Five New Fall TV Shows Worth Catching Up With
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<p>The <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/09/14/a_fall_guide_to_your_nyc_television.php">2011-12 television season</a> is now well on its way. The first few dead shows walking are gone (so long, <em>The Playboy Club</em>!), some slightly promising starts have quickly turned dreadful (nice to know ya, <em>Terra Nova</em>!) and, with baseball out of the way, people are finally getting used to the new schedule and picking their favorites. For us, at least, these five have quickly earned themselves season passes on our TiVo. Still, your mileage may varyâseems we're quite fond of strong female leads. Let us know what your favorite new shows are in the comments!</p>
<strong><a href="http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/revenge"><em>Revenge</em></a>:</strong> This ABC nighttime soap is exactly thatâand thank goodness. We love a serious drama as much as the next, but in the year that brought the great disappointment that was <em>The Killing</em> it is a relief to sit down and watch a show where you really don't have to worry too much about where this is all going. Each week Emily VanCamp will look pretty and orchestrate something wicked while Madeline Stowe looks gorgeous and chews the scenery wickedly. There will be boys without their shirts. This is not <em>The Count of Monte Cristo</em> (which it is very, very, very loosely based on), and it is not a realistic depiction of the Hamptons or any other place on this planet. But so what? Sometimes you just want your stories, and for that <em>Revenge</em> delivers in spades. For now at leastâwe still aren't sure how they are going to stretch this thing out for more than one season!
<strong><a href="http://www.sho.com/site/homeland/home.sho"><em>Homeland</em></a>:</strong> If only for the electric performances from Claire Danes and Damian Lewis this Showtime spy story would be worth watching (she's a jittery, obsessive, possibly genius, mess and he's the repressed, damaged, possibly terrorist, former POW she's obsessed with). But those two aren't all this Israeli import has going for it by any means. Its producers learned well from their time at <em>24</em> and are putting out the kind of drama that show only aspired to with solid cliffhangers; a so-far well-crafted mystery and really praiseworthy character work. Even the requisite pay-cable nudity manages to feel natural.
<strong><a href="http://www.hbo.com/enlightened/index.html"><em>Enlightened</em></a>:</strong> HBO's latestâcreated by Laura Dern and Mike White (who you might remember from <em>School of Rock</em> or <em>The Amazing Race</em> but we will always remember from <em>Chuck and Buck</em> and Fox's late <em>Pasadena</em>)âstars Dern, White, Luke Wilson and a lot of people you'd recognize. Yet still, ratings wise, it needs your help. So here's our tip: try not to think of it so much as a half-hour comedy as a half-hour drama with occasional laughs that embraces the whole HBO 'not TV' MO. This is not a Showtime "ladies with issues" dramedy. Dern's main character is a troubled, self-destructive and not particularly nice or bright woman. She's also not a cartoon, though she may sometimes act like it. She's impossible to look away from, and this show is different from anything else on the air right now.
<strong><a href="http://www.nbc.com/prime-suspect/"><em>Prime Suspect</em></a>:</strong> As fans of the <a href="http://gothamist.com/2004/04/18/prime_suspect_6_the_last_witness.php">British original</a>, it was initially jarring to watch NBC's remake with Maria Bello, but buck up. This is a different show... but it isn't a bad show at all! It takes your standard procedural and gives it an NYC edge that brings to our mind <em>Southland</em> (which used to be on NBC before moving up to TNT) without the beat cops and more weekly closure. In an age where you can't flip a channel without hitting a strong female detective it can be hard to be unique, but Bello continues to make Jane Timoney a three-dimensional character and stands her own against her peers and against a cast that is clearly giving it their all (Kirk Acevedo's grimaces are hilarious). Plus, Bello even makes the hat work.
<strong><a href="http://www.fox.com/new-girl/"><em>New Girl</em></a>:</strong> Of the many new comedies this season Fox's Zooey Deschanel sitcom has quickly earned a spot (along with ABC's <em>Suburgatory</em>) into our regular rotation. It is still working out kinks (Lamorne Morris still hasn't quite found his footing; Deschanel can get a bit grating still) but overall it has been a regular source of laughs when baseball hasn't preempted it. Also? Any show that can find room for Natasha Lyonne and <em>Veronica Mars</em>' Max Greenfield (together in bed, no less!) is good in our books.