Back to my TV thoughts for the upcoming fall season! Stay tuned for my thoughts on NBC. Click here for ABC, CBS, and The CW. For Fox, keep reading!
First on returning shows… I am so excited for the return of The Orville. It’s so great!!! Watch it on Hulu if you haven’t seen it yet! Now I have yet to watch 9-1-1 and The Gifted but I hear that both shows are amazing and they’ve always been on my To Watch list so I can’t wait to get to them before their second seasons premiere. These are really the only new returning shows worth mentioning in my opinion. Ghosted isn’t on the fall schedule so I presume it will be midseason or officially canceled soon enough which I understand since nobody’s watching (I am and I’m enjoying it but alas).
Thoughts On Notable Cancelled Series:
The final season of New Girl has come and gone and I’m definitely going to miss this show but I’m glad it didn’t overstay its welcome…it was time. Gotham has been renewed for a final season and I’m behind on this show so I can watch the final season in real time. I’m super, super bummed about The Last Man On Earth. I absolutely LOVED what they were doing on that show, the risks they took. It was such a great, thoughtful comedy and there was nothing like it on television. It will be greatly, greatly missed. Finally, there’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Fox was a fool for letting this one go. Thankfully, NBC corrected their mistake and picked the show back up. Thanks, NBC.
Thoughts On New Series:
First, there’s the dramas. The Passage is coming to Fox which I am really, really excited about! The problem is, I can’t watch the trailer yet because I’m still reading the book by Justin Cronin which is ENORMOUS and also a trilogy. But I have no doubt that the adaptation will be great. Next there’s, Proven Innocent with writers, David Elliot and Danny Strong at the helm so viewers are in good hands. It’s also great to see the under-appreciated Rachelle Lefevre and Brian d’Arcy James on the show. Personally though, I don’t seem myself itching to get to this each week but it does have a great story, cast and crew behind it so it definitely should get its due love.
As for comedies, there’s The Cool Kids which is about “a rag-tag group of friends living in a retirement community” aka I’m not the audience for this. Writer, Charlie Day is behind the show and the cast is great, so whoever does tune in will be entertained. That said, I can’t help but wonder why this isn’t on TV Land and how it made it on Fox. I’m assuming Charlie Day has a First Look Deal with Fox? Otherwise, I really am curious to know how this landed here because it just doesn’t feel like a cohesive part of the Fox comedy brand at this moment in time. Anyway, then there’s Rel which I’m excited to check out, especially since Sinbad is in it and it’s been awhile since I’ve seen him on the small screen. If Lil Rel Howery seems familiar to you that’s because you’ve seen him in Get Out, Insecure, & The Carmichael Show. Now he’s got his own comedy and it looks funny but more importantly as a creative, it looks like the show held onto his voice and the integrity of the show and it’s really great to see when shows stay intact and are clearly the very distinct shows they were always meant to be. I hope people watch because even though the story is familiar, the people telling the story are not the default white so it opens up the possibilities of what can be told and we need more perspectives. Great to see Fox stepping up and paying attention to this point.
New series are in CAPS.
Sunday
7:00-7:30 NFL On Fox
7:30-8:00 THE OT / Fox Encores
8:00-8:30 The Simpsons
8:30-9:00 Bob’s Burgers
9:00-9:30 Family Guy
9:30-10:00 REL
Monday
8:00-9:00 The Resident
9:00-10:00 9-1-1
Tuesday
8:00-9:00 The Gifted
9:00-10:00 Lethal Weapon
Wednesday
8:00-9:00 Empire
9:00-10:00 Star
Thursday
7:30pm Thursday Night Football
Friday
8:00-8:30 Last Man Standing (Moving from ABC)
8:30-9:00 THE COOL KIDS
9:00-10:00 Hell’s Kitchen
Saturday
7:00-10:30 Fox Sports Saturday: Fox College Football
Midseason Dramas: THE PASSAGE, PROVEN INNOCENT
Midseason Comedies: THE COOL KIDS
Live Musical: RENT (January 27, 2019)
Reality: Cosmos: Possible Worlds
NEW DRAMAS:
THE PASSAGE
Based on author Justin Cronin’s best-selling trilogy of the same name, THE PASSAGE is an epic, character-driven thriller written by Liz Heldens (“Friday Night Lights”). Executive-produced by Emmy Award winner and Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Ridley Scott (“The Martian,” “Gladiator”) and writer/director Matt Reeves (“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” “Cloverfield”), THE PASSAGE focuses on Project Noah, a secret medical facility where scientists are experimenting with a dangerous virus that could lead to the cure for all disease, but also carries the potential to wipe out the human race. When a young girl, AMY BELLAFONTE (Saniyya Sidney, “Fences,” “Hidden Figures”) is chosen to be a test subject, Federal Agent BRAD WOLGAST (Mark-Paul Gosselaar, “Pitch”) is the man who is tasked with bringing her to Project Noah. Ultimately, however, Wolgast becomes her surrogate father, as he tries to protect her at any cost. Brad and Amy’s journey will force them to confront Project Noah’s lead scientist, MAJOR NICHOLE SYKES (Caroline Chikezie, “The Shannara Chronicles”), and the hardened ex-CIA operative in charge of operations, CLARK RICHARDS (Vincent Piazza, “Boardwalk Empire,” “Rescue Me”), whom Brad trained. It likewise brings them face-to-face with a dangerous new race of beings confined within the walls of Project Noah, including former scientist TIM FANNING (Jamie McShane, “Bosch,” “Bloodline,” “Sons of Anarchy”) and death-row inmate SHAUNA BABCOCK (Brianne Howey, “The Exorcist”). In seeking out any allies he can find, Brad also turns to his former wife, DR. LILA KYLE (Emmanuelle Chriqui, “Entourage,” “Murder in the First”), for help. But as Project Noah’s scientists hone in on a cure that could save humanity, these new beings begin to test their own powers, inching one step closer to an escape that could lead to an unimaginable apocalypse.
PROVEN INNOCENT
Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Danny Strong (EMPIRE) partners with David Elliot (“Four Brothers”) to tell the emotional story of one woman’s fight for the innocence of others, as well as her own. PROVEN INNOCENT follows an underdog criminal defense firm led by MADELINE SCOTT (Rachelle Lefevre, “Under the Dome,” “A Gifted Man”), a fierce and uncompromising lawyer with a hunger for justice. There is no one who understands the power of setting an innocent person free more than Madeline. At age 18, she was wrongfully convicted, along with her brother, LEVI (Riley Smith, “Frequency”), in a sensational murder case that made her an infamous media obsession, a household name and a national cause célèbre. Madeline runs the firm with her partner, EASY BOUDREAU (Russell Hornsby, “Seven Seconds,” “Grimm”), the very lawyer who helped set her free after seven years in prison. Their team also includes investigator BODIE QUICK (Vincent Kartheiser, “Mad Men”) and communications director VIOLET BELL (Tony Award winner Nikki M. James, “BrainDead,” “The Good Wife,” “The Book of Mormon”), who runs a true-crime podcast that follows each investigation. While a hero and a victim to some, Madeline’s bold and bullish tactics earn her a number of enemies – especially GORE BELLOWS (Brian d’Arcy James, “13 Reasons Why,” “Spotlight”), the prosecutor who initially put her away and still believes in her guilt. Despite Bellows’ ceaseless quest to see her behind bars again, Madeline will continue to defend others, even as she fights to maintain her innocence and searches for the real killer in her own case.
NEW COMEDIES:
THE COOL KIDS
From executive producer Charlie Day (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) and starring Tony Award nominee David Alan Grier (“The Carmichael Show,” “In Living Color”), Emmy Award nominee Martin Mull (“Veep”, “Roseanne”), Emmy Award winner Leslie Jordan (“Will and Grace,” “American Horror Story”) and Emmy Award winner Vicki Lawrence (“Mama’s Family,” “The Carol Burnett Show”), THE COOL KIDS is a multi-camera comedy about a rag-tag group of friends living in a retirement community who are willing to break every rule in order to have fun – because, at their age, what do they really have to lose. HANK (Grier) is the leader of this motley crew, a gruff, opinionated, 21st century Archie Bunker who will go to any lengths to have a good time. His loyal, but less than helpful, friends include CHARLIE (Mull), a bumbling storyteller who constantly goes off on tangents about some bizarre, barely believable episode from his life; and SID (Jordan), a naysaying, pill-popping hypochondriac who shoots down every scheme, but still gets roped in. Complicating matters is MARGARET (Lawrence), a brash, confident woman who forces her way into their group and refuses to leave because she’s not going to take crap from anyone – especially not these three. But what unites them all is their shared belief that they’re not done yet – not by a long shot. Growing old with dignity is for chumps. Our self-proclaimed “cool kids” are determined to make the third act of the lives the craziest one yet.
REL
Based on the life of Lil Rel Howery (“Get Out,” “Insecure,” “The Carmichael Show”), REL is a multi-camera comedy starring Howery as a loving husband and father living on the West Side of Chicago, who finds out his wife is having an affair. And not just any affair. An affair with Rel’s own barber. Quite easily the worst person for your wife to sleep with, because as hard it is to find a good spouse, it’s even harder to find a reliable barber. Plus, with the barbershop being one of the epicenters of neighborhood gossip, Rel finds his embarrassing business is known by everyone, including the Pastor (also played by Howery), before Rel can even process the emotions himself. Offering Rel support – that is, when they themselves aren’t butting heads – are Rel’s tough-talking, no-B.S. best friend, BRITTANY (Jess “Hilarious” Moore, “Wild ’N Out”), and his recently out-of-jail younger brother, NAT (Jordan L. Jones, “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “Wisdom of the Crowd”), as well as Rel’s prideful DAD (Sinbad, “A Different World,” “The Sinbad Show,” “Jingle All The Way”), who perhaps has taken the barber news even harder than Rel. After his beloved kids move to Cleveland with their mom, Rel must begin the difficult task of rebuilding his life as a long-distance dad. He also jumps back into the dating pool – and often finds himself the victim of his own well-intentioned hubris. But, ever the optimist, he continues his search for love, respect…and a new barber.