

Saturday - Rerun night. I miss the days of "Golden Girls" and "The Carol Burnett Show."

Happy watching!