New Fall Shows You Should Totally Check Out
To be honest, I don’t watch a lot of television, at least not when it originally airs. I usually fall a few seasons behind and just play catch up on HuluPlus or Netflix when I finally remember, “Oh man! I totally forgot about Burn Notice for like, 3 years!” This season is different, however, as there are so many new shows that look awesome, so I took it upon myself to investigate!
First, I compiled a list of all the new shows that I thought would be enjoyable, along with a few that had a lot of hype; 13 shows in total. Next, I spent over 9 hours watching every pilot and subsequent episode that had aired, taking notes the whole time. Most of the shows I thought I would like, I liked a LOT, others fell short of my expectations. Of the shows I was on the fence about, the majority weren’t worth all the acclaim they’d received, but a couple ended up being fantastic!
Since we here at SquarePop like to keep things positive, I’m only going to talk about the ones I really enjoyed and encourage others to check out, if they haven’t already. Here we go!
- The Blacklist (NBC) – Fresh out of Quantico, Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) is about to start her new, quiet, comfortable career as a Criminal Profiler for the FBI. That is until the nation’s most wanted man, Raymond Reddington (James Spader), shows up at FBI headquarters and agrees to spill all his secrets, but there’s one catch: he’ll only work with Elizabeth Keen. Megan Boone is an amazing actress and plays the role phenomenally. James Spader is also at the top of his game, slipping into the skin of a sleazy, manipulative, egotistical white collar criminal with alarming ease. Every episode so far has had its fair share of action, suspense, explosions, and chase-scenes, and has been extremely entertaining. NBC’s newest crime drama, The Blacklist, is undoubtedly my favorite of the bunch. I definitely look forward seeing any and all future episodes.
- Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC) – Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his team of experts travel around the world as they investigate supernatural/unexplainable occurrences. Using super high-tech gadgets, the team determines the cause of the events, and then use top level goverment clearance to keep them from making headlines. To give you some perspective, in the movie Thor, these are the guys who show up to investigate the hammer, and that’s pretty much what they do in this
show. Not going to lie, I expected a lot more super heroes, but not utilizing any iconic Marvel characters was a brilliant idea. Instead of a series focused on all the heroes that havebeen shoved down our throats for the past 5 years, Joss and Jed Whedon decided to create something that, more or less, looks behind the scenes; into the things that happen in the Marvel universe while the assholes with superpowers are destroying cities to save their love interests. It’s a great series so far. - The Michael J. Fox Show (NBC) – Former newscaster, Mike Henry (Michael J. Fox), put his career on hold after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. His plan was to dedicate as much time as possible to getting his health in check and spending time with his family. 5 years later he’s returning to work. Comedy ensues as Fox, alongside Betsy Brandt (of Breaking Bad fame), who plays his wife, pokes fun at his debilitating health issues and attempts to win the affection of his children back from electronic devices. Michael J. Fox has always been one of my favorite actors for a long time, playing in a lot of movies and television series I really love, like Back to the Future, Spin City, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. So it’s not very surprising that I ended up being a fan of his new namesake faux-documentary comedy show.
- Brooklyn Nine–Nine (FOX) – Brooklyn’s 99th precinct has never had much structure, allowing its officers to slack off and pretty much do whatever they want. That is, until Capt. Ray Holt (Andre Braugher) takes over command. With Capt. Holt trying to enforce regulation and protocol, star detective and “class clown” Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) does what any self-respecting troublemaker would do; he plays practical jokes and makes as
much trouble as he can in an attempt to break the spirit of his new superior officer. I’ll be honest, this is one of the shows I thought I would end up hating. It seemed like it was going to be a try-hard sitcom packed with terrible, cheesy, clichéd jokes. Turns out it’s actually written and paced extremely well, especially considering most of the cast is known for pretty over the top comedy. I wouldn’t be surprised if Brooklyn Nine-Nine ends up being the best new comedy of the year. - Back in the Game (ABC) – Starring Maggie Lawson (Psych) and James Caan (The Godfather, Elf), Back in the Game is the story of a newly single mother, Terry Gannon, who moves back in with her foul-mouthed, brutally honest, former pro baseball player father, “The Cannon.” When her son doesn’t make the cut for any of the local Little League baseball teams, Terry takes it upon herself to start a new team made up of all the kids who were rejected from the other teams. Overall, this is a great show and I hope it sticks around for a while.
- The Crazy Ones (CBS) – Simon and Sydney Roberts are a father-daughter duo (played by Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar) who run one of the largest, most successful advertising agencies in the country. Robin Williams more or less plays himself—a hilarious, jabbering nut-job who can barely keep his multiple personalities from completely taking over his body, but is ridiculously amazing at his job—and Sarah Michelle Gellar is the witty, sarcastic, slightly uptight daughter trying to keep him under control. So far, this show is super funny and I can’t wait to see more of it.
- MasterChef Junior (FOX) – While the Gordon Ramsay-hosted MasterChef itself isn’t a new show at all with 4 seasons under its belt, what’s new about MasterChef Junior is that the contestants are all between the ages of 8 and 13. What makes this show awesome is that Chef Ramsay doesn’t give two shits that the contestants are children. He treats them the same as he would any other up-and-coming home cook that steps into his kitchen. What makes this show depressing is that these kids can make master level dishes and they’re half my age, and I can barely make a grilled cheese sandwich without burning something. Despite making me feel like a total failure, MasterChef Junior promises to be great from start to finish, just like the non-junior version.
- Welcome to the Family (NBC) – It’s the classic story of boy meets girl, boy gets girl pregnant, boy’s father and girl’s father refuse to get along. The feuding fathers are played by Mike O’Malley and Ricardo Chavira, who are both amazing actors and have both starred in shows that I and many, many other people have enjoyed very, very much such as Yes, Dear and Desperate Housewives. Yes, I enjoyed Desperate Housewives. Is that a problem? Anyway, the point is Welcome to the Family definitely deserves your viewership.
- Dads (FOX) – Two best friends Warner Whittemore (Giovanni Ribisi) and Eli Sachs (Seth Green), who own and operate a video game development company together, are somehow both forced to let their fathers move in with them. This was another show that I thought was going to be a corny sitcom, but ended up being pretty good. In addition to Green and Ribisi (both of whom have never played a role I didn’t love), the cast includes the always delightful Martin Mull as Warner’s borderline racist, failed businessman dad, and former Suite Life of Zack and Cody star, Brenda Song, who is actually pretty funny (and pretty hot) when you scrape the Disney off her. All in all, this is a show I can see myself sitting down to watch every week.
That’s all I’ve got for now. If you want to catch up, all of these shows can be viewed on their respective networks’ websites, HuluPlus, OnDemand, and other such cable services. For new episodes check your local listings. Happy Watching!
About the Author
Corey St Jean Corey is a great dude with a healthy admiration for pop-punk, Pokemon, and classic movies. He also strums guitar, writes words real good occasionally, and has a super gnarly beard.
