Over the current television season? So are the broadcast networks—they’re moving on to the 2015-2016 season, and here’s some of what they’ll be serving up this fall and early next year:
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (The CW): The Atom, Captain Cold, Heatwave and various other characters previously seen on Arrow and The Flash team up in this sorta-spin-off, as well as The Heroine Formerly Known as Black Canary, White Canary, and “time-traveling rogue” Rip Hunter (!). Oh, you can stave off that superhero burnout until 2016.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW): A successful-but-lonely New York woman (Rachel Bloom) impulsively moves to California to pursue her ex in a musical-comedy originally produced for … Showtime? Remember: Jane the Virgin seemed like a bizarre idea once, too.
Supergirl (CBS): Speaking of superhero burnout and single gals in the big city, here’s Superman’s cousin, Kara (Melissa Benoist, Glee). The first trailer, while impressive, is far more The Devil Wears Prada than Daredevil, and strangely similar to Saturday Night Live’s fake Black Widow rom-com Marvel movie. But, she’s unrecognizable in glasses—classic.
Angel From Hell (CBS): Allison (Maggie Lawson, Psych) has a wacky new frenemy (Jane Lynch, Glee) who is either a bona fide guardian angel … or just insane. Which is it? Since single-camera, laugh-track-less comedies are COA (canceled on arrival) at CBS, you’ll probably never find out.
Scream Queens (Fox): Ryan Murphy’s comedic (but still dark) broadcast-friendly take on his American Horror Story series stars Emma Roberts (AHS: Freak Show) and Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween). A sorority-slasher series may seem like a stretch, but it’s still a more likely Fox hit than Murphy’s defunct Red Band Society: Kourageous Kancer Kids.
Bordertown (Fox): This “Mexifornia”-set cartoon from Family Guy writers/producers (as well as cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz and Ask a Mexican columnist/Independent contributor Gustavo Arellano) has been floating around for almost two years, and will finally premiere in 2016 … an election year. Pretty sneaky, Fox.
The Grinder (Fox): After his hit legal drama The Grinder is canceled, an actor (Rob Lowe) moves back home to Boise and joins forces with his unwilling brother (Fred Savage), a real lawyer, in the courtroom. And if the younger demographic likes this …
Grandfathered (Fox): … They’ll love John Stamos as a suave bachelor-about-town whose swingin’ lifestyle gets record-scratched when he learns he has an adult son and a baby granddaughter. At least Stamos has Fuller House to fall back on.
Lucifer (Fox): The Devil (Tom Ellis, Rush) retires as “Lucifer Morningstar” and opens a Los Angeles nightclub, which of course leads to him working with the LAPD to solve the murder of a young pop star. Skeptical? Lucifer is based on a Vertigo comic-book series, and involves writers and directors from Californication, Sleepy Hollow and Underworld. Parents Television Council, you’re up!
Blindspot (NBC): The clues to unravel a vast international conspiracy lie within the tattoos of an unidentified woman found naked in a duffle bag in Times Square. Damn, those Suicide Girls will do anything for attention.
Heartbreaker (NBC): Melissa George (The Slap) stars as a heart surgeon (get it?) who’s as annoyingly feisty as she is brilliant and stubborn … or as brilliantly annoying as she is stubbornly feisty … or something.
People Are Talking (NBC): Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Franklin and Bash) and Tone Bell (Bad Judge) play buds who “analyze and obsess about everything.” This is one of two whole comedies airing this fall on NBC—analyze and obsess about that.
Oil (ABC): It’s Dallas … in North Dakota! With Don Johnson as the designated local oil tycoon/villain! Lucifer doesn’t sound so ridiculous now, huh?
Uncle Buck (ABC): America has rejected a TV version of the beloved 1989 movie once before—but this one has an all-black cast, so ABC at least deserves some credit for further chipping away at the tube’s Whiteytown. Uncle Buck, however, is gonna suuuck.
The Muppets (ABC): Imagine The Office as a behind-the-scenes docu-com at The Muppet Show. Yeah, I can’t believe that pitch worked, either.