Fall TV: Tuesdays

The dearth of entertainment that is summer TV is about to end, and before us… well, frankly, is a dearth of entertainment that is fall TV. Doesn’t look too great this year, folks. Nope, not too great at all. (Granted, this is all based off of descriptions, critics reviews/previews, and the few clips of shows that I’ve seen thus far, since no pilots have currently been released online. Which I find surprising. Would’ve expected a few by now… Unless I’m spot on about how sucky this year is gonna be and the networks are trying to delay the inevitable criticisms…)

Anyway, Fall TV starts for realsies in about three weeks (a few shows trickle out before that, but the week of the 23rd is the big premiere week). In order to get you prepped for the (non-)awesomeness to come, I’m gonna give you a run down of your options on a given night. Since today is Tuesday, let’s start with the Tuesday lineup:

NEW SHOWS

Tuesdays are heavy with the new shows. ABC’s entire lineup is new, which is a bit unusual- usually a network will try to use at least one returning show to anchor a night, but they didn’t have great options, evidently. (I mean, personally I think they could have kept Happy Endings and had it anchor Tuesdays, but whatever, I’m bitter.)

Let’s do this by timeslot, k?

At 8/7c, we have returning shows NCIS (CBS) and The Biggest Loser (NBC). The new shows are:

ABC- Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I know people are excited for this one; I’m cautiously optimistic. It screams Heroes to me, but I’m hoping that the great minds behind it (aka Joss Whedon) will keep it from devolving into a mess like that, with too many characters, too many subplots that take too long to tie together, etc. I think it looks fun, and hopefully the characters will be well developed (again, Joss Whedon, so I would expect as much.)  Obviously, it’s a continuation of The Avengers movie, focusing on the S.H.I.E.L.D agents- Coulson, Maria Hill, and ones we weren’t introduced to in the movie. It takes place after “The Battle of New York” (aka The Avengers), so the general pop like you and me, in this world, know about gods and aliens and all kinds of things that we’d been shielded (pun intentional) from in the past.
NOTABLE FACES: Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, of course; Cobie Smulders will occasionally reprise the role of Maria Hill (hopefully on a regular basis after HIMYM ends, should this get a second season); and Ming-Na Wen (from ER) as Melinda May, a former field op turned desk jockey (looks like maybe she’s a little too into kicking ass from the clips I’ve seen)

The CW- The Originals

A spin-off of a show I don’t watch (Vampire Diaries), The Originals follows a few vampires, that were the original family who sired the main vamps on VD (tee hee, I said VD) in their old hometown of New Orleans. A few of the characters from VD (tee hee, I said VD again) will be jumping ship with following them, as well as a bunch of new characters- witches, werewolves, vampires- the usual lot. 
NOTABLE FACES: I mean, it’s a CW show, so no one really, but- the ones carrying over are Joseph Morgan as Klaus, Daniel Gillies as Elijiah, Claire Holt as Rebekah, and Phoebe Tonkin as Hayley; I believe Leah Pipes is a new character, Camille- she was previously in The Deep End as Beth Bancroft.

FOX- Dads

Brought to us by the one-track mind of Seth MacFarlane, Dads is about two best friends whose dads move back in with them (separately. It’s hard to make this clear in a single sentence- the two best friends both have their own place, and both their dads move into their respective apartments.) It’s full of xenophobic, racist, homophobic, misogynistic jokes- basically Family Guy live action, or Ted sans the teddy bear. Despite a great cast, it just seems like a giant misfire.
NOTABLE FACES: Giovanni Ribisi and Seth Green- who are both 39 and thus seem too old for the man-boy characters they’re playing; Martin Mull and Peter Riegert as the dads; Vanessa Lachey and Brenda Song lend their “talents” as well

FOX- Brooklyn Nine-Nine (8:30/7:30c)

Andre Braugher takes a HUGE step down in awesomeness from last year’s Last Resort. This year, instead of threatening to end the world with nuclear weapons should anyone try to take his submarine away from him, he’s the captain of a police precinct full of weirdos and slackers. It’s going to be full of high-jinx, and supposedly is a zany, workplace comedy. My concern falls in the Notable Faces area, where despite a few awesome choices (Andre Braugher, obviously, and Terry Crews), there are some choices that leave me worried it’s going to be too annoying and not likable (Andy Samberg, Joe Lo Truglio.) Don’t get me wrong, the annoying players CAN be funny, but in small doses, with certain character tupes. Samberg is playing the cocky, rules-don’t-apply-to-me, wise ass detective, and I’m concerned it’s going to be so annoying that I won’t be able to watch.

Now, onto the 9/8c timeslot, two new ABC comedies here:

The Goldbergs

Set in the 80s, based on creator Adam F. Goldberg’s life, it’s about a kid and his dysfunctional family, who yell everything all the time and are very in-your-face. The main kid (Adam) follows his family around with a video camera all the time. It’s just… not funny looking at all. Not one bit.
NOTABLE FACES: George Segal as the grandpa, Jeff Garlin as the dad, and Wendi-McLendon-Covey as the mom

Trophy Wife

Finally, a show I’m actually excited for. Great cast and good concept- a young woman (Kate) marries a man who already has 2 ex-wives and I believe 3 children. The clips I’ve seen look very funny, and there’s going to be a lot of conflict between the ex-wives and the new wife, the kids trying to accept their new stepmom, and Kate’s struggles to grow into this new role she never expected. I think it looks really funny, and hopefully ABC will move it to Wednesdays after Modern Family once the new show Super Fun Night crashes and burns.
NOTABLE FACES: Seriously, a great cast: Malin Ackerman as Kate; Bradley Whitford as Brad, the new husband; Marcia Gay Harden as the hard, judgmental ex-wife; Michaela Watkins as the relaxed, slightly scatterbrained ex-wife, and Natalie Morales as Kate’s BFF

The returning shows in this timeslot are NCIS: LA (CBS), Supernatural (The CW), New Girl/The Mindy Project (FOX), and The Voice results show (NBC).

Finally, ending our evening at 10/9c is a new show on ABC (up against Person of Interest on CBS, Chicago Fire on NBC, and Sons of Anarchy on FX) called Lucky 7. This show follows a group of seven co-workers at a gas station in Queens who win the lottery. There’s the single mom, the sad singleton, the hard-on-his-luck new dad who robbing the gas station when his boss walked in and his cohort puts his boss in a coma, the boss in the coma, the guy who told his wife he was going in on lottery tickets with his co-workers but was really saving the money in an IRA or something boring like that and now isn’t a millionaire, and two more whose stories I either can’t remember from the preview clips are, indicative of what I think this shows downfall will be, didn’t even get shown in the preview clips. I’m highly concerned that there are just too many moving pieces to this show, that it’s going to be too many characters to follow and, like Heroes, will result in people not caring or wanting to follow the show because it’s just too many people and not enough time on the characters they actually like, or the stories never really tie together again, or whatever.
NOTABLE FACES: The only person I really recognized is Matt Long, who doesn’t have a great track record-  The Deep End, Love Bites, and Jack and Bobby. Plus he was on the final season of Private Practice, so clearly his judgment is impaired.

TUESDAY LINEUP RECAP:

8/7c:

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (ABC, premieres 9/24)
NCIS (CBS, premieres 9/24)
The Originals (The CW, premieres 10/15)
Dads/Brooklyn Nine-Nine (FOX, both premiere 9/17)
The Biggest Loser (NBC, premieres 10/8)

9/8c:

The Goldbergs/Trophy Wife (ABC, both premiere 9/24)
NCIS: LA (CBS, premieres 9/24)
Supernatural (The CW, premieres 10/15)
New Girl/The Mindy Project (FOX, both premiere 9/17)
The Voice (NBC, premieres 9/24)

10/9c:

Lucky 7 (ABC, premieres 9/24)
Person of Interest (CBS, premieres 9/24)
Chicago Fire (NBC, premieres 9/24)
Sons of Anarchy (FX, premieres 9/10)

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