The Fall TV season used to be the only time that new shows would appear on television. With the advent of year-round TV programming, the fall isn’t quite as special as it used to be.
However, this is still the time of year when the major broadcast networks begin their biggest programming push. And if you’re a comic book fan, there are three new DC Comics inspired shows set to hit the coming weeks. There are also plenty of cop and medical dramas too, but if you really want those, you’re not on the right website.
According to the major networks, the Fall TV season began this week. Ahead of next week’s major premieres, CraveOnline has assembled a list of the ten most promising new and returning Fall TV shows. Sure, we’ve got at least two superheroes on the list, but we’ve also got a murder mystery, an espionage drama and a few more.
These are the shows that we’re going to be watching this fall. Feel free to share your picks in the comment section below!
Fall 2014 TV Preview
-
Gotham
Network: Fox
Series Premiere: Monday, September 22
Can you make a Batman TV series without Batman?
Well, obviously you can. Fox has already done it. The real question is whether fans will accept a drama set in Batman’s world in which The Dark Knight never shows up in costume. The primary focus of “Gotham” is on James Gordon (Ben McKenzie), a police detective charged with solving the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Gordon even promises the young Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) that he will bring his parents’ murderer to justice. But that’s easier said than done.
The producers of “Gotham” are also bringing in several of Batman’s villains as supporting characters to explore how they evolved into their future incarnations. Surprisingly, the future Riddler, Edward Nygma (Cory Michael Smith) is working for the police while Oswald Cobblepot aka The Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) is already rising through the ranks of the criminal underworld.
“Gotham” has a very solid cast and a great premise. It can be one of this fall’s best shows if it lives up to even a fraction of its potential.
-
Sleepy Hollow
Network: Fox
Season Premiere: Monday, September 22
“Sleepy Hollow” was the unexpected breakout hit of last fall, thanks in large part to the charismatic performance of Tom Mison as Ichabod Crane, a man who finds himself transported from the American Revolution into the modern day.
This is one of the most gleefully insane shows on TV that seemed to get better from week-to-week. The addition of John Noble as Ichabod’s vengeful son was a great touch and it was a smart move to promote Noble to the main cast for this season.
Of course, everyone’s life was on the line in the first season finale. Abbie (Nicole Beharie) was stuck in Purgatory, Captain Irving (Orlando Jones) was in jail, Jenny (Lyndie Greenwood) was injured in a car wreck and Katrina Crane (Katia Winter) was carried off by the Headless Horseman.
They’ll be fine. The fun part is seeing how they will get out of that.
-
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Network: ABC
Season Premiere: Tuesday, September 23
“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” is a great example of a show failing to live up to its brand. Marvel Studios can cry up and down that fans expected too much of them. That it’s impossible to match their superhero movies on a weekly television series.
That’s just Marvel’s way of deflecting the blame from the largely lackluster first season of this show. “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” barely worked on its own terms, much less on anyone else’s. The series only seemed to find itself after Captain America: The Winter Soldier blew up S.H.I.E.L.D. and Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) was exposed as a Hydra double agent.
The second half of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” Season 1 had some promising signs of improvement. Can season 2 build on that or will the same mistakes be made again? At least there are some interesting additions to the cast, including Nick Blood, Lucy Lawless, Adrianne Palicki and Kyle MacLachlan. Plus, Clark Gregg can make almost anything watchable.
Here’s hoping that “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” gets it right this season.
-
Gracepoint
Network: Fox
Series Premiere: Thursday, October 2
Last year, the British drama “Broadchurch” was one of the best shows on TV and it had a very captivating murder mystery. Fox liked it so much that the network is remaking it almost note-for-note with David Tennant essentially playing the same character that he portrayed in the original. Tennant’s Detective Emmett Carver is teaming up with Detective Ellie Miller (as played by “Breaking Bad” star Anna Gunn) to solve the murder of a young boy in a small town.
Fox has promised that the identity of the killer won’t be the same this time around. And with only ten episodes, “Gracepoint” will get a definitive ending. Well... maybe not that definitive. There is a second season of “Broadchurch” coming in the future. If the audience shows up for “Gracepoint,” it could probably return as well.
-
Homeland
Network: Showtime
Season Premiere: Sunday, October 5
“Homeland” used to be one of the legitimately great TV dramas. What happened to that show? Showtime clung to Brody (Damian Lewis) well past his expiration date while the exploits of Brody’s family played out like a cheesy drama on The CW.
This year, “Homeland” is attempting to reinvent itself by leaving the Brody family behind and placing Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) in a dangerous new assignment in the Middle East. When a drone strike goes terribly wrong, Carrie and the CIA are threatened from within and without.
Nothing would make me happier than to see “Homeland” snap out of its nosedive in quality. The new season looks promising, but it’s too soon to call.
-
The Flash
Network: The CW
Series Premiere: Tuesday, October 7
Surprisingly, “The Flash” pilot has gotten some of the best buzz of any new Fall TV show. This is the second time that “The Flash” has had his own TV series. Grant Gustin is playing Barry Allen this time around, as the geeky lab technician is granted impossible speed powers. As the Flash, Barry is a much more lighthearted hero than the
GreenArrow. That change in tone actually works for this show.Even TV’s original Flash, John Wesley Shipp has a recurring role on this show as Barry’s father, Henry Allen. In the future, superhero TV shows could become over-saturated to the point that audiences will get tired of them. That may happen, but I doubt that it’s going to start here.
-
Arrow
Network: The CW
Season Premiere: Wednesday, October 8
“Arrow” never really lets you forget that it’s a CW show. Star Stephen Amell is shirtless so often that you’d think that he was allergic to fabric. The family drama on “Arrow” can also be pretty damn cheesy.
But “Arrow” is capable of delivery some really entertaining superhero stories. Last season’s Deathstroke arc made great use of Manu Bennett as the main villain and it was genuinely exciting to watch. Season three will bring in Matt Nable as Ra's al Ghul, one of Batman’s greatest enemies. John Barrowman has also been promoted to a full time cast member as the Arrow’s nemesis, Malcolm Merlyn.
Alongside “The Flash,” it looks like this will be another fun season of “Arrow.”
-
American Horror Story: Freak Show
Network: FX
Season Premiere: Wednesday, October 8
Someday soon, “American Horror Story” is going to have figure out how to move past Jessica Lange. This is Lange’s final season as the star of FX’s anthology miniseries. But “American Horror Story: Freak Show” is bringing back Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett from last season, so perhaps they will carry on the tradition when Lange is gone.
This season picks in the early fifties. as one of the last Freak Shows in America attempts to survive. “The Shield” star Michael Chiklis is the biggest addition to this year’s cast, which includes returning performers Sarah Paulson, Emma Roberts, Evan Peters, Denis O'Hare, Frances Conroy and Gabourey Sidibe.
Strangely enough, this season appears to share continuity with “American Horror Story: Asylum,” as Naomi Grossman will reprise her role as Pepper.
-
The Walking Dead
Network: AMC
Season Premiere: Sunday, October 12
“The Walking Dead” Season 4 wasn’t the strongest creative season that the show has had, but it was still one of the biggest hits on TV. Even when “The Walking Dead” falters, it still has fantastic zombie effects and great action.
This season picks up with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and his reunited group of survivors as prisoners of Terminus. Their ticket out of trouble could be Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt), a man who may be able to cure the zombie plague if he can reach Washington D.C. alive.
But if the show continues to follow the path of Robert Kirkman’s zombie comic, the survivors may not like what they find at the end of this road...
-
Constantine
Network: NBC
Series Premiere: Friday, October 24
“Constantine” is one of the lesser known DC Comics inspired TV shows, but it has a relatively safe position behind “Grimm” on NBC. The reworked “Constantine” pilot was screened at Comic-Con International... and it was a little shaky. The abrupt departure of Lucy Griffiths was not handled very well and the story suffered because of it.
That said, Matt Ryan was terrific as John Constantine, one of DC’s best antiheroes. Ryan looked and sounded exactly like Constantine should. There’s strong potential here, if the producers use the original Hellblazer comic book series as a roadmap.
The producers are already looking ahead to DC’s next supernatural character, The Spectre. Emmett Scanlan slated to recur on “Constantine” as Jim Corrigan, an ordinary cop who gets sucked into Constantine’s war with the forces of darkness. At some point, Corrigan is bound to become The Spectre, God’s instrument of vengeance on Earth.
The producers of “Constantine” have also hinted that more supernatural DC characters will appear on the show later in the season.
