With September passing through the midway point, television networks are preparing their shows to win over viewers. Plenty of 2014 shows went through the gauntlet to prove themselves worthy of another season, but there were some that didn’t prove successful enough to continue, whether critically or financially. Here’s a rundown of shows I think may be worth your television time this fall.
While DC Comics has had the edge on live action television over Marvel for a while, thanks to the success of Arrow, Marvel has shown itself to be just as effective on the small screen by recovering from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s rocky start and provided one of the most critically acclaimed superhero shows with Daredevil on Netflix, which they will have a second season for next year featuring the famous Marvel vigilante known as the Punisher. As for this fall, DC continues its superhero stories on the CW with new seasons of Arrow and the Flash, and will introduce another show into the lineup titled Legends of Tomorrow, featuring a large team-up of classic DC heroes. Gotham will also have its second season on Fox, though anticipation is less due to Season One’s overall mixed reception.
Both Marvel and DC’s new shows this fall are giving the attention to two underappreciated female superheroes. Debuting in late October is Supergirl on CBS, starring Melissa Benoist, which will focus on the journey of Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El to heroism. While the original trailer received a mixed response, the leaked pilot had generally positive reactions.
The second of Marvel’s Netflix series after Daredevil is Jessica Jones, which will star Krysten Ritter as the titular character and Doctor Who veteran David Tenant as the villainous Kilgrave. The show will release in Nov. and be centered on a woman whose superhero career met a tragic end and led her to opening up a detective agency while suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Like Daredevil it will not shy away from darker tones and grounded fight scenes.
One of the supporting characters, Luke Cage, will also receive his own Netflix series next year, which will eventually lead up to Marvel’s The Defenders. With the issue of the lack of female superhero solo films on the big screen, hopefully these two shows can encourage film studios the potential a number of superheroines have to offer.
Speaking of heroes, NBC made the surprising move of choosing to resurrect one of its many dead franchises, Heroes, with the 13 episode mini-series, Heroes Reborn. It features the return of actors from the original series as well as some new faces to the fold, and debuts on Sept. 24. While the original was a hit from the start, the later seasons disappointed fans which led to a decline in viewership.
But Heroes is far from the only franchise to return from the grave. Ash vs. Evil Dead will debut on Starz on Halloween and will have the triumphant return of Bruce Campbell’s chainsaw-handed Ash Williams who’s back to kill monsters with his boomstick. The first episode will also be directed by Evil Dead and Spider-Man trilogy director Sam Raimi. The story takes place after the Evil Dead movies and has Ash go into both familiar and unknown territory. The fans of the original only had one word to summarize to this news, groovy.
Here’s a rundown of shows I think may be worth your television time this fall.
On a lighter note, ABC will debut The Muppets on Tuesday, Sept. 15. Shot in a mockumentary style similar to 30 Rock and The Office, the show will focus on the professional lives of Jim Henson’s creations as they try and film Miss Piggy’s late-night talk show while dealing with their own personal problems, one of which was the recent break-up of Miss Piggy and Kermit. Since the recent two movies have made the Muppets more relevant in pop-culture again, the show hopes to continue that success. As expected with a Muppets series, the show will have a a few guest stars to pop in once a while to interact with the lively puppets.
CBS will feature a television series based on the 2011 film Limitless. For those unfamiliar, Limitless starred Bradley Cooper and was about a man who used a drug that would increase his brain’s capacity that he used to improve his everyday life. The concept itself sounds similar to the 2014 film Lucy, but it’s worth noting that not only did Limitless come out first, but many critics and audiences agreed that it used its concept more efficiently. The television series stars Cooper’s American Sniper co-star Jake McDorman as Brian Finch, who also discovers the powers of the NZT-48. Cooper is not only one of the show’s executive producers, but his character from the film will also be a recurring role on the show, possibly as a mentor to Jake to learn his powers.
Finally we have Fox’s Scream Queens starring Emma Roberts, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Skyler Samuels amongst others. Made from the co-creators of Glee and American Horror Story, this horror-comedy focuses on a string of murders that occur twenty years after a sorority pledge gone wrong. Given the history of both the creators and actors in the horror genre, there is little doubt that this show has potential.
As usual, plenty of fan-favorite shows are coming back this year such as Drunk History, Walking Dead, Fargo, and Doctor Who, but it wouldn’t hurt to either check out some of the newer programs this year or see what you missed out on last year. You might find something different to binge-watch on Netflix or watch on weeknights from your usual schedule.