I've been shamefully absent for a while, but I can't stay away when the new fall tv season is upon us! In this post I will be sharing some recent new fall shows that I've watched and enjoyed in the past few weeks, as well as other promising new shows that are premiering soon. Here we go!
1. Forever (Amazon Prime): This show, starring Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen, definitely isn't for everyone. And it's not at all what I expected. The SNL alums star as June and Oscar, and childless couple entering middle age and beginning to become a bit bored with their marriage and lives. At the end of episode 2 the show takes a (SPOILER ALERT) Good Place-esque turn when both main characters end up dead together in the afterlife. From there June begins a friendship with the couple's new neighbor (also dead) played by Catherine Keener, and ventures off to find a more interesting place to spend eternity. The show is funny, although I wish that the joke count was a little higher. More intriguingly, the show explores some deept themes like the meaning of life and relationships. The 2 standout episodes are #2, when June finds herself after her grief over Oscar's death (before her own death), and episode #6, a standalone episode following the relationship between 2 realtors who are drawn to each other but unsure about taking the risk of leaving their spouses for each other. It's a thoughtful study on human connection and the regrets that stay with us for our entire lives. Not a perfect show, but at 8 episodes it's well worth a binge.
2. American Vandal (Netflix): Vandal is a comedic mock crime documentary that in season 1 followed the mystery of who spray painted penises on cars in the faculty parking lot at a high school. The show borrowed tropes from recent crime documentary hits like Making a Murderer to hilariously investigate the crime, and it worked mostly due to the perfect performance by Jimmy Tatro as the main suspect. In season 2, the setting has moved to a Catholic high school, the site of a varierty of poop-related pranks inititiated by a suspect dubbed the "Turd Burglar". None of the actors in season 2 are quite as strong as Tatro (the only returning cast are the 2 student documentrary filmmakers), but the story is a bit more twisty and fleshed out. Also at 8 episodes, it's another great binge.
3. Murphy Brown (CBS, premieres Sept. 27)): I was the weird 10-year-old that was watching adult sitcoms like Murphy instead of cartoons, or you know...playing outside. The original show ran from 1988-1998 and followed Candice Bergen as the host of a tv newsmagazine filmed in D.C. At first a typical workplace comedy, the show courted some controversy in 1992 when Vice President Dan Quayle criticized the Murphy character's status as a single mother. It also dealt with some serious issues like breast cancer, which Murphy fought during one of the show's final seasons. The reboot, premiering this week, features Murphy and her old coworkers as hosts of a morning show. The show promises to tackle the modern political landscape and President Trump. This could be funny in small doses, but the original show was never that political. If it can strike the right balance between politics and workplace comedy, then I will welcome it back onto my tv with open arms.
4. Manifest (NBC, premieres Sept. 24): I don't know much about this show other than the main premise: passengers on a commercial flight return after being missing for 5 years, although for them no time has passed. After the success of Lost in the mid-2000's, networks tried (and failed) to capture their own magic with a string of sci-flops: Invasion, The Event, Flash Forward, and Surface, to name just a few. As a network sci-fi show, the odds are stacked against Manifest, but for now I will thrive on the hope that it could possibly be good.
5. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix, premieres Oct. 26): A much darker, dramatic take on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, this show intends the fill the creepy tv show void left on Netflix this Halloween by Stranger Things, whose 3rd season has been delayed until next summer. Normally I wouldn't be excited about a teen supernatural show, which tends to be the expertise of the CW these days. The Vampire Diaries ain't my thing. But Sabrina stars one my favorite young actresses, Kiernan Shipka, who out-acted January Jones every week on Mad Men. She was so strong that Mad Men wisely built subplots around her pre-teen character during its later seasons, even though the show was already stacked with a wealth of talented actors. Here's hoping that this one lives up to the hype and raises the profile of the deserving and talented Shipka.
