TV Fall Preview: New Shows

As promised, Part II of my Fall preview. The following excerpts are highlights from TWoP's "Best and Worst New Shows" feature, and include my added comments.

-Terriers (Premieres September 8) The premise admittedly sounds more like a USA Network show -- an ex cop teams up with his best friend to solve crimes -- but FX's execution is dark, gritty and enthralling. Donal Logue stars as a loser who's lost his job, wife and pretty much everything else and is now forced to take on any sort of investigations that come his way. Michael Raymond-James (the vampire-hating Rene from True Blood) plays his younger partner with domestic issues of his own. With its focus on blue-collar underdogs solving mysteries that threaten to expose the corrupt upper class of a California town, this show reminds us of both Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer novels and the late lamented Veronica Mars, which is high praise indeed.

I don't really have time for FX shows (i.e., they're not a priority), but this one made TWoP's "best" list, so it might be worth a viewing.

-Boardwalk Empire (Premieres September 19) We're waiting with bated breath for this highly touted HBO series from Sopranos scribe Terence Winter and producer Martin Scorsese. This period crime drama literally looks fantastic, with Steve Buscemi at the center of the action in a Prohibition-era Atlantic City. If it's half as good as we think it will be, it'll still be the best show of the fall.

Three Letters: HBO.

-The Event (Premieres September 20) This is another complicated, high-concept show like FlashForward, so we were totally hesitant about getting invested. Now that we've seen the pilot, we already like Jason Ritter far more than Joseph Fiennes, although we're worried the show will fall victim to unflattering Lost comparisons (and not just because both had crashing planes in their pilots). The storyline involves a mysterious government operation and how it affects the lives of everyone from the president (Blair Underwood) to a guy on vacation with his girlfriend. Laura Innes co-stars in a totally shady role, which brings back fond ER memories. There's enough intrigue in the premiere to make us want to go along for the ride... but if Dominic Monaghan suddenly shows up with a missing finger, all bets are off.

Though I'm more than a little turned off by the comparison to Lost, I missed FlashForward, so I'm more than a little interested in this. But it might be too...complicated.

-Lone Star (Premieres September 20) We don't like this show just because it co-stars Friday Night Lights alum Adrianne Palicki, but that certainly doesn't hurt. We were actually won over by the concept, which sounded iffy on paper, but succeeds on screen. James Wolk is a con artist who lives a double life, wheeling and dealing and dating one girl while married to another. He swaps identities with ease since he's been doing it for years at the behest of his con-man father David Keith. But when trying to scam the uber-wealthy father of his wife, played by Jon Voight, he ends up trying to be a good person instead of taking the money and running. The pace may feel a little slow at first, but the tricky nuances and character development definitely pay off.

Mostly appealing because of Adrianne Palicki, but the rest sounds cool too.

-Detroit 1-8-7 (Premieres September 21) This is network cop drama done right... which probably means that it'll get cancelled quickly. It's fairly gritty, it's all about disturbing homicide cases, it has a strong cast and it has some dark humor. The premise is straightforward -- cops solving crimes and being badass in a very rough town -- but it's well executed. We're naively hopeful that this will last longer than Michael Imperioli's last cop series, Life on Mars.

I never watched the Sopranos, but Michael Imperioli impressed me in those few Law & Order episodes he was in (in as much as anyone can be impressive in L&O). I also like the idea of a gritty network cop drama done right.

-Running Wilde (Premieres September 21) The good things about this show: It's from Mitch Hurwitz, who brought us Arrested Development. It stars our beloved Felicity (a.k.a. Keri Russell, who is making her return to TV) and Will Arnett (who can make us laugh in anything... even the horrible When In Rome) and David Cross. What's not good about this show? Pretty much everything else. It's an odd premise (which admittedly worked for AD) about a rich playboy wants to woo the highly principled girl of his dreams by trying to be a better man, but it just isn't funny. At. All. In fact, instead of laughing, we were cringing.

This was on TWoP's "worst" list, but I'm excited to see Keri Russell back on TV and Will Arnett with more than a recurring role.

-The Whole Truth (Premieres September 22) Yes, it's another courtroom drama, but it's actually got a novel twist: it focuses equally on both the defense and the prosecution and their overlapping trial prep, culminating in a suspenseful verdict pronouncement. The great cast includes TV vets Rob Morrow as the laid-back criminal attorney and Maura Tierney as the DA. Here's hoping that this procedural show ups the ante throughout the season like The Good Wife did last year.

I probably don't need another courtroom drama, what with L&O: LA premiering and all, and I'm actually not a big fan of Maura Tierney, but I <3>
-Undercovers (Premieres September 22) Putting aside the overuse of the word "sexpionage" in the pilot and the trailer, this is actually a fast-paced, well-produced show about the spy world overseen by the guy who brought us Alias. Here, J.J. Abrams promises the show will be a little less mythology-based (you don't need to have a doctorate on Rambaldi just to watch an episode) but will still have action-packed, kick-ass scenes. And it doesn't hurt that the married duo who get sucked back into the CIA are played by the extremely attractive stars-in-the-making Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Again, not something I'm dying to watch, but it is getting a lot of hype, and it is J.J. Abrams. Perhaps it should not be overlooked.

- Law & Order: Los Angeles (Premieres September 22) It's hard to judge this one since we haven't seen it, but we're guessing that if you like the rest of Dick Wolf's Law & Order franchise, then this will be your cup of tea. Here, Alfred Molina is the deputy DA, Regina Hall is the ADA, Skeet Ulrich and Corey Stall are cops and Wanda DeJesus is the lieutenant. Something tells us we'd just rather be watching Southland.

Two words: SKEET ULRICH (because of one word: Jericho). Oh, and two more words: Law & Order.

-My Generation (Premieres September 23) The gimmick of this show sounded irksome when we first heard it, but it actually turned out to be kind of an intriguing concept. A few members of a high school are selected to participate in a documentary, then ten years later the crew follows up on their lives to see if they lived up to their potential and achieved their dreams. They're not a group of people who would necessarily be friends or even cross paths, and there's no irksome murder and slowly doled-out reveals like on Reunion. What we learned about the characters from the first episode definitely whetted our appetite for more.

I saw a the trailer for this and thought "barf." Girl is in an unhappy marriage, guy feels unaccomplished, other girl is looking for marriage material, other guy gets call from third girl that she had his baby after they slept together on prom night...blah blah blah. But it's supposed to be about MY generation, so I'm supposed to want to watch it. Either it's supposed to make me feel extremely pathetic, or comforted because there are other people out there as aimless as I am, and I'm betting on the former. But, TWoP did put it on the "best" list...
-No Ordinary Family (Premieres September 28) Don't worry, this show isn't really attempting to be the new Heroes; these aren't folks from all around the world coming together to prevent some massive catastrophe. Instead, the show's about a family that goes on vacation, crash-lands in a mysterious lagoon and ends up returning home as supercharged beings with powers of speed, strength, smarts and telepathy. It's more like The Incredibles with the spirit of the original Stan Lee-Jack Kirby Fantastic Four. Michael Chiklis plays an unstoppable force (much like his Fantastic Four character); Julie Benz, Kay Panabaker and Jimmy Bennett round out the nuclear family. Romany Malco from 40 Year Old Virgin steals most of his scenes as Chiklis' overenthusiastic best friend and advisor.

Sounds pretty cheesey, but it made the "best" list and I'm glad Julie Benz found a steady gig after Dexter mercilessly brutalized her last season.

- Blue Bloods (Premieres September 24) It's a cop drama headed up by Tom Selleck as the patriarch of a family in which all the members of his family are in some branch of law enforcement. Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan and Will Estes are among the offspring. Expect skeletons in the closet, sibling rivalry and, of course, some backstabbing.

Selleck, Wahlberg, others...not a bad cast.

Obviously I'm not going to watch all these, and the casts appeal to me more than most of the plots, but hopefully some will end up being high quality for seasons to come.