You'll find some good new shows amid mostly mediocre TV season

Published: Sunday, 9/21/2014 - Updated: 2 minutes ago

Viewers have seen worse.

Yes, that's damning with faint praise, but better to set expectations accordingly, right?

The fall TV season on the broadcast networks - now with NFL games on CBS ON Thursday night - probably won't repeat the excitement of a decade ago when ABC's Desperate Housewives and Lost debuted in 2004 and offered innovation and a sense of excitement and discovery as writers pushed against accepted storytelling formats.

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But there are enough small gems this fall, hidden among more mediocre fare, and a refreshing dose of diversity in casting that there's reason for hope that it won't be a disastrous fall TV season.

Here's what's new:

Sunday

Madam Secretary (8 p.m., CBS): Tea Leoni stars as an abruptly appointed U.S. secretary of state on this drama that's closer in tone to the short-lived Geena Davis-starring Commander In Chief than it is to the heralded The West Wing. The pilot focuses mostly on efforts to free some 'stupid kids' being held prisoner in Syria while it sketches out the secretary's relationship with the president of the United States, who previously hired her when they both worked for the CIA. The secretary's home life is dullsville and takes time away from establishing her work colleagues, an area that should offer more fertile story ground. A highly predictable, pilot-ending reveal sets up a potential conspiracy that will likely send viewers' eyes rolling. Still, anything's better than another CBS crime show. (Premieres tonight)

Mulaney (9:30 p.m., Fox): It has been 25 years since the debut of the hit Seinfeld. So it's not surprising that someone would try to re-do that show, and it's also not surprising that they'd fail. Mulaney, starring comic and former Saturday Night Live writer John Mulaney, is like an unfunny Seinfeld. In an episode made available for preview, he opens the show doing stand-up in front of his apartment set, and it's just downhill from there as his platonic best female friend (Nasim Pedrad) gets a job with his boss (Martin Short), making Mulaney jealous when he's not hanging out in his apartment with oddball buddy Motif (Seaton Smith), a Kramer stand-in. So far there is no George Costanza character. (Oct. 5)

Monday

Gotham (8 p.m., Fox): Media consumers living under a rock since 1988 might find something new in this Batman prequel, but for the rest of us who have lived through two Batman movie series, this early story of the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents and the investigation by Gotham homicide detective Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie, Southland) is pretty much a rehash. Viewers do get to meet younger versions of the Penguin, the Riddler, and Catwoman but to what end? Dark, brooding, and violent, Gotham executes its creation of a gloomy world well, but it's one we've seen so many times before (and recently) that there's not much reason for it to exist. (Premieres Monday)

Jane the Virgin (9 p.m., The CW): This cute one-hour comedy, reminiscent of ABC's Ugly Betty, is based on a Venezuelan telenovela and gleefully uses that soapy style of storytelling to pack multiple twists into its busy, entertaining pilot. Jane Villanueva (Gina Rodriguez, The Bold and the Beautiful) hasn't yet had sex with her police detective boyfriend (Brett Dier, Ravenswood) but finds herself accidentally artificially inseminated with the only sample from her unhappily married boss, Rafael (Justin Baldoni, Everwood), a cancer survivor. It's an absurd premise that the show embraces with gusto. (Oct. 13)

Scorpion (9 p.m., CBS): Lighthearted drama about a group of tech geniuses who helps the Feds with tough cases. This dream team includes a guy with a photographic memory, a psychology expert, a mechanical prodigy, and a statistics guru. The pilot involves a waitress (Katharine McPhee, Smash) in a speeding car and her ridiculous attempt to plug an Ethernet cable into a laptop after the cord is dropped from the wheel well of a jetliner flying just a few feet over a runway. (Premieres Monday)

State of Affairs (10 p.m. NBC): Here's the problem with getting a bad personal reputation as an actor: It colors what people think of you in future roles. Given her none-too-kind assessments of the writing on her previous TV series, Grey's Anatomy, among other public airings of dirty laundry, Katherine Heigl gained a reputation as a big-mouthed prima dona. And that makes it tough to take her seriously as a CIA adviser to the U.S. president (Alfre Woodard) in State of Affairs. Her character is also in therapy after the death of her boyfriend in Afghanistan that turns out to be less straightforward than first presented. So plan for a long, drawn-out mystery. Also, the melding of rom-com silliness with the CIA setting (she sings while making coffee, yuks it up with co-workers over a terrorist who inadvertently blows himself up) does not help to create a serious, credible universe. (Nov. 17)

Tuesday

The Flash (8 p.m., The CW): A superhero spinoff of The CW's Arrow featuring Barry 'The Flash' Allen (a likable Grant Gustin, Glee), a Starling City forensic assistant who gains the power of super speed after getting hit by lightning. The series begins with a well-made, thoroughly entertaining pilot episode that features John Wesley Shipp, star of CBS's 1990 The Flash, as Barry's dad. (Oct. 7)

Selfie (8 p.m., ABC): My Fair Lady made for a terrific one-shot stage musical and movie, but can you imagine it as a weekly TV series? Selfie updates the Pygmalion story and sets it in the social media era as Eliza Dooley (Karen Gillan) seeks help in rebranding her Facebook/Twitter-obsessed image, enlisting doubting co-worker Henry (John Cho), who chides her, 'You are addicted to the unearned adulation from a group of perfect strangers you insist on referring to as your friends.' Selfie gets off to a good start with an entertaining pilot - Ms. Gillan is a hoot as the self-obsessed Eliza - but it's difficult to imagine how the show can sustain itself as a weekly series. (Sept. 30)

Manhattan Love Story (8:30 p.m., ABC): Viewers yearning for more voice-over narration - wait, why do I hear crickets? - may take to this romantic comedy about jerky New York hipster Peter (Jake McDorman, Greek), who only thinks about sex, and nervous New York newcomer Dana (Analeigh Tipton), who is filled with self-doubt and cries easily. The pilot includes an awkward first date, followed by apologies galore. There's really not much to love. (Sept. 30)

Marry Me (9 p.m., NBC): It's rare that a comedy can so consistently surprise its audience, but the pilot of Marry Me does just that as writer David Caspe reunites with his Happy Endings star (and real-life wife) Casey Wilson (Hotwives of Orlando) for this story of Annie and Jake (Ken Marino, Party Down), whose engagement gets off to a rocky start when Annie inadvertently insults all their friends and family during an epic tirade. Clever and crackling with comic energy, Marry Me has the makings of a stand-out comedy series. (Oct. 14).

The 'NCIS' franchise will expand with the series set in New Orleans that debuts Tuesday on CBS.ASSOCIATED PRESSEnlarge

NCIS: New Orleans (9 p.m., CBS): Scott Bakula stars in the second NCIS spinoff that already introduced many of its characters in an episode of NCIS earlier this year. Not available for review at press time. (Premieres Tuesday)

Forever (10 p.m., ABC): Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd (Horatio Hornblower) stars as Dr. Henry Morgan, a super observant 200-year-old New York City coroner who dies over and over and then returns each time naked in some body of water. His friend Abe (Judd Hirsch) is the only one who knows Henry's secret until a New York cop realizes Henry's the sole survivor of a subway accident and considers him a suspect in the subway driver's murder. Henry then inexplicably joins her to interview another suspect. It's a seriously stupid plot turn, but Mr. Gruffudd makes for a charming romantic lead and the show comes off as a supernatural-tinged Castle. (Previews 10 p.m. Monday; time period premiere Tuesday)

Wednesday

The Mysteries of Laura (8 p.m., NBC): Imagine the tone of, say, Father Dowling Mysteries with a single, stereotypically harried, working mother as the lead and you've pretty much got the vibe that runs through NBC's light police drama The Mysteries of Laura. The show stars Debra Messing, who will likely continue to be hate-watched in some quarters as she was on Smash, as Laura, a New York homicide detective who loves to mention shopping at Target when she's not punishing her disobedient preschoolers who look like they are 7 or 8. The pilot's murder plot is uninvolving, but Laura's disastrous home life makes for occasional amusing, if entirely predictable, moments. (Premieres Wednesday)

Red Band Society (9 p.m., Fox): Told from the point of view of a comatose kid, this light drama uses an early Glee-style tone to chronicle the lives of young patients who live in a hospital pediatric ward. The notion of a medical drama about sick and/or dying kids sounds depressing, but writer Margaret Nagle (Warm Springs) brings a light touch to this series that features Oscar winner Octavia Spencer as a sarcastic, no-nonsense nurse and Dave Annable (Brothers and Sisters) as a doctor. But this show - nickname it Dying Poets' Society? Band of Bedridden Brothers? - belongs to its youngest, red band-wearing characters, including one who's anorexic, one with an enlarged heart and another who's losing his cancer-riddled leg in the morning but his friends throw him a party the night before. (Wednesday)

Black-ish: Anthony Anderson stars as Andre, an ad agency executive who fears his family is losing a connection to their African-American identity in this funny-ish sitcom. Tracee Ellis Ross (Girlfriends) steals the show as his biracial wife, who often provides something akin to a white point of view. On first glance, some viewers may compare Black-ish to The Bernie Mac Show, but Bernie Mac was funnier. It's uncertain who Black-ish envisions as its target audience: Some viewers might be put off by Andre's sense of victimization while others might tune in and be disappointed that Andre is the latest in a long line of Dumb Daddy buffoons. (Wednesday)

Stalker (10 p.m., CBS): In the first five minutes, a masked stalker tracks a woman down, throws gasoline on her and sets her on fire. Later, the stalker goes after a second woman in an elevator. It's another horrific CBS crime drama with women in jeopardy (for equal-opportunity purposes, a guy also gets stalked in the pilot). This one stars Dylan McDermott (The Practice) and Maggie Q (Nikita) as the investigators. (Oct. 1)

Thursday

Gracepoint (9 p.m., Fox): Viewers who already watched BBC America's Broadchurch have pretty much already seen Fox's Gracepoint, an almost shot-for-shot remake of the British series, although Fox execs promise a different killer. The series stars Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad) as a cop investigating a child's murder in a small town after she gets passed over for a promotion in favor of an outsider played by David Tennant. 'He has a lot of experience,' says the police chief, and he's not kidding: Mr. Tennant played the same character in 'Broadchurch,' although this time he does it with an American accent. Gracepoint isn't bad - after all, Broadchurch was a great crime drama - but since producers chose to do little to differentiate it from the British original, this remake also seems unnecessary. (Oct. 2)

The McCarthys (9:30 p.m. CBS): It's hard to imagine this collection of stereotypes - Bostonians, gays, sports fans, parents - catching on, but the disappointing The Millers is still on the air, so who knows. A close-knit Boston family grieves at the thought of their son, Ronnie (Tyler Ritter, who looks just like his father, the late John Ritter of Three's Company fame), moving to Providence, R.I. Ronnie's dad (Jack McGee, Rescue Me) offers him a job as an assistant high school basketball coach, and his mother (Laurie Metcalf, Roseanne) throws a gay bar party in his honor. There are some laughs to be had, but more would be welcome. (Oct. 30)

Bad Judge (9 p.m., NBC): Kate Walsh (Private Practice, Fargo) stars as a superior court judge who's a mess: Rebecca Wright sleeps around, fails her friends, fails her co-workers. To complement the crass, writer Chad Kultgen (The Incredible Burt Wonderstone) throws in the cloying when a smart-mouthed child whose parents the judge sent to jail starts asking her for favors and eventually moves in with her. (Oct. 2)

A to Z (9:30 p.m., NBC): What did this nice show do to get an incompatible lead-in like Bad Judge? A meet-cute rom-com about workers in adjacent office buildings who fall for one another despite differing attitudes toward romance, A to Z gets off to a great start with a funny, sweet pilot episode. But this single-camera comedy feels like it wants to be a one-shot movie, not an ongoing series. Perhaps the series that follows Andrew (Ben Feldman, Mad Men) and Zelda (Cristin Milioti, How I Met Your Mother) will turn out to be great, but it's just too soon to know after this set-up-filled pilot. (Oct. 2)

How to Get Away With Murder (10 p.m., ABC): Viola Davis (The Help) stars as law professor Annalise Keating, who enlists law students from a class she teaches to help prepare a criminal defense case before a trial. But that's just one of the story engines in this ingeniously devised, thoroughly addictive soap. A flash-forward device shows Keating's students four months in the future as they prepare to bury a body - its identity is revealed at the end of the pilot. In addition, each of the young guns gets a personal story as does Keating, whose marriage to her psychology professor husband (Jack Coleman, Heroes) may be in trouble. And there's a missing girl from the college campus whose story intersects with other characters by the end of the pilot. Some of the show's legal shenanigans may be bunk, but the plot twists in this series executive produced by Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes are entertaining enough to cover up any license taken. (Premieres Thursday)

Friday

Cristela (8:30 p.m., ABC): A sitcom with a Latino cast and jokes that seem leftover from ABC's original TGIF era in the 1990s - with added ethnic humor! - the series stars Latin stand-up comic Cristela Alonzo as a law student living with her mother, sister and brother-in-law. Her mom thinks Cristela is being uppity trying to better herself through education. 'We had fun games like getting water from the well and digging the well!' Cristela's mother says. 'That is your problem: You think life is to be enjoyed, that's why you will never be happy!' (Oct. 10)

Constantine (10 p.m., NBC): Another adaptation of a comic book - DC's Hellblazer - albeit one that lacks as much mainstream familiarity, this one's about demon hunter John Constantine (Matt Ryan), who's soul has been damned to hell and he's effectively given up until demons target the daughter (Lucy Griffiths, True Blood) of an old friend. The pair team up to fight demons - but only for the pilot as Ms. Griffiths will be replaced in a subsequent episode. Constantine is kind of an ideal companion to Grimm, but significantly dumber. (Oct. 24)

The Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Rob Owen is a staff writer for the Post-Gazette.