Fall TV season is here, and we’re reporting on the new offerings day by day. If nothing else, this time of year means new episodes of everything, which tonight means mostly returning shows, with just two newcomers on the broadcast networks. Yet both are instantly familiar as a TV type. On is a big mysterious saga with sci-fi overtones, the other is a direct spin-off of a successful comedy you already know.
NEW SHOWS
“Mixed-ish” (ABC, 9 p.m., starts tonight). The actual growing up story of Tracee Ellis Ross, daughter of Diana Ross, might make a good series. This one concerns the origins of her character Rainbow Johnson of “Black-ish,” from which this is a second spinoff. It’s fairly amusing, mostly because it comes from a different point of view – a family who grew in a commune moved to the burbs in the 70s. Arica Himmel stars with Tika Sumpter, Mark-Paul Gossellar and Gary Cole. The kids are pretty cute, too.
“Emergence” (ABC, 10 p.m., tonight). Good to see Alison Tolman back in a police uniform, though this new mystery series isn’t nearly as strong as “Fargo.” Here she finds a girl at the site a plane crash with no memories of it, but who may have special powers. Like “Lost” or last year’s “Manifest,” it has the kind of pilot meant to hook you, but something also tells you won’t get the answers for a long time, if at all. Donald Faison and Clancy Brown also star.
RETURNING
“The Conners” (ABC, 8 p.m., returns tonight), “NCIS” (CBS, 8 p.m., tonight), “The Resident” (Fox, 8 p.m., tonight), “The Flash” (CW, 8 p.m., returns Oct. 8) “Bless This Mess” (ABC, 8:30 p.m., tonight), “This is Us” (NBC, 9 p.m., tonight), “Empire” (Fox, 9 p.m., tonight), “FBI” (CBS, 9 p.m., tonight), “Arrow” (CW, 9 p.m., Oct. 15), “Blackish” (ABC, 9:30 p.m., tonight), “NCIS: New Orleans” (CBS, 10 p.m., tonight), “New Amsterdam” (NBC, 10 p.m., tonight).
OF NOTE ON CABLE
“Treadstone” (USA, 10 p.m., Oct. 15). From Tim Kring (“Heroes”) comes the Jason Bourne-derived series about the origins and current actions of CIA’s black ops program Operation Treadstone, which uses behavior modification to create superhuman assassins. Jeremy Irvine, Brian J. Smith and Omar Metwally star with Emilia Shūlte and Michelle Forbes.