Wham Blam Thank You Ma’am (Fall TV I am jazzed about)

Well, by the end of last spring a lot of my favorite shows were done and over with for good. No more Heroes. No more Lost. No more 24. And while there were several exciting new series this summer that I am pretty much entirely devoted to at this point, they are going to be gone soon. Thank goodness for new Fall TV!

I’m not ridiculously excited for any of this, really. But several things intrigue me, others worry me, and a couple I am just expecting to fail. The good news: if nothing else, I will have lots of fodder for blogging.

ANYWAY. New shows. Checkitout.

Nikita

Yes, Nikita. As in “La Femme.” As in, based on the movie and television series of bygone days. No, no, sadly there are not any original ideas anymore.  But hey, this looks exciting. And I am a fan of Maggie Q (scrawny an action star as she may be). Plus this is definitely my kind of show. Action! Spies! Lead female badass! Xander Berkley! Hopefully Nikita will turn out to be one of the good CW shows (a la Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, etc).

Outlaw

I predict this is going to be one of those shows whose livelihood is totally dependent on the popularity of its lead actor, because the rest of the cast is generally unknown and only passably interesting. Luckily for Outlaw, Jimmy Smits is a BAMF. I doubt I’ll become crazy dedicated to this show (see: my general disinterest regarding law shows). But the pilot definitely seems worth a shot.

Lone  Star

A con man living two lives but trying to get out…because he’s in love with both his wife and his girlfriend and has suddenly developed a conscience? I could potentially really love or really hate this show. The lead, James Wolk, seems loveable enough, and god knows I enjoy Jon Voight. Lone Star is gonna have to seriously impress to stick around, though, at least on my post.

The Event

Trying to be the new Lost? Quite possibly. Also trying to be the new 24? Probably. Going to fail as badly as FlashForward did? Just might. Do I care? No. Am I still going to be watching? Obviously. Because even if it ends up being terrible, it has Zeljko Ivanek. What else do you need.

Hawaii Five-0

Speaking of unoriginal ideas! Remaking Hawaii Five-0 might be one of the most questionable plans of the season. Could it succeed? Maybe. Especially if they’re keeping the music (one of the best TV themes Of All Time). Why might it not succeed? Well, it stars Alex O’Loughlin and he, well…see: Moonlight and Three Rivers and their utter failures. On the other hand, the rest of the cast includes Daniel Dae Kim, Grace Park, Will Yun Lee, and Jean Smart. (Dear H5-0 2.0: way to hog the bankable Asian actors.)

Raising Hope

There is little to no chance I will watch this show. I only mention it because a) it is new and that is the point of this post/list/thing and b) it has Garret Dillahunt and I am excited he’s got a regular gig.

Running Wilde

Here is another show I probably won’t watch. I also don’t expect it will last very long. But it is probably better than it looks, because that is what we would expect of the minds behind fan-favorite Arrested Development. The trick will be making sure this show doesn’t get a case of same-old-same-old-itis. Who knows, maybe some especially clever writing’ll make it a break-out hit (or, you know, not).

Detroit 187

Hey, cop show! I don’t think I know who anyone in this cast is, but that’s okay. What we seem to have here is a gritty cop drama where the cases are less like wealthy-and-pretty CSI: NY stuff and more of the down-and-dirty Southland variety. Nice of ABC to give Detroit a little boost too, considering how much the last couple of years have sucked for that city.

Undercovers

Sooooo excited. I’m a little afraid it’ll end up being terrible. But then I remind myself that it is J.J. Abrams and that he is a champion of awesome when it comes to the spy genre. All the preview stuff is so shiny and clean and, well, sort of cheesy, that I can’t help worrying. I am definitely hoping that is all unnecessary anxiety and that Undercovers will end up being as spectacular as lead actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw is ridiculously attractive.

The Whole Truth

Rob Morrow vs. Maura Tierney. If ever there was a chance to maybe convince me that I should start watching legal dramas, this is probably it. Except that I still probably won’t. I’ll watch the pilot, at least, which is notable. For those who do like legal dramas, I expect this is probably a good one. You can expect the acting to be excellent, and ABC is good with the lead-male-lead-female interaction stuff shows.

The Defenders

This show has the potential to be hilarious. Jerry O’Connell being over-the-top wacky and James Belushi being grumpy but probably also wacky? The stuff that awesome is made of. Funny story: from 1961 to 1965 there was another legal show called The Defenders but the 2010 version is not a remake!

My Generation

Basically, My Generation is an attempt to take the fake-documentary method of comedies The Office and Parks and Recreation and utilize it for a drama. The plot is not particularly fascinating: it’s one of those reality show “where are they now” ten-years-after-graduation-old-friends-meet-up-and-dramatic-shit-happens things. Only scripted. Interesting concept, but I don’t know that it’ll pan out successfully.

$#*! My Dad Says

Hereafter referred to as Shit My Dad Says because everyone knows that’s the real title (and also it is a pain typing those characters instead of letters). For those not in the know, this show is based off of some guys Twitter account on which he posted Shit His Dad Said because they were living together and his dad was old and the two of them apparently didn’t get along all that well. This show will probably be a major hit this year for three reasons. 1) the Twitter account has thousands of fans and I’m betting a good portion will cross over to watch this, 2) William Shatner is the star and (logic defying as it may seem) he brings the fans, and 3) there has already been so much publicity/free press due to the “controversial nature” of just the title.

Blue Bloods

Hey, cop show! Slash family drama. I think the most interesting thing about this show is going to end up being the audience demographics. Depending on exactly where Blue Bloods ends up falling on both the Gritty Cop Grit and Touchy Feely Family Love scales, it could end up having either very wide or very narrow appeal. And wide appeal is what keeps things on the air.

No Ordinary Family

It is going to take a lot of awesomeness for me to watch more than the pilot of this show. I adore Julie Benz, I enjoy Michael Chiklis, and Romany Malco is a funny dude. But let’s be honest. This really just looks like ABC trying to remake NBC’s Heroes and cover up the fact they are doing so by dressing it up in Aww Family junk. If you want superheroes + warm fuzzies, watch The Incredibles. Seriously.

Law & Order: Los Angeles

Dear NBC,
Why exactly did you decide that making a new Law & Order series seemed like a better idea than just extending the original for one more season and letting it take the record for longest-running primetime television series?
Love, Logic

The world may never know.