Roush Review: This Fall Season, TV Gets Personal

Matt Roush
17 Comments
THE KOMINSKY METHOD
Preview
Netflix

No medium has changed more in recent years than television. How we watch: streaming, downloads, the almighty binge. Where we watch: Hello, bottomless pool of Netflix! Even when we watch, with rarely a break between so-called seasons in a nonstop and overwhelming flow of programming.

But as we assess, in our yearly tradition, a heaping new lineup of fall TV, what hasn’t changed is why we watch: The shows that matter are the ones that make us care. Echoing the breakout series from the past two years — NBC’s This Is Us and ABC’s The Good Doctor — the most promising provide strong emotional hooks, in a variety of genres, to help cut through TV’s clutter.

Fall TV Sneak Peek: All the New and Revived Shows, Plus Ones on the Move
Related

Fall TV Sneak Peek: All the New and Revived Shows, Plus Ones on the Move

Even comedies can give you a lump in the throat. You’ll have to wait until November for my favorite, Netflix’s The Kominsky Method, but it’s worth it. This marvelously melancholy meditation on aging, from The Big Bang Theory’s Chuck Lorre (a personal best), stars Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin in top form as an acting teacher and legendary Hollywood agent who’ve both seen better days. As these endearing curmudgeons endure loss and life’s humiliating aches and pains, you may not know whether to laugh or cry. (Both responses are acceptable.)

How 'Charmed' & Other TV Reboots, Spinoffs & Adaptations Stack Up to the Originals (PHOTOS)
Related

How 'Charmed' & Other TV Reboots, Spinoffs & Adaptations Stack Up to the Originals (PHOTOS)

Same goes for Amazon Prime Video’s entrancing romantic comedy Forever, starring Saturday Night Live veterans Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen in a uniquely affecting exploration of love over the very long haul. To say more would give too much away, but I devoured the entire season in a state of dazed bliss. I wish I were as attached to Jim Carrey’s creepily depressed kiddie host from Showtime’s Kidding or Jennifer Garner’s uptight wife in HBO’s off-putting Camping. They and their shows are more unpleasant than amusing.

High-concept dramas with sci-fi leanings also aim for the emotional jugular. NBC’s intriguing Manifest is built around one of those cosmic mysteries you worry will never pay off — what happened to a flight that vanished for five and a half years before landing? — but it’s just as compellingly invested in the impact on the lives forever changed by this weird phenom. Even better is Hulu’s The First, starring an excellent Sean Penn. Grounded in realism, the eight-parter tells of preparations for a manned mission to Mars that’s clouded by tragedy and complicated by all-too-human conflict.

On a lighter note, CBS’s charming God Friended Me takes a more earnest approach to its whimsical parable. The Mayor’s charismatic Brandon Micheal Hall is an atheist who’s suddenly guided to perform do-good missions by messages from a possibly divine social-media account. Tagged by a Deity? Good heavens.

Less fancifully, The CW’s All American contains appealing elements of Friday Night Lights and The O.C. in its sudsy DNA, when a high school football prodigy (Daniel Ezra) is recruited from his South L.A. neighborhood to a swank Beverly Hills squad by coach Taye Diggs. Full hearts and moist eyes are the norm on the new drama most obviously influenced by This Is Us: ABC’s tear-jerking, smartly cast buddy soap A Million Little Things, about a group of complacent friends rocked into poignant self-examination when one of the gang inexplicably kills himself. Will the suicide premise turn viewers off? Remains to be seen. It’s often hard to predict which shows can sustain over time.

Procedural crime and medical dramas tend to be easier sells. Especially when the lead is as engaging as Castle’s Nathan Fillion in ABC’s The Rookie, as a 40-year-old “walking midlife crisis” seeking new purpose as a fledgling LAPD cop. His humor and pathos make this the best of an otherwise generic and overly familiar lot that includes CBS’s gritty FBI and NBC’s pious New Amsterdam, starring The Blacklist’s Ryan Eggold as the saintly but annoyingly smug savior of a New York City public hospital.

For the flip side of heroism, Lifetime’s gripping You digs addictively deep into the psyche of a dangerously obsessed romantic (Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgley) who goes to great, grisly lengths to snare a winsome aspiring writer (Elizabeth Lail). Hard to look away from, even when you want to.

And is there a trend more pervasive on TV than nostalgia? Rising above a tepid batch of new network comedies, ABC’s The Kids Are Alright flashes back to the 1970s to introduce a bustling Irish-Catholic family that makes The Goldbergs look tame. Mary McCormack and Michael Cudlitz are hilarious as the tough-love parents of eight unruly lads.

Watch the Trailers for ABC's New Fall Series 'Whiskey Cavalier,' 'The Fix' & More (VIDEO)
Related

Watch the Trailers for ABC's New Fall Series 'Whiskey Cavalier,' 'The Fix' & More (VIDEO)

Otherwise, it’s a parade of reboots (CBS’s flashy but hollow Magnum P.I., The CW’s Charmed), spinoffs (FX’s Mayans M.C., The CW’s Legacies) and one revival whose renewed timeliness is inarguable: CBS’s classic Murphy Brown, with a mission to mine laughs from our turbulent “fake news” times.




Conversation17 Comments

Please read the TV Insider Community Guidelines.

Comments are closed on this story.

  1. P

    PurpleHammer

    'The Rookie' looks good, but owes a great debt to 'McClain's Law', the 1981-82 James Arness drama. The football drama on the CW looks good as well.

  2. G

    GreenElephant

    Both Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers were new last night and were on-target, as usual, with their monologues especially with their take on Bob Woodward's book on the current occupant of the White House! Oh, and Colbert grew a beard but it may be gone soon...

    1. R

      RedCupcake

      LOL, I almost couldn't see Colbert's beard on my smaller TV because it's white/grey and didn't stand out. He took a poll about whether or not he should keep or shave it... I bet he'll end up shaving it off. BTW, I *loved* Jon Stewart's beard.

      1

    2. R

      RedCupcake

      Lastly... tonight should be a great night to watch the late shows... today's NYT's Op-Ed will put these show's writers on fire. 😮 😀

      1

    3. G

      GreenElephant

      Yeah, LOL!

    4. G

      GoldSubmarine

      Designated Survivor season 3 will be on Netflix

      10 eps

      Better than canceled : )

    5. R

      RedCupcake

      Wow, that's great!! Almost tempts me to sign up for Netflix. :-p Although I may be able to piggyback on someone else's account. But the change to Netflix can make for some interesting storytelling, going places that they couldn't go on the alphabet network. Maybe a little deeper and darker.

    6. G

      GoldSubmarine

      I never paid for a streaming service. I was offered multiple passwords but only used one for a short time. With all the terrific broadcast and cable shows I I really have precious little time for streaming services.

      That said , I will make time for Designated Survivor! I really enjoyed it on ABC, I hope it doesn't get too graphic and profane.

    7. R

      RedCupcake

      Yeah, I had access to my son's Netflix account for a couple years, and it was nice. I didn't watch any of their original programming (not sure they even had any at that time), but I liked watching old shows. Not sure what I'll do about DS. One way or another I'll try to find a way to watch it!

      BTW, earlier this summer I think you said you were watching SEAL Team reruns. Are you still doing that? The 2nd half of the season--when the team is in Afghanistan, trying to avenge their fellow SEALS, is the really good part.

    8. G

      GoldSubmarine

      I have my nephew's Netflix code and my niece from a different family. Also a couple of friends. But like you I hardly watched it. Over the past coupe of years I watched Stranger Things (not my type) , Fauda (also not my cup of tea) rewatched 4 seasons of Marvel Agents of S.H.IE.L.D and two seasons of Quantico (both my favorite shows).

      Ironically it's three ABC shows including Designated Survivor

      that will entice me to watch NetFlix!

      I only watched several early eps of CBS's Seal Team, a solid show that I know will improve as I keep watching but not as riveting as NBC's canceled The Brave that was slaughtered by ABC's The Good Doctor.

  3. R

    RedQuill

    New Amsterdam...with the "annoyingly smug" Ryan Eggold...looks like it COULD be interesting...

    But...I'm already "committed" to The Good Doctor and to The Resident...so it will be interesting to see if I have the viewing time to fit in a THIRD medical show!!??!!

  4. R

    RedCupcake

    Yawn. I don't like shows that purposely "go for the jugular" when it comes to trying to tug our heartstrings. It usually has the opposite effect on me. BTW, God Friended Me sounds like an updated version of the older show Joan of Arcadia.

    1. This comment was removed by its author.

    2. R

      RedCupcake

      Yes, I liked Joan of Arcadia too. 🙂

    3. G

      GoldSubmarine

      Also GFM reminds me of last season's Kevin Probably Saves the World (Did I get the title right) on ABC. I did enjoy that show early on, but then dropped it for some reason. Don't recall why, maybe I had too many other shows I liked more.

      I'll give CBS's FBI , Magnum P.I. , NBC's Manifest and ABC's The Rookie a shot for sure. What shows will you be sampling?

    4. R

      RedQuill

      I always enter ANY new show that looks interesting into my DVR as a "Season Pass"...(which means ALL new episodes will be recorded automatically)...

      But...each night when I go to watch TV on my DVR...I always watch what I'm MOST interested in watching At That Time...

      Last year...Kevin Probably Saves the World had 4 episodes backed-up on my DVR...meaning I was watching other "more" interesting shows...so I canceled its Season Pass and deleted its backed-up episodes...

      (Actually, I guess, it really went on my "Shows That I Would Watch If I Had UNLIMITED Viewing Time...and...Were IMMORTAL" List)...

    5. R

      RedCupcake

      I will probably give Magnum a try. I wasn't sure I'd like the new MacGyver, but I do. It's really not ANYTHING like the original MacGyver, but that's okay, I find it quite entertaining. So even though I'm dubious about the "sexification" of the new Magnum (making all the characters hip and attractive and hinting at some 'ship' action with the female Higgins) I'll see how it is. I'll probably also watch Murphy Brown. I'd been watching the show on Antenna TV, so it will be interesting to see how they deal with the past 20+ years. Also probably check out FBI too. I hope they minimize the soapy relationship stuff... I just want to see the action stuff.

      I don't know much about shows on other networks... since I don't watch anything on NBC or ABC or Fox, I never see their promos. I'm not interested in any medical shows. As it is, I'm a little concerned about Sundays, since Supergirl is moving to that night. Hopefully it'll be on at 8, and then I can catch NCIS-LA and Madam Secretary after that. Also, complicating things further, The Last Ship starts this coming Sunday, so that'll complicate things for me. I may end up watching it it on Mondays (depending on how the Monday schedule is).

    6. G

      GreenElephant

      You'll probably be able to watch "NCIS-LA" and "Madam Secretary" after "Supergirl" during the Fall, anyway, since that's the time NFL football delays CBS prime time programming on Sunday nights...