11. How to Get Away With Murder (ABC)
Shonda Rimes newest show is probably the best new network show of the fall. That doesn’t mean much, but at least How to Get Away With Murder is entertaining, compulsively so, something that Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy fans can recognize. I’ve yet to binge Scandal and gave up on Grey’s Anatomy so long ago that I forget that I watched the first couple seasons, but there’s something invigorating about a Shonda Rimes show. There should be more shows like it.
It’s melodramatic, twisty-turny, well-coiffed schlock, but dammit if I wasn’t sold by the titles, when Viola Davis scrawls what she refers Criminal Justice 101 as on the black board: “How to Get Away With Murder.” The show follows the mercurial professor/lawyer Annalise Keating, domineering her class, including the most promising/attractive/diverse pupils, who will not only maneuver law school, Keating’s cases, but a murder mystery, as Keating’s new employees are also dealing with disposing of a body in the pilot.
You might be rolling your eyes, but dammit the show’s addicting and I’m already invested in the various relationships that will unfold over the course of the first season. Sure, it’s a ridiculous portrayal of law school, or so I would imagine, with Viola Davis marching her entire class to court and client meetings, enlisting her ENTRY LEVEL students to do her job for her (not batting an eyelash at illegality), with sex, adultery and gossip dolloped on in equal measure. Maybe it is like law school.
A law school with DEAN THOMAS as one of its students. Cue girlish squeals. I’m in, like a Gryffindor groupie.
10. Modern Family (ABC)
As Emmy shoo-in unfurls its sixth season (doesn’t it feel like the show has been running for 14 years by now?), I had some fatigue. I’m tired of it winning awards, I’m tired of Cam, and I’m tired of massive family trips that no other family that size can afford.
But the show is such a well-oiled machine, that I can’t help but laugh my ass off when it comes back. I absolutely adored seeing Dunphy’s blissful summer: Claire discovering that she loves magic, becoming Phil’s assistant. Luke and Haley become loving siblings, speaking respectfully to one another. Most surprising of all, Phil hasn’t had a bad plum all summer, a supernatural streak on par with Barney Stinson’s Perfect Week. It’s amazing how effective scenes of happiness between the Dunphy’s, normally so fraught with bickering and slapstick but now bereft of conflict, are. It’s even better when Alex comes back from building houses for the poor, and how abruptly their happiness ends. And flips on and off like a light switch, whenever she leaves the house (“We got Cinemax!”). It was so fun to see the Delightful Dunphy’s that it was kind of a bummer when everything predictably went right back into place, Dumb-phy’s once again.
Sure, I could’ve done without Cam dragging out his honeymoon with Mitch by being the worst romantic partner (that relationship could use a switch like the Dunphy’s got), but everything else was in fine form. It’s a statement on how outdated traditional sitcoms are, that even the best feel kind of tired after awhile. Modern Family is still fun, but its time as must-watch comedy is over.
9. Transparent (Amazon)
I’m probably the only one in the world without Amazon Prime, but I’ve seen the pilot episode for Transparent twice now, and have at least 17 people I can watch the rest of the show from, whenever I slog through the morass that is the rest of the new fall shows.
Until then, let’s take solace in a show that knows how to craft interesting characters, even if most of them are painfully selfish pricks. This family is so LA, so Jewish, and so compelling. This is mostly attributable to the incredible Jeffrey Tambor as Maura Pfefferman, a transgender woman finally coming out to his family and the world. You might as well give him the Emmy right now. This role and TV show transforms Amazon’s TV prospects. They’ve been flirting with success and being a conversation piece, but mostly it’s been in a “that’s cute, Amazon does everything” sort of way. Mostly, we were just waiting until we had to take notice. Jill Soloway’s morose, fearless Transparent forces us to do exactly that.
I’m fairly certain that whenever I finish season 1, it’ll be much closer to the top of the list, if not right there.
8. The Affair (SHO)
The Affair features a woman who cheats on Pacey/Joshua Jackson, automatically becoming the most unrealistic show on air. Put another way, the premise sounds equally miserable: two married couples and families are fractured by an affair that takes place during a holiday at the Hampton’s.
Unlike say HBO’s The Leftovers, however, it feels like there’s a point behind the misery, or at least I found myself wanting to know more, rather than wanting to turn my TV off forever, spending the rest of my days sobbing uncontrollably with my arms wrapped around a puppy.
Of course, I’ve watched so many different shows, that I’m beginning to wonder if I can trust my judgment, if I even know what a good or bad show is anymore. They all blend together. After writing out the premise and my thoughts on The Affair, I wondered if I missed the point entirely, and if it was a Noah Baumbach TV show without a point. But here goes:
Noah (The Wire‘s Dominic West) is a first-time author and public school teacher, married to Helen (Maura Tierney), with four children, all of whom make you want to kill yourself. One even pretends to kill himself, as a Harold & Maude-ian goof. After Noah frantically unties the ropes around his son’s neck, Martin cries, “I thought you’d be proud of me.” Um, what, you insane child? His oldest daughter Whitney is a prissy, stoner brat who wears her sunglasses everywhere, one of those who only floods conversation with contempt.
Alison (Luther‘s Ruth Wilson) is a Hampton lifer who’s worked at a shitty diner for the past 15 years, unable to recover from the devastating loss of her child, her relationship with Cole (Joshua Jackson) on the rocks because of it.
It’s obvious Noah and Alison are going to make a mess of things, and it’s equally obvious I’m going to be there watching it unfold. Over the course of its first hour, The Affair turns into my pick for the best new show of the year. It’s not going to be a happy romp, but it’s undeniably compelling and going to be well-acted, with a few massive developments happening in the first episode.
What makes the show fascinating is that each episode will present the same sequences of events during the same time period from different characters, relating the past back to an investigator. Something bad has happened (murder? missing kid?), we just don’t know what, and I can already tell I’m going to love puzzling out the different threads and takes and stories each character has, since neither Alison or Noah are completely telling the truth. Hagai Levi and Sarah Treem each worked on In Treatment, so something tells me they’ll crush this. It’s like a True Detective season about philandering, or Mad Men: The Hampton’s. At least right now, that’s a good thing, though this show could blow up in my face.
7. New Girl (FOX)
Nothing really felt fresh about the plots of either of the first two episodes of New Girl. The premiere was a Wedding Crashers knock off, and the second was another treatise on Tinder, with an obligatory pot brownie subplot. But, the downtime has done New Girl good. The characters feel a lot more vibrant, funny and clever than they had during season 3, when Nick and Jess’ relationship torpedoed the show, and Schmidt’s obsession with Cece got drink-$2-buck-chuck-to-forget annoying. We’ve gotten a break from the claustrophobic melodrama that sunk what had been the funniest show on TV, and it appears that New Girl is tiptoeing away from what had become crutches/the only two storylines it offered.
It helps that there are just some great jokes (the “Be There” school of hooking up; AKA the Joe Biden) and lines, or better yet, bad jokes that are funny precisely because they are so bad. I wish I could find a clip of “Sex Fist,” but that’s not something you should be Googling actually expecting anything else than what you get. Jessica Biel is great as Jess’ main competition for the Best Man, someone who watches a half hour of porn a night to keep up with trends (missionary is having a revival, depending on what happens in Syria).
The premiere nearly veers into blegh territory when Cece returns, conveniently single, and Schmidt’s summer of sex flying off the rails, but instead, it becomes an excuse for Nick and Schmidt to consider a four way. Winston diagramming the situation with salt and pepper shakers is one of the greatest things I’ll ever see. Winston continues to be the underused MVP, as he’s become the show’s Andre. Sometimes it pains me to see someone so obviously painted AS the joke, but if that means Charlotte’s Web references, they can do whatever they want.
In “Dice,” New Girl shakes up the traditional pairings, and it shows some intriguing potential. Schmidt and Jess are FANTASTIC together, with Schmidt trying to school her in the art of dating apps. Schmidt is at its best when he’s infuriated by someone else and not himself, and its refreshing that there is no romantic subtext here. Or there better not be: a Schmidt/Jess romance would ruin the show.
6. Sleepy Hollow (FOX)
There isn’t a show with a more frenetic, crazy energy than Sleepy Hollow‘s second season premiere. “This Means War” doesn’t feel like the second season at all. It’s another season one finale.
After its absence, you almost forget how insane this show is. It reminds you pretty quickly. In its return episode, we get a 1 year flash forward that’s really a dream, the great Timothy Busfield as Benjamin “gasbag” Franklin, another romp in purgatory, Moloch, plenty of the Headless Horseman (sometimes with a head!!!), Hessians, more revisionist history lessons (Benny Frank wasn’t trying to discover electricity, he was trying to destroy a key to purgatory!) and maybe like one and a half scenes tacked on to help us take a breath.
Sleepy Hollow isn’t resting on its colonial laurels. As mentioned, its premiere felt more like what should have been last season’s finale than a new season, and I might have preferred that. Things seemed rushed and overstuffed, attempting to tie up loose ends, kickstart the conflict in season 2, and save Ichabod, Abbie and Jenny from their various sticky positions leftover from last year.
Even so, Sleepy Hollow is a helluva lot of fun, and sure it could have benefited from pausing every so often…but then again, that wouldn’t be Sleepy Hollow. After all, “this is war,” and the Horseman of War has now risen, as have the stakes. Perhaps it just takes a bit getting used to after the time off. Those who binged it recently probably didn’t even notice; the premiere and this show was practically made for binge watching.
Oh, I almost forgot: John Noble John Noble John Noble John Noble John Cho John Noble John Noble John Noble.
5. Arrow (CW)
Moving into season 3, Arrow has moved on from the island and Deathstroke. It’ll be tough to replace Manu Bennett’s snarling portrayal of the vindictive Slade Wilson, but getting Ollie out of that blasted island feels as good as when Jack and company escaped their imprisonment on LOST (for about 3 minutes).
Judging by “The Calm,” Arrow‘s season 3 premiere, the show is going to be as strong as ever. The show continues to slay with their cliffhanger endings, and while I sometimes think they veer into mere shock value territory, Arrow always capitalizes on their many twists and turns. It’ll be interesting to see how Arrow juggles all the various subplots going forward: Roy joining the team, Diggle’s new baby and what that means for his involvement, Felicity & Oliver, Felicity & Ray Palmer, Laurel being Laurel and the next Canary, Quentin’s lack of listening skills, Hong Kong flashbacks, Merlyn’s tutelage of Thea, and of course, the impending arrival of Ra’s al Ghul as this season’s Big Bad. That’s a lot of stuff, and that doesn’t include any Flash crossovers.
Unfortunately, Oliver is going to pull the “I can’t endanger the ones I love” card with Felicity, which makes no sense, considering she’s already the Oracle of the team and putting herself in danger everyday. It’s the CW soap opera angle, and honestly, it’s super effective in “The Calm” anyways. There probably isn’t a relationship on TV that I’m shipping more than the two of them. Felicity Smoak is the most wonderful human on TV. In the meantime, hopefully Brandon Routh’s Ray Palmer isn’t so annoying if he must form a love triangle. Everything’s better because Rila Fukushima (the best part of The Wolverine) is around as Katana.
The show has mined Oliver’s inner demons and past constantly over two seasons. In many ways, he’s brought on all the tragedy on himself and his friends, and it appears he’ll be broody forever. It’d be nice if Arrow used other means of conflict going forward.
4. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (FOX)
Over the course of its first year, Brooklyn Nine-Nine became one of my favorite comedies, one of the most reliably funny half hours, buoyed by an awesome cast that seems primed to take after The Office and Parks & Recreation, the other creations from Daniel J. Goor and Michael Schur.
I love that the show isn’t ignoring Gina and Boyle’s random hook up in the season finale, even if both of the characters are trying to. It’s a weird, brilliant pairing, and a fresh wrinkle to Boyle’s love life, since it’s more fun to see Rosa reject everyone else than Boyle, because everyone rejects Boyle.
I half-expected the show to milk Jake being undercover for a bit, but after the premiere, it appears everything is back to normal. Thus is the life of a sitcom, but thanks to Andre Braugher, this might be the best one we’ve got.
3. Parenthood (NBC)
It’s refreshing to enter a season knowing that Parenthood won’t be canceled. Of course, unfortunately, that’s because this is Parenthood‘s last season. It’ll be nice to see the show end on its own terms, even though I’ll probably always see the fourth season finale (and one that Jason Katims thought was its last ever) as the show’s rightful denouement.
Every year, Parenthood populates the screen with difficult storylines, oftentimes infuriating ones, with subplots that make you rapidly change opinions of your favorite characters. It’s like a much better version of Nashville. Parenthood doesn’t shy away from doing the unpopular thing, or making some of their ensemble unlikable. A prime example is what happened to former perfect couple Julia and Joel over the course of season 5, and still hasn’t been resolved; in fact, it may never be, just like life. Parenthood somehow turns cliche ridden plotlines like elections, pregnancy, marital strife and college into fresh avenues for storytelling (I’m on the fence with Haddie returning from college as a lesbian; but considering she was the forgotten member of the show to an almost laughable extent, something was needed). There’s not a more genuine and “real” show on TV, even if this vision of a massive family in Berkeley is far from reality.
The pattern is set anew in season 6. You’d think I’d have learned by now, but I can’t help but find myself miffed/bored of Amber’s pregnancy. What more can be said about surprise, potentially unwanted pregnancies? And haven’t we trudged through mal-adjusted soldier Ryan’s troubles enough? It promises some difficult scenes between Amber and Sarah, as Amber looks to be following in her single mother’s footsteps, which might prove to be the storyline’s saving grace.
We’re not going to get an easy ending with Julia and Joel, their positions swapped with the new season. It’s going to be painful to watch, especially since good luck finding someone better than Joel. I’d marry that guy. Julia’s new office romance is set up to be one of the most reviled characters this season; if I was an actor of any repute, I’d have paused before accepting such a role (before of course accepting the money). Meanwhile, Max can’t give his poor parents a break, and just once, I’d love for him to realize that he has the best parents in the world. But Asperger’s.
2. Person of Interest (CBS)
CBS’ Person of Interest is simultaneously the best procedural on television and not a procedural at all. There’s not a show that more effectively balances its case of the week with compelling elements that propels its overarching story forward, one that has grown exponentially over the past couple seasons.
This season has Reese, Finch, Root, Shaw and Fusco (as much as Fusco is allowed to do anything) taking on Samaritan, a more nefarious rival computer spy network than Finch’s own seemingly benevolent Machine. That means more of the great John Nolan as John Greer, the malignant, many wrinkled face of Samaritan. In many ways, Person of Interest is just as much a superhero show as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. There’s no other way to view Reese and Shaw’s badassery.
Finch stupidly wastes most of two episodes on the fence about getting back in the Numbers game. Our heroes new “cover identities” are lame (Reese SOMEHOW is a cop, Shaw is a thief, Finch is a professor), and seem like an excuse for the show to bring back more police procedural elements, now that Carter is no longer with us, and Fusco can’t be expected to work a case by himself. Of course, if it injects more Kevin Chapman into the proceedings, it’ll be worth it, especially if that means Reese and Fusco working cases together again.
Of course, the show’s best and most interesting character is Root, which is no surprise, since she’s played by all-timer Amy Acker. Root is unpredictable, probably a sociopath, definitely a genius, and self-appointed Chosen One of the Machine, and the lesser of two evils for Finch’s team. She flirts maliciously with every character in every scene, especially her beloved Machine, and it appears that no one on TV is having more fun than her. With such a dour crop of fall shows, that means a lot.
1. Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC)
Read my recap of “Shadows,” the second season premiere, here and “Heavy is the Head” recap here.
After one of the most uneven, vexing seasons in recent memory (but in hindsight, seems decidedly Whedon-y to be so), following the start of its second season, AOS looks very much like the show we all wanted it to be. If it was going to force me to type such a long ass title, the least they could do was earn its prefix, and now it’s finally taking advantage of the universe its set in.
I’m gonna miss Bill Paxton, but then again, he should be in everything. An influx of other exciting names soften the blow, primarily Reed Diamond, Adrianne Palicki and Kyle MacLachlan. We also get Abs McGee as Absorbing Man, perhaps the most powerful character on the show thus far. Even better, we’re getting more Raina, Deathlok, Triplett and Patton Oswalt. The show went from featuring a cast of characters torn from a mediocre NCIS spin-off, to one filled with an overstuffed ensemble that lends itself to dreaming up ideal squads and casts. My favorite scenario? Maria Hill and Agent Coulson bickering over leadership, Melinda May as the sighing true leader, Lady Sif and Peter MacNicol as the muscle (MacNicol as an immortal Asgardian on Earth is the greatest idea), Triplett to look good, FitzSimmons, Deathlok for the robot angst, an 87 year old Peggy Carter, along with Ward’s sneering/creepy disembodied face in a box that comes along with them on missions. Oh, and 43 Patton Oswalt’s. They’re all taking on Raina and her “gifted” recruits/sex slaves.
Whatever actually happens, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen and Jeffrey Bell have engendered trust, and it appears that the show will have greater freedom and legs to explore S.H.I.E.L.D. and such, since one would guess most of the events in Avengers will be over these (mostly) lovable underdogs’ heads.
A masterful job, good sir. My (considerably briefer) notes:
-My wife kinda likes Forever. I haven’t watched it, because I couldn’t get past eye-rolling at the premise, but I kinda hope it works out anyway (it won’t). Just because I like the idea of seeing actors from bad superhero movies get redemption somewhere new, which is also a significant reason for my Brandon Routh excitement on Arrow.
-I think you’re mildly too harsh on Mulaney. The pilot was bad, at least in part because half the jokes were repeated verbatim from his standup specials but with far worse delivery, but I don’t think there’s anything there beyond saving, if it can stick around long enough. Mulaney’s “New in Town” standup was one of my favorite specials in recent years, and his SNL writing was legendary. I’m still leaving this reasonably high on my list just because of potential.
-Like you said, Selfie wasting Gillan and Cho is a painful sin. I tried the second episode anyway just to see if they’d let up a little on making Eliza the worst (and in doing so, maybe start to turn things around), but no, not really.
–Gotham is too high. 😉 But really, while I confess to not having watched half the television you have, I’m going to need an example of something dumber than two grown men who are professionally employed for their intellect not knowing that balloons eventually lose the ability to float. Until then, I’m sticking with calling that episode TV’s dumbest hour so far.
-I mostly really liked the Flash pilot. I haven’t seen the second episode yet, but I’m hopeful for a strong run. My main worry so far is the early-Smallville plot device of “all the bad guys got their powers from the same event that gave the good guy his.” That grew stale immediately for me on Smallville.
-I’m looking forward to having an informed opinion on Constantine in another week.
-I like your Mindy plan, and hearing about its improvement has me at least considering giving it another shot after dropping it early last season.
-I agree about New Girl getting better. I especially hope for more of Winston and Cece together plot/subplots, as I think they’re a really underrated pairing.
–Sleepy Hollow is ridiculous but crazy amounts of fun. Though I did think this week’s Pied Piper episode was maybe the worst ep of the series thus far, so I wonder if expanding the season length for S2 will prove to be a mistake; part of what worked so well in S1 was how tight the storytelling felt as a unified whole. I’m also worried that the Abbie/Ichabad romance is starting to feel inevitable, after hope for most of S1 that it’d stay refreshingly platonic. But oh well. Tom Mison rules, and yeah, John Noble forever.
-I love Arrow, though I haven’t seen its second episode this season yet either. My only disappointment in the premiere was making the Ollicity OTP into such a soapy melodrama, but I suppose that was always inevitable. If the show can actually succeed in its impending attempt to make Laurel cool, then there’ll be nothing it can’t do.
–Brooklyn Nine-Nine would probably be my #2.I love that show, and I love that it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down yet. Kyra Sedgewick’s arrival is giving us a fun rivalry for Braugher’s Captain Holt, and I already love watching Holt develop a combination of petty competition and his usual cool calmness.
–Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is my #1 too. It’s just awesome how great this show has become, and Reed Diamond is going to be a killer Big Bad this season.
-And finally, to give brief impressions on a show you haven’t gotten to yet, I’m enjoying Fox’s Gracepoint quite a bit. The dialogue is stilted and about half the characters don’t feel very believable, but the acting is just outstanding and the direction has consistently conveyed considerable tension even though there are only minimal plot developments each week. Plus, old Nick Nolte is a thing.
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