TV Trips Into Fall, But These Days Who Knows Where To Look?
We're kicking off a new fall TV season this week. A generation ago, even less, that was cause for major media focus, as new shows from the broadcast networks jockeyed for attention and position while old favorites returned with new episodes. Also back then, the Emmys were a celebration of the best, and clips from the nominated shows reminded you just why they were considered the best of the best.
But now? In 2013? All bets are off.
I'll end the suspense right off by declaring that, once again this season, the broadcast networks haven't come up with one single show that absolutely, positively has to be added to your watch list. Oh, there are a handful of good ones, or promising ones, but not one that arrives so perfectly made out of the box that it sticks the landing the way Lost once did. These days, it feels like the broadcast networks are the ones who are lost, trying to straddle the territory between edgy, new-school cable shows and comfy, old-school broadcast ones.
Some of the best new shows of the season — on broadcast television, at least — you may have sampled already. Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a comedy cop show on Fox teaming Saturday Night Live veteran Andy Samberg with Homicide: Life on the Street vet Andre Braugher, started Sept. 17 and is enjoyable precisely because of that odd-couple pairing.
The Blacklist, a very Silence of the Lambs-ish NBC drama, stars James Spader as a mysterious career criminal advising a rookie FBI profiler. That show started Monday, and is much better than that description makes it sound.
NBC also has The Michael J. Fox Show, which returns the beloved star to the weekly sitcom form. The first few episodes aren't as rich or funny as I'd like, but there's no denying it's a treat to watch this actor again, and it's the sort of show I expect will find its legs quickly.
Over on CBS, there's another show bringing back a hot sitcom star from the '80s: Robin Williams, who plays a fast-talking ad executive in a sitcom called The Crazy Ones. Like Fox's show, it's not as amusing as it should be, but shows plenty of potential.
Television
Fall TV: A Whole Lot Of Trouble On The Home Front