Homeland
Even though it’s had a rough couple of seasons, Homeland’s chess game of international espionage is still the stuff of watercooler conversations. You don’t want to show up at work on Monday and not know who Carrie (Claire Danes) lied to/slept with/almost got killed. —Angela Watercutter
The Flash
This is the CW’s front-runner (pardon the slight pun) to be the show that lives up to the reputation Arrow built for the network in the Superheroes With Great Jawlines We Want to Watch Weekly category. (We swear that’s a thing.) Don’t blink and miss out on this one. —Angela Watercutter
The Blacklist
Whether it’s the melodramatic plot that makes Alias look like a slow, somber investigation into realistic family drama, or just the sheer joy of seeing James Spader chew up scenery as protagonist Red Reddington, The Blacklist proved to be a surprise guilty pleasure last year. This season, it’s your best bet for more “Did you see that?” moments than anything this side of Scandal, making it a show you should really try and check out live each week. —Graeme McMillan
How To Get Away with Murder
This is how Viola Davis, playing law professor and artery-slicing attorney Annalise Keating, advises her students on life choices: “You can spend it in a corporate office drafting contracts and hitting on chubby paralegals before finally putting a gun in your mouth, or you can join my firm and become someone you actually like.” The plot point of Keating’s students committing an actual murder and spending some portion of the season using their new-found defense attorney skills to circumvent the law could move into tedium, but as long as this show rides the strength of Davis in its lead role and delivers on the trailer’s promise to make her a dark Alicia Florrick, we will keep tuning in every week. — Jordan Crucchiola
Archer
Yuuuuuuuuuuuuup. Watch it. All the time. On repeat, if possible. —Devon Maloney
Madam Secretary
CBS is stepping up its lady game yet again, giving Julianna Margulies’ power attorney a tag-team partner in the form of Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord, played by Téa Leoni. The tone looks right. The selection of Leoni looks right, and so does her supporting cast, with Geoffrey Arend, Tim Daly, Zeljko Ivanek, and Bebe Neuwirth set to help and hinder this Madam Secretary in equal measure as she works to save America from politicking and self-serving ambition. Geena Davis’ Commander in Chief didn’t quite have the legs back in 2005 and Sigourney Weaver’s Political Animals from 2012 didn’t get a well-deserved series pickup, so hopefully Secretary can finally put a woman in the TV White House and keep her there for at least one administration. — Jordan Crucchiola
The Newsroom
Watch it. Watch it every Sunday, you cynical bastards! Then re-watch it on Monday nights and weep with Dan Rather over this show’s premature passing. Maybe, if enough people watch in real time, we can get a Sloan Sabbith spin-off series in 2015. But it needs to have Don. And Mak. And Will and Leona and Rebecca and Maggie and the rest of the cast of The Newsroom—except Jim. Jim can go. — Jordan Crucchiola
Sons of Anarchy
While it ended on a pendulum swing of epic proportion, last year’s penultimate Season 6 had its share of flaws. That being said, Sons showrunner Kurt Sutter has his deck stacked for SAMCRO’s final ride, and watching him deal that last hand, card by blood-drenched card, is going to be worth your while. (And if it’s disappointing? At least you’ll be able to gripe about it with friends—and the internet—in real time.) —Peter Rubin
America’s Next Top Model
No. Seriously. If you’re still by Tyra’s side after 22 cycles, take ANTM in installments and stage viewing parties. This is best watched while playing a bevvy of drinking games and/or with a major snack spread—and that’s a lot cuter when it’s done in one-hour increments instead of five. —Jordan Crucchiola
Faking It
OK, normally a saccharine, MTV teen-dream show like Faking It wouldn’t make this list. However, after handling a lot of tough issues of sexuality with humor and heart in its first season, the series is going into all new territory in Season 2 and introducing an intersex character (it’s actually someone already on the show, but we won’t spoil that here). Season 2 could be one that, we hope, people are talking about. Be a part of the conversation. —Angela Watercutter
What to Skip
A to Z
Hi, I’m NBC. I’m sure you’ve noticed I don’t exactly know what I’m doing when it comes to comedy development. However, I’m also sure that there’s nothing you want to watch more than a meet-cute-a-thon starring The Mother/MacGuffin from How I Met Your Mother and The Guy Who Cut His Nipples Off On Mad Men Hey Sorry About Spoiling That For You, so I’m just gonna throw that on the air for you. Their names are Andrew and Zelda, so the title works on two levels! Wait, come back! WE ORDERED A FULL SEASON OF THIS! —Peter Rubin
Gotham
Although the idea of exploring Gotham City from the point of view of its police detectives sounds like a ripe opportunity for a toothy, noir look at the less-powerful side of the DC superhero universe, Gotham feels like little more than an exercise in checking off every trope and cliche about good cops in a bad city, seasoned with with hammer-subtle references to the Dark Knight. —Laura Hudson
Bad Judge
This is apparently from executive producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, which should give us a little confidence, but based on the promo materials it looks like the Cameron Diaz vehicle Bad Teacher stretched out to series length—with the operative word being stretched. Showrunner Liz Brixius, most famous for her runner work on Nurse Jackie, also just departed the series over “creative differences.” So if you want Kate Walsh, just re-watch Private Practice. —Jordan Crucchiola
Duck Dynasty
Let us join together and end this national nightmare. — Jordan Crucchiola
Forever
Yes! We’ve been dreaming of another hetero-normative buddy rom-dramedy that’s one part cop, one part unconventional investigation specialist! Bones and Castle and Sleepy Hollow are simply not enough! We like you, Ioan Gufford, but we think you’ve got better options than this (or at least we hope you do). —Jordan Crucchiola
Law & Order: SVU
Listen, even die-hard fans of many, many years have to admit: there comes a time in every long-running procedural’s life when it’s just time to die. After several seasons of “Maybe they can come back from this!” it’s become pitifully obvious that even Mariska Hargitay, patron saint of all that is righteous in crime TV, cannot save the immovable pile of shark-jumping that Special Victims Unit has become. And she definitely can’t do it on her own now that almost every single other cast member has already jumped ship. It’s time, Dick Wolf. It is time. —Devon Maloney
Manhattan Love Story
Halfway through watching the trailer for this, the video stopped working. When we refreshed it a “Sorry, we couldn’t find that page!” message came up. So even ABC doesn’t want people to watch this show, but we’ll keep waiting for Analeigh Tipton’s big break. —Jordan Crucchiola
Selfie
Selfie should be so much better than it is: Karen Gillan? John Cho? An update on Pygmallion (or, if you’re so inclined, My Fair Lady)? What could go wrong? About five minutes of the pilot will answer that question, sadly. Seriously, stay away from this one if you want to continue to like anyone involved. —Graeme McMillan
Two and Half Men
Because, really, how is this show still on the air? It’s already been around for two and half seasons too many. —Angela Watercutter
The Vampire Diaries
Has Ian Somerhalder not yet paid his debt to the hereafter? Must he still return year after year to serve at the whims of a craven audience, hungry for his natural eye liner and ageless visage? Let’s all agree to finally gaze upon his painting (re: stop watching this show) and let this maybe-actual-vampire sleep into peaceful oblivion. Ian Somerhalder has earned a merciful true Teen Heartthrob death. —Jordan Crucchiola
What to Binge
American Horror Story: Freak Show
The fun thing about binging on Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s wunderkind horror series is that it’s kind of like reading a book of short stories: each season is completely different, so you can decide to watch each of them all the way through, in or out of order, or pick and choose to your liking. Can’t deal with psycho horror? You can 100 percent skip Asylum (Season 2) and not have missed a thing when you dive into Coven—when it finally gets added to streaming services, that is. Same goes for the upcoming run: Freak Show. —Devon Maloney
Transparent
You should binge-watch this show because it’s on Amazon Prime and that’s how these whole-season-at-once things work. However, you may want to do so sooner rather than later. The story of Maura Pfefferman (Jeffrey Tambor) coming out as transgender to her three delightfully self-involved adult children is engrossing TV. Heart, humor, Tambor playing every scene like he can smell his Emmy already—Transparent has everything. It’s also just plain hard to take your eyes off of. —Angela Watercutter
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Former Saturday Night Live stars don’t always seem to stick when they make the transition to network television, but Andy Samberg scored big with Brooklyn Nine-Nine, as the cocky class-clown detective Jake Peralta. Forget shows where you have to watch two seasons “to really get into it”; this series is a delight with an ensemble as strong as its star, from Andre Braugher as the stoic, gay Captain Holt to the sheer delight that is Terry Crews. When something is this easy to love, why fight it? —Laura Hudson
Boardwalk Empire
Some folks gossip about this Prohibition-era HBO drama the day after it airs, but largely it’s a slow-burn show that is just as easily enjoyed at your leisure. This season is Boardwalk Empire’s last, so maybe wait until it’s over, pour yourself a tall (legal) drink, and enjoy it in one long bender. —Angela Watercutter
Castle
Nathan Fillion, much like a procedural crime dramedy, is best viewed in hours-long sessions. Stay warm inside with Richard Castle when the autumn chill sets in.—Jordan Crucchiola
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Last season it was smart to keep up with this show just because of its narrative tie-ins to Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This time around that’s less of a concern. Save up a few on the DVR and catch up when you feel like kicking it with Coulson. —Angela Watercutter
Constantine
Friday night at 10 is less Must-See TV than it is Death-Knell TV, but I can’t help it: I loved Hellblazer , so I’m going to watch this. But adapting a “mature” book is a risky proposition, and pilots are notoriously unreliable; in this case, it might be better to save up a few weeks’ worth of the show and mainline it to see if you like where it’s going—or if it has a chance of sticking around. —Peter Rubin
The Goldbergs
This one was a sneaky charmer in its opening season. It’s not LOL-worthy enough to classify as appointment viewing, and it won’t light up a dinner party with provocative conversation, but it’s lovable and goofy and worth stacking up two or three at a time to breeze through on a Wednesday night. Besides, Jeff Garlin and Wendy McLendon-Covey deserve your attention. —Jordan Crucchiola
Gracepoint
If this American remake of Broadchurch is anything like the original (and it should be, boasting the same writer and star in Chris Chibnall and David Tennant, respectively), it’ll be a show that’ll gain from watching at your own speed, whether that means taking in as many episodes as possible to solve the mystery or taking occasional breaks to get away from the bleakness. —Graeme McMillan
Nashville
You know you want to. — Jordan Crucchiola
Revenge
Having too much time to think about this show produces diminishing returns, but jacking in for four to six hours at a time really hits the sweet spot. Think of it as Scandal’s trashier companion piece—and that is too much fun to miss out on. — Jordan Crucchiola
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