The new fall TV season officially starts on broadcast TV today, the day after the Emmys, an event that is used now almost as much a promotional tool for what’s coming up as for lauding achievements of the past year. We’ll be reviewing the new shows of the season each day this week starting tonight, when each network seems bent on presenting a strong and dark drama, though a couple of comedies are also on tap.
NEW SHOWS
“The Blacklist” (Fox, starts tonight, 9 p.m.) has James Spader returning as a maddening, mysterious, insinuating most wanted figure for his old employers, the FBI, who offers himself up under a lot of condititions, particularly that a young agent do his bidding in a bunch of cases. Thus comes your weekly case and your overriding mystery: Who is this guy? Why did he pick this girl? (Who is most likely his daughter, I’m guessing). Once the action starts, it’s the usual overblown, five-act network bombast; Spader is the only thing that sets it apart. He seems to be having fun, toying with us as he toys with the characters in the drama.
“Hostages” (CBS, tonight, 10 p.m.) is a Jerry Bruckheimer series that looks like it would do better as a movie (or at most, mini-series). Toni Collette stars as a top Washington doctor who is enlisted to operate on the President, only to have her entire family abducted to ensure she kills him in surgery. The merely absurd plot turns preposterous as members of the family change their minds because they each have a secret to hide (the most outrageous is that the husband Tate Donovan suggest she go ahead and kill the president lest news of his own affair leak out; are anyone’s priorities this skewed?). Also: Dylan McDermott as a mastermind is hard to take.
“Sleepy Hollow” (Fox, started Sept. 16, 9 p.m.) takes a bigger leap that’s more fun, suggesting that Ichabod Crane returning to modern times because one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse is the headless one he once encountered. It seems at first so different, it will be fun, at least until the 18th century vs. 21st century comparisons wear thin.
“Mom” (CBS, tonight, 9:30 p.m.), from the sitcom machine of Chuck Lorre and company, has Anna Faris as a struggling single mom who also has to put up with the sudden reemergence of her own mom – Alison Janney. Janny is a terrific comic actress, but there’s not much to like about her self-involved character. Any sympathy for Farris is bludgeoned by the jackhammer of the joke setups. It’s all insults and no (convincing) human traits.
“We Are Men” (CBS, Sept. 30, 8:30 p.m.) surrounds the activities or divorced or otherwise broken up men who live together and trade notes on their dating progress. That much of the humor of the pilot has to do with Jerry O’Connell’s Speedo is not a good sign. Still, a strong cast is on hand, including Tony Shalhoub and Kal Penn, mostly going to waste.
RETURNING SHOWS
“Dancing with the Stars” (ABC, returned Sept. 16, 8 p.m.), “How I Met Your Mother” (CBS, returning tonight, 8 p.m.), “Bones” (Fox, returned Sept. 16, 8 p.m.), “The Voice” (NBC, tonight, 8 p.m.), “Hart of Dixie” (The CW, Oct. 7, 8 p.m.), “2 Broke Girls” (CBS, today, 9 p.m.), “Beauty and the Beast” (The CW, Oct. 7, 9 p.m.).
Here are the lineups for shows on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.