Monday marks the launch of the new fall television season, but television critic Glenn Garvin is not terribly impressed as yet. For the first of several upcoming columns previewing the new shows, he finds only one show salvageable out of four:
The hell with Charles Dickens. The new fall television season is certainly not the best of times, nor is it the worst of times (mostly, anyway, though CBS’ 9JKL certainly gives pause). It is, perhaps, the most mediocre of television times since The Sopranos and Sex and the City established cable TV as a programming force in which a Nielsen rating of 35 could not be reasonably mistaken for the average IQ of the viewing audience.
Nineteen new series will debut on broadcast television between now and November 2. (Well, 18; The Orville, Fox’s cartoon send-up of Star Trek, somehow slipped through security a couple of weeks ago, and if you’re only learning this now, count yourself lucky.) And they are nothing if not diverse.
There are American Special Forces troops in Syria (NBC’s The Brave), American Special Forces troops in Liberia (CBS’ Seal Team), and American Special Forces troops in America (The CW’s Valor). There are remakes from the 1970s (CBS’ S.W.A.T), remakes from the 1980s (The CW’s Dynasty) and remakes from the 1990s (NBC’s Will & Grace, less a remake than a desiccated zombie clawing its way back out of the grave, since it features the same cast). There are mutants battling a fascist military government (ABC’s Marvel’s Inhumans) and mutants battling a fascist civilian government (Fox’s The Gifted).
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