Roush Review: 2017 Fall Preview—A Very Familiar New–Old Season
Fall Preview
Stop me if you’ve heard this one. On second thought, that wouldn’t get you very far in a fall season that feels like a time warp into TV’s past, with remakes, revivals, spinoffs and comebacks the norm. For those who regard TV as a source of comfort food, the more familiar the better, this year is a smorgasbord.
As always, some morsels are tastier than others. Consider CBS’s Young Sheldon, a promising spinoff that’s anything but a clone of the phenomenally successful The Big Bang Theory. With nostalgic Wonder Years–style narration from Adult Sheldon (Jim Parsons), this sweetly funny comedy introduces a 9-year-old savant (Iain Armitage)—as adorable as his older self is prickly. Entering an unruly East Texas high school in 1989, the primly precocious pipsqueak rattles adolescents and grown-ups who don’t know what to make of him. But his devout and devoted mom (the terrific Zoe Perry) has his back. So far, so do we.
A jubilant mother-son bond also fuels fall’s most refreshingly original comedy: ABC’s The Mayor, starring charismatic Brandon Micheal Hall as witty wannabe rapper Courtney Rose, the most unlikely politician since you-know-who. In the upbeat pilot, Courtney finds his true voice in public service after running for local office as a stunt and—to everyone’s shock—getting elected. Yvette Nicole Brown (Community) is his secret weapon, a feisty single mom helping her baby succeed at any cost.
Spoofing sci-fi classics is a popular trend this season, but Seth MacFarlane’s splashy salute to Star Trek for Fox, The Orville, can’t decide if it’s a knockabout parody or an earnest homage and fumbles at both, not as hilarious nor as exciting as it needs to be. Just as derivative but more successful because it commits to its goofiness is Fox’s X-Files–like paranormal sitcom Ghosted, which benefits from the mismatched-buddy chemistry of its geeky misfit leads, Adam Scott and Craig Robinson.
Best of this satirical lot is Hulu’s uproarious Future Man, tipping its cap to The Last Starfighter as it thrusts video-game nerd Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games) into a time-tripping fantasy adventure alongside warriors from the future who can’t believe this weakling may be the savior of humanity. Young and old Sheldon would love this one.
There’s not a lot of humor amid the Marvel invasion continuing to sweep TV on multiple platforms (Netflix, Hulu, Freeform), with almost too many shows to count, though few boast the propulsive suspense and emotional pull of Fox’s The Gifted, a taut family thriller. Genre faves Stephen Moyer (True Blood) and Amy Acker (Person of Interest) star as parents who discover their kids have special mutant powers, making them fugitives of a sinister police state. The pilot episode’s cliffhanger is a doozy. Hard to believe the same company is responsible for ABC’s laughably asinine Marvel’s Inhumans, about an otherworldly family of cartoonish royals notable only for how seriously they take themselves. Few mortals will be likely to make that mistake.
Another time-honored format, the military drama, is making a gung-ho return, but the generic titles alone—SEAL Team (CBS), The Brave (NBC), Valor (The CW)—tell you all you need to know about their creative ambitions. Good luck telling them apart. Qualifying as truly must-see in honoring the troops: National Geographic’s harrowing eight-part docudrama The Long Road Home (November 7), depicting an infamous 2004 ambush in occupied Baghdad while the soldiers’ loved ones anxiously await word back home in Texas.
I expected more of those types of gripping emotional hooks this season, given the success of NBC’s This Is Us, but only a few new shows feel particularly heartfelt, most of them on ABC. The Good Doctor, from House’s David Shore, takes us inside the brilliant mind of a young autistic surgeon, soulfully played by Freddie Highmore. The whimsical Kevin (Probably) Saves the World has to hope the plentiful charms of Jason Ritter (also in Long Road Home) will help ground a fuzzily metaphysical high concept. In a darkly serious vein, Ten Days in the Valley marks the welcome return of Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) in a mystery likely to keep you guessing—and watching. She’s boldly unsympathetic as a train wreck of a substance-abusing single-mom TV producer whose life becomes the sort of crime melodrama she writes when her daughter vanishes while she’s working.
Much more agreeable is the central figure of CBS’s ambitious Me, Myself & I, the gently amusing comic biography of a mensch told from three stages of life, which mostly leaves you wondering how SNL’s Bobby Moynihan morphs into the older, taller John Larroquette.
It’s still more watchable than CBS’s shrill 9JKL, which wastes an awful lot of talent on a frenetic farce about a family sharing adjoining apartments with too few boundaries. CBS has the fall’s worst comedy and drama, with the appalling Wisdom of the Crowd starring smug Jeremy Piven as a (yawn) tech guru promoting a reckless new method of crimesolving through social-media crowdsourcing. Delete.
By comparison, nostalgia is welcome, though it’s not always about looking back with rose-colored romanticism, as HBO’s gamy The Deuce reminds us with its dazzlingly sordid re-creation of 1970s Times Square sleaze. James Franco (in a dual role as identical twins) and Maggie Gyllenhaal brilliantly lead the cast of David Simon’s exploration of the booming skin and porn trade. Dick Wolf chooses a notorious trial of the 1990s to extend his most durable franchise in NBC’s Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders, hoping for an impact comparable to FX’s Emmy-winning O.J. miniseries.
Remakes run the gamut, from CBS’s predictably explosive S.W.A.T. to The CW’s depressingly trashy multicultural reinvention of Dynasty, a misfire misgauging our desire for tiresomely campy soap opera. (Who’s the audience for this?)
At least NBC’s much-anticipated revival of Will & Grace brings back the sparkling original cast to deliver what we can only hope is a return to sophisticated barbed humor that is both timely and timeless.
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I cannot wait to see The Long Road Home. Everything I've heard about it sounds like it's going to be powerful television. As a Noel Fisher fan, I saw a lot of posts on SM while it was being made and it looks like a lot of care and respect went into the story by everyone involved to make it come out right. I've also read the book and just reading about the events was chilling.
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None of these shows sound overly tempting to me. (Definitely not Young Sheldon. Ugh.) I'll wait til I see when things are scheduled. If I had to choose now which ones to try, it will probably be Wisdom of the Crowd and SEAL Team. The Mayor might be amusing as well, but we'll see.
As suggested in the article, the three military shows all sound pretty interchangeable
(the timing of all three debuting this season is interesting, if you think about it....). I'd heard that Jim Caviezel was originally slotted to star in SEAL Team; too bad that didn't work out. The CW version, Valor, will probably be nothing but hot 20-somethings kicking a$$ on missions and then coming home to 'hook up' with other hot 20-somethings.Wisdom of the Crowd is interesting. last year there were other variations on that same theme: super-rich genius funds [blank] to help his city solve {blank}. One show was a cutting-edge hospital, another featured a state-of-the-art police station, and this one is about another law-enforcement agency/detective bureau. I wonder if this show will last any longer than the others.
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Sheldon is already my favorite new show. LOL Maybe you're not a huge fan of Big Bang Theory?
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I like TBBT, although not as much as I used to. Must admit though, that Sheldon is kind of tiresome. He seems to get his way all the time and get his opinions validated (or thinks he does).
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But they've commented about how much more likable his younger self is...more cute and innocent.
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I'll take your word for it. ;-) Besides, that means Sheldon only got more irritating as he got older, rather than the reverse, as one might expect.
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And why not? People say I've gotten more irritating as I've aged. I was a very sweet child...if you can believe that.
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Sure, I believe it! ;-)
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Pure Genius and APB.
Pure Genius was better because at least it is sort of...less serious about it.
oh and it was fun to think of it as a spinoff of Royal Pains.
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There isn't one new series that I'm particularly interested in, not even The Orville, and I've been a sci-fan for over five decades. I just can not stand Seth MacFarlane. There's just far too may reality shows, sitcoms, adult soap operas, and spin off shows this season. No thanks.
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"I just can not stand Seth MacFarlane." That's putting it lightly. He's in a class all by himself - with no class. Human garbage.
And I agree with you about this list of crap television. I won't be watching anything mentioned.
I fail to understand NatGeo's offerings as of late (like the preposterous Simcha Jacobovichi Atlantis Rising nonsense). The Long Road Home? The real story is much more compelling than whatever fabricated BS the scripted series will portray.
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The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. At least the networks are not completely insane. They've seen ratings plunging so they are trying out military patriotic rah rah shows to see if that staunches the hemorrhaging.
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I wonder why Acker had to change her hair color, though. To look like an actress who plays her daughter? But this is ridiculous, you can be a brunette and have a blonde kid. What if she's playing one of the X-Men or someone close to them? Matt Nix said that her character is a "badass warrior". A blonde badass warrior. Sounds familiar? Yep.
The question is - where are The X-Men? Have they been killed by some time traveler in order to change a history? Hardly and this storyline is boring and old.
My theory - The X-Men are in Limbo having fun with... Belasco! I think in this timeline they didn't escape, while young (or slightly aged) Magik did. She grew up and had two kids with some scruffy lawyer guy. Belasco thinks she's dead and she lives an ordinary life pretending to be a human and trying not to wake up her Darkchylde. Until she'll have to, because she can't escape who she is ;)
Listen, they will air The Gifted and Lucifer at the same night it means that those two series should have at least something in common? What else could it be besides Limbo, Belasco and a demonic part of Magik?-
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As a matter of fact, Amy Acker's char is a Mutant and it's not a secret if you work on the show. Fox need to get their head out of their hineys and make an official announcement. They treated her so bad in the pilot I almost wanted to quit watching but now that I know that she's a Mutant I may come back for the rest.
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I will be watching every pilot and if I have time a few episodes of every new show on the broadcast networks. These are what I'm most looking forward to:
ABC's Marvel INHUMANS, The Good Doctor, The Mayor and now thanks to Matt's good reviews, Ten Days In the Valley and Kevin (Probably) Saves the World , I didn't think they would be any good, And even if the INHUMANS's pilot is bad, I have a feeling it will improve. Marvel Agents of SHIELD improved substantially from the pilot and early episodes of season 1 into my favorite show by the second half of the first season until the present time. Hope SHIELD season 5 continues to impress.
Sad to hear FOX's Orville is not that good, but happy about The Gifted and GHOSTED.
CBS's Young Sheldon looks very funny . I'm upset that CBS's Wisdom of the Crowd isn't any good, the previews look insane. So do the previews for CBS's Seal Team and CW's Valor. I'll hope for the best but expect the worst.
I have little interest in NBC's Brave, even the previews don't do anything for me.
There are other new shows that look good to me, but these are the standouts.-
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Wisdom might be OK. Just because Matt doesn't like it, it doesn't mean that we won't like it. We don't always agree with him.
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That is true
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Wisdom seems like it'll be a good background noise show.
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Too much to think about all at once. I was really hoping to like The Orville, but none of the early reviews make it sound very promising.
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Will you be watching the Star Trek Discovery pilot on CBS? The previews look insane!
I just don't want to get tempted for CBS All Access.1
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The Orville might be ruined by McFarlane's insipid, juvenile humor
Star Trek Discovery will probably be good. I'll wait till next spring when all the episodes are up. I can't go back to that old timey system of actually waiting a week for episodes.
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I haven't really thought about it. I'm inclined to want to see it even though I know I'm not subscribing to their site.
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I have a feeling CBS broadcast will air the new Star Trek in the future, possibly next summer and promote All Access constantly during the commercial breaks. Like ads touting that this is what you missed all last year... and to catch the exciting new season and other premium shows subscribe....
Hey it might work. -
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"The Orville might be ruined by McFarlane's insipid, juvenile humor" Might be? If human excrement was music, Seth MacFarlane would be an orchestra.
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