TV: Familiar faves, new faces on the tube
TV giveth and TV taketh away. It's the circle of programming. Hakuna matata. Sure, an unusually high number of popular shows will end this season. Farewell Two and a Half Men, Boardwalk Empire, and Glee. Goodbye Mad Men, Justified, and Cougar Town. See you in reruns Parenthood, Sons of Anarchy, and The Newsroom.
TV giveth and TV taketh away. It's the circle of programming. Hakuna matata.
Sure, an unusually high number of popular shows will end this season. Farewell Two and a Half Men, Boardwalk Empire, and Glee. Goodbye Mad Men, Justified, and Cougar Town. See you in reruns Parenthood, Sons of Anarchy, and The Newsroom.
On the bright side - can we say that about zombies? - our cult favorite, The Walking Dead, shows no signs of dying. The series returns, gorier than ever, on Oct. 12 for a fifth season on AMC. Long may it shamble!
But let us now focus on the bounty of new shows - more than 20 - that are about to debut. That means, as it does every fall, a host of familiar TV faces in brand-new vehicles.
So let's welcome back boon companions like - roll the credits - Tim Daly (Wings), Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad), Debra Messing (Will & Grace), Judd Hirsch (Taxi), Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap), Martin Short (Saturday Night Live), Dave Annable (Brothers & Sisters), Jada Pinkett Smith (Hawthorne), Tea Leoni (The Naked Truth), Kate Walsh (Private Practice), Maggie Q (Nikita), Katharine McPhee (Smash), Ben McKenzie (Southland), Bebe Neuwirth (Cheers), Dylan McDermott (The Practice), Laurie Metcalf (Roseanne), and a whole bunch more.
TV: It doesn't cast. It recycles.
How long will these returning favorites be with us? It's completely up to you.
Critic's choice
Red Band Society. The season starts on an odd note with this dicey, hard-to-classify series about kids who live together in a hospital pediatric ward. Mixes painful subjects with an in-your-face sense of humor. Octavia Spencer and Dave Annable play the grown-ups. Debuts on Fox, Sept. 17.
The Mysteries of Laura. Debra Messing copes with her job as an NYPD homicide detective and her chaotic home life with supremely destructive twin boys by wielding her rapier wit. And sometimes her service revolver. NBC, Sept. 17.
Madam Secretary. Tea Leoni plays a college professor pressed into service as secretary of state. She's kept kind of busy because, in case you haven't noticed, the world is on fire. Imagine a female version of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan. CBS, Sept. 21.
Scorpion. They're braniacs with very specific skill sets. Not much fun at parties but the go-to guys for Homeland Security in a crisis. Stars Elyes Gabel, Robert Patrick, and Katharine McPhee. CBS, Sept. 22.
Gotham. Ben McKenzie plays James Gordon as a young cop. It's a gleaming Batman origins story that focuses as much on budding villains like the Penguin as it does on Bruce Wayne. With Jada Pinkett Smith and Donal Logue. Fox, Sept. 22.
Forever. Dr. Henry Morgan (Ioan Gruffudd) is a man with a history. A long history. He's been alive for more than 200 years. Now this immortal, who works as the medical examiner in New York, is teaming up with a detective (Alana De La Garza) to solve crimes. With Judd Hirsch. ABC, Sept. 22.
NCIS: New Orleans. The perennial procedural gets a transplant to the city that care forgot. Who knew the military was this riddled with crime? Scott Bakula, Lucas Black, and CCH Pounder star. CBS, Sept. 23.
How to Get Away With Murder. Viola Davis stars as a law professor and attorney in Philadelphia who each year brings her brightest students to her firm so they can see how the law is practiced in the trenches. From Scandal producer Shonda Rhimes. ABC, Sept. 25.
Selfie. Karen Gillan (Doctor Who) plays a vapid, self-involved modern miss who virtually lives online. John Cho and Da'Vine Joy Randolph try to reel her back to reality in this sharply written social-media satire. ABC, Sept. 30.
Manhattan Love Story. The gender wars are played out by characters of different temperaments and circumstances in this sitcom starring the likable Analeigh Tipton (Crazy, Stupid, Love) as a New York newbie. ABC, Sept. 30.
Stalker. As members of LAPD's Threat Assessment Unit, Maggie Q and Dylan McDermott investigate the most serious cases of stalking, a subject that both know a thing or two about. A taut thriller from The Following's Kevin Williamson. CBS, Oct. 1.
Bad Judge. Kate Walsh plays a criminal court jurist in Los Angeles. Off the bench, she's a fierce party girl and rock drummer. Pray you don't come in front of her when she's got a hangover. Which is most days. NBC, Oct. 2.
A-to-Z. Drop Dead Diva's Ben Feldman works at an online dating service where he meets a dissatisfied customer (Cherry Hill's Cristin Milioti). They couldn't be more dissimilar. I smell romance! Katey Sagal narrates this sitcom. NBC, Oct. 2.
Gracepoint. This 10-episode drama is adapted from the acclaimed British series Broadchurch. David Tennant reprises his role as a cop investigating a boy's murder. With Anna Gunn, Jacki Weaver, and Nick Nolte. Fox, Oct. 2.
Mulaney. Comedian John Mulaney plays an aspiring stand-up who takes a job as assistant to an emphatically eccentric game-show host (Martin Short). Think Seinfeld meets Caroline in the City. Fox, Oct. 5.
The Flash. The CW used Arrow, its comic-book superhero series, to spin off a new one. Grant Gustin (Glee) plays the costumed character who is faster than a thousand Usain Bolts. The CW, Oct. 7.
Cristela. This sitcom's eponymous title character (played by Cristela Alonzo) is stubbornly pursuing her plan to become a lawyer in Dallas. That ambition is not encouraged under the roof of her extended Mexican American family. ABC, Oct. 10.
Jane the Virgin. Gina Rodriguez, a young woman in Miami who is saving herself for marriage, finds to her great dismay that she is pregnant. This sitcom, a pleasant surprise, recalls the enchanted early days of Ugly Betty. The CW, Oct. 13.
Marry Me. Ken Marino (of the Web series Burning Love) and Casey Wilson (of the Web series The Hotwives of Orlando) play a couple who can't seem to make it official. A dazzlingly funny sitcom from the maker of Happy Endings. NBC, Oct. 14.
Constantine. The comic book Hellblazer resulted in the 2005 Keanu Reeves movie Constantine. Now Welsh actor Matt Ryan gets his shot as the hard-bitten, cynical antihero fighting supernatural forces. NBC, Oct. 24.
The McCarthys. John Ritter's son Tyler is thoroughly charming as a gay man who can't wait to get away from his crass, blue-collar Irish family in Boston (a clan that includes NKOTB Joey McIntyre and Laurie Metcalf). Fate has other ideas. CBS, Oct. 30.
First to be canceled? I'll take Red Band Society for a hundred, Alex.
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