It's Time to Reboot the Realities of the Fall TV Season

I don39t put much stock in anecdotes but outside of the industry I haven39t heard one word anywhere about any new broadcast series or any returning shows with the exceptions of ABC39s Abbott Elementary I have friends who are teachers and CBS39 Blue Bloods still the show I am most often asked about by quotrealquot people Make of that what you will but I remember a time when the arrival of a new television season had everyone buzzing well beyond the boundaries of New York City and Los AngelesInvite job candidates to apply live during the Media and Advertising Communityamp8217s Black Talent Outreach Week at MediaVillagecom and AdvancingDiversityorg October 1720 Apply for jobssubmit your resume hereamp160And so it is that like most people I am finding it almost impossible to tear myself away from streaming shows and cable programs after a summer of largely ignoring broadcast television with the notable exception of NBC39s reliably fabulous America39s Got Talent I celebrate the return of CBS39 Ghosts which made the No 1 position on my Top 25 Programs of 2021 list No matter how good it39s second season is though it won39t enjoy that honor again this year as I have already named my No 1 show of 2022 And I39m still enjoying Fox39s 911 like its companion series 911 Lone Star one of the most satisfying characterdriven actiondramas on televisionAs you know my other autumn essential Dancing with the Stars has left broadcast ABC for streaming Disney I don39t think the move has done the show the network or the streamer any good The same can be said for the move of Days of Our Lives from NBC to Peacock I still say Dancing should have remained where it was and that this was a change nobody wanted I haven39t caught every minute of the two Disney telecasts so far but nothing I have seen has been as entertaining as those frisky TikTok videos featuring partners Shangela and Gleb rehearsing backstageMeanwhile despite all the marketing and attention going toward a number of highprofile original streaming series of late from Prime Video39s Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power to HBO39s House of the Dragon to Netflix39s Monster The Jeffrey Dahmer Story a deeply disturbing reallife chiller with yet another fascinating performance by Evan Peters in the title role the series that pulled me away from all others this month is Merli Sapere Aude a humble and heartfelt import from Spain It39s about a young bisexual philosophy student coming to terms with love sex relationships and family matters while navigating various challenges among his friends and family members and bonding with an alcoholic professor with multiple challenges of her own It is not an overstatement to assert that Merli SA puts every youthensemble drama series on American television to shame Carlos Cuevas pictured above who stars as Pol Rubio and can currently be seen in The CW39s Leonardo is nothing short of sensational in the lead roleStaying with streaming Hulu39s delightful Reboot can take its place alongside Abbott Elementary Ghosts and Apple TV39s Ted Lasso as one of the smartest comedies currently on television A lot of thought went into the basic narrative of this show which has great fun with the industry39s unfortunate fixation with relaunching rebooting remaking or reviving classic TV programs of yesteryear A few of them have been okay the rest have been unbearable If only those shows were as entertaining as this oneCynical indie screenwriter Hannah Korman successfully pitches a contemporary revival of the early 2000s family sitcom Step Right Up to programmers at Hulu meta much featuring the original cast who went from being big stars to mostly train wrecks in the years since the show ended The stories of the actors navigating a second shot at success are funny enough but the real comedy gold here comes in scenes set in the Step writers39 room where woke Millennials of questionable talent and experience clash with talented and unapologetically not woke veteran scribes as they assemble scripts Oh and there39s a big twist in the central storyline No spoilers here The cast includes KeeganMichael Key pictured at top Judy Greer Johnny Knoxville Rachel Bloom and Paul ReiserReboot owes a debt to the nostalgia that young adults who grew up watching ABC39s TGIF lineup and perhaps various silly sitcoms on Disney Channel feel when they think about those shows For some of us referring to shows from the late 3990s and early aughts as quotclassicsquot of quotyesteryearquot doesn39t come easy All I39ll say on the subject is that the older I get the more grateful I am that I came of age watching All in the Family The Mary Tyler Moore Show The Bob Newhart Show The Odd Couple and MASH Those were the daysClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc 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It's Time to Reboot the Realities of the Fall TV Season

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