‘Cupertino,’ ‘Eternally Yours’ Join CBS Lineup, What Lies ‘Below,’ Return of ‘SVU’ and ‘Law & Order’

Cupertino

Top-shelf TV producers Robert and Michelle King (The Good Wife, Evil, Elsbeth) are fighting “the good fight” again — this time against powerful Silicon Valley titans — in a rollicking romp through the minefields of AI and other new tech in a delightfully entertaining legal dramedy that couldn’t be timelier. The fall’s best new show on any platform stars Evil‘s Mike Colter and the disarming Rachel Keller as two lawyers done wrong by one of the region’s many start-ups. They start their own David-vs-Goliath firm, operating out of an unfinished and abandoned luxury workspace as crusaders daring to take on AI companies’ billionaire overlords and their crafty minions. As they’re warned early on: “During the gold rush, don’t sue the goldmine.” But fun would that be if they didn’t try? (See the full review.)

Eternally Yours

The hit comedy Ghosts won’t return until midseason (with the exception of upcoming Halloween and Christmas specials), but the show’s creators are back with a new supernatural sitcom. Ed Weeks (The Mindy Project) and Allegra Edwards (Upload) star as Charles and Liz, vamps who succumbed to passion 500 years ago in Austria but are now yoked together for eternity, currently residing in a bored, undead marital atrophy in Seattle with their adopted daughter Emma (Helen J. Shen from Broadway’s Maybe Happy Ending) and buff coven housemate Jesse (Parker Young). The fun begins when Emma falls for human IRS investigator Max (the affable Jaren Lewison), who’s in for a big surprise if and when he meets the family.

Below

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water … but is it ever, really? Josh Hartnett stars in an atmospheric six-part thriller as Calvin Penney, a Newfoundland fisherman and ice harvester who’s still shaken by the death 40 years earlier of his father, who was drowned by an unknown underwater entity. That same sea creature now seems to be targeting the hamlet of Snooks Arm, where Calvin and his son Wade (Stranger Things‘ Charlie Heaton) are holding out against efforts to get the townspeople to sell and relocate. Something fishy is going on under the surface, and Calvin teams with a marine scientist (Station Eleven‘s Mackenzie Davis) to get to the bottom of the aquatic mystery.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

The 28th season of the ubiquitous procedural introduces Succession‘s J. Smith-Cameron in a recurring role as a jury consultant who becomes a sounding board for Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay). This comes in handy during a troubling case involving a sexual-assault victim who’s badgered by questions of consent while intoxicated. Followed by the Season 26 opener of Law & Order (10/9c), which, like the new Cupertino, tackles the world of AI while investigating a software engineer’s murder. Mad Men alum Vincent Kartheiser guest-stars.

Saban

Revered football coach Nick Saban, who’s now a staple on the College GameDay panel, reveals all in a six-part docuseries (all immediately available on the ESPN app) that examines his coaching and life philosophies, featuring extensive footage from locker rooms and practice fields during his long tenure at Alabama as well as at LSU, the Miami Dolphins, and other stops along his career. Saban led the Crimson Tide to six national championships after securing a national title at LSU, making him one of the winningest coaches ever. The series features new interviews with Saban, his wife, Terry, fellow coaches Bill Belichick and Lane Kiffin, and players including Jalen Hurts, Tim Tebow, and Tua Tagovailoa.

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage (8/7c, CBS): The sitcom’s third season opens with the family taking sides in Georgie’s (Montana Jordan) feud with his mother, Mary (Zoe Perry), while Georgie helps Connor (Dougie Baldwin) out of a legal scrape.
• The Traitors: New Blood (8/7c, NBC): Things get spooky when the Traitors perform their next “murder” in plain sight.
• Hell’s Kitchen (8/7, Fox): Wahlburgers’ co-founder Paul Wahlberg is guest judge for a slider competition. Followed by a new episode of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test (9/8c), with challenges including hand-to-hand combat and a literal cliffhanger.
• Elsbeth (9/8c, CBS): Tony winner Nicole Scherzinger is the guest suspect in the Season 4 premiere, as a famous marriage counselor — Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) is a big fan — who goes to deadly extremes to extricate herself from a messy extramarital passion. The case stirs up office gossip at the precinct involving Elsbeth’s sometimes partner, Det. Bobby Smullen (Danny Mastrogiorgio).
• War (9/8c, HBO): Rookie lawyer Johnny (Archie Renaux), who’s secretly working both sides, starts his first day at Taylor & Byrne just as the divorce case of tech mogul Morgan (Dominic West) and movie star Carla (Sienna Miller) moves into mandatory mediation. The wild card: Flora (Rose Williams), whose fling with Morgan smacks of entrapment.
• American Horror Story: 13 (9/8c, FX, streaming on Hulu): Cordelia’s (Sarah Paulson) coven comes under attack in a home invasion, prompting the witches to make a desperate deal.
• Archive X: Unexplained Phenomena (10/9c, SundanceTV): The speculative series turns to anecdotes of alleged alien abduction.
• The Graham Norton Show (11/10, BBC America): The starry guest list includes Sylvester Stallone, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Andrew Garfield.

ON THE STREAM:

• The Kardashians (streaming on Hulu): The anything-but-camera-shy family returns for an eighth streaming season, with Kim, Kris, and Khloé in New York for a product launch.
• Crossroad Springs (streaming on Great American Pure Flix): The family drama’s second season, which will resume airing on Great American Family in the new year, continues with more conflict over control of the Newman Ranch.