"Pan Am," "Terra Nova" and More: Fall Season Premieres -- Plus a Look Ahead - Ed Martin

Pan Am amp8211 ABC Premiered Sept 25The second of this season39s big broadcast entries in the retronostalgia genre is significantly better than NBC39s sad The Playboy Club in every way except the one that counts most amp8211 its storytelling The plotlines in the pilot are a mix of the uninteresting sisters on a plane and unimaginative muddled secret agent stuff and there is scarce evidence that it is going to become more compelling in the weeks to follow But the period detail the swinging soundtrack and the luxurious look of it all are utterly mesmerizing and the cast is extremely attractive so I can imagine folks 40plus giving it a shot Younger viewers on the other hand likely won39t even know what Pan Am was and won39t care to invest time finding out I39m not wild about it but I wish it wellTerra Nova amp8211 Fox Premiered Sept 26Curiously this bigbudget sciencefiction adventure about people from the environmentally ravaged Earth of 2149 who travel 85 million years into the past to rebuild civilization in an alternate time stream plays much better on TV than it did on a giant screen at ComicCon Maybe that39s because the onedimensional characters uninspired action sequences and abundant adventure movie clichamp233s were even more obvious when supersized in a massive arena The dinosaurs however rock at any size There is nothing particularly new or exciting here despite the bigleague pedigree of so many of its executive producers including Steven Spielberg but Terra Nova is the closest thing broadcast television offers to a true family adventure series the likes of which used to attract tens of millions of viewers so it deserves some early support unless it completely collapses in episode twoHart of Dixie amp8211 The CW Premiered Sept 26Every element of this sappy light drama about a New York City doctor who relocates to a small town in the south is utterly unconvincing from the premise to the characters to the performance of series star Rachel Bilson It39s as hopeless as it is haplessSuburgatory amp8211 ABC Premiered Sept 28Cheryl Hines lets her freak flag fly as a wealthy sexedup mom in this loonytune of a sitcom that tries to poke merciless fun at upscale suburbanites especially the female of the species but is ultimately strangled by its own snark Actually it39s supposed to be about a concerned single dad Jeremy Sisto who seeks a better life for his sullen too smart for the room teenage daughter Jane Levy by getting her out of Manhattan after finding a box of condoms in her nightstand but trust me it39s the manhungry housewives and highschool girls who shop at South Park39s Stupid Spoiled Whore store that people will be talking about amp8211 if they bother to watch As for authenticity it39s supposed to be set on the East Coast somewhere in Long Island Westchester County or Fairfield County I think but it sure feels like parts of Pasadena what with those giant mountains in the backgrounds and allHow to Be a Gentleman amp8211 CBS Premiered Sept 29Thirtysomething heterosexual males certainly are getting kicked where it hurts this broadcast season They are uniformly depicted as dimwits dullards andor douche bags in a number of deadly new sitcoms so much so that they make Alan and Walden and even the late Charlie look like standup guys over on Two and a Half Men In this one a tightass etiquette columnist David Hornsby and a dim gym rat Kevin Dillon who were high school classmates are reunited years later amp8211 just in time for the dimwit dude to turn the uppity fussbudget into a manly stud lest he lose his job at a venerable men39s magazine in tumultuous transition by its new twentysomething owners The show is a bore but at least it understands what too many veteran journalists are dealing with these daysBedlam amp8211 BBC America Premiered Oct 1BBC America39s creepy new entry into television39s currently popular horror genre is every bit as watchable as AMC39s thrilling chiller The Walking Dead and FX39s chilling thriller American Horror Story It39s all about life in a luxury apartment building that used to be a ghastly asylum where patients were routinely abused and is now haunted by their vengeful spirits At the center of it all are residents Kate a descendent of the family that ran the asylum and her adopted cousin Jed who sees the restless ghosts and scary visions of their terrible pasts They39re played by Charlotte Salt and Theo James two of the hottest new stars on any new television series this fall Pop Idol winner Will Young costarsAmerican Horror Story amp8211 FX Premieres Oct 5Glee cocreators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck have cobbled together a humdinger of a freak show that may turn out to be much less than the sum of its parts but will hopefully sustain the remarkable lunatic energy of its pilot an hour of television unlike anything I39ve ever seen The blood and guts and shocks and surprises come fast and furious but its take on the fragility of family relationships and the darkest hazards of sexual desire expressed repressed or otherwise may be the most disturbing aspects of this show Outside of dropping fbombs and showing genitalia and bare breasts I think AHS pretty much destroys any remaining content boundaries that apply to advertiser supported television including brutal attacks on children the graphic presentation of chopped up babies and kinkier sex than we ever saw at Lady Heather39s The extraordinary cast includes Jessica Lange Dylan McDermott Connie Britton Denis O39Hare and Frances ConroyLast Man Standing amp8211 ABC Premieres Oct 11Three years ago Kelsey Grammer almost destroyed our fond memories of Frasier by starring in a perfectly wretched and mercifully shortlived ABC sitcom titled Hank Now Tim Allen has put at risk memories of his similarly cherished comedy classic Home Improvement with this totally bland timewaster about a man39sman dad with three daughters Home Improvement was a hit largely because viewers could readily identify with Tim and his workingclass family That might not happen this time around because to judge by their HGTVworthy kitchen and patio alone Tim and his new family seem to have money to spare Or do the fabulous trappings of his new TV home reflect Hollywood39s idea of workingclass life Gosh Tim why not simply revive Home Improvement and let us see how the Taylors are faring these daysMan Up ABC Premieres Oct 18Here39s another put down of men everywhere amp8211 and the women in it don39t come off so great either It39s an inane wouldbe comedy about three grown men who enjoy video games and other youthful pursuits but tend to suck at adult responsibilities If this awful instantly forgettable thing had made its debut during premiere week rather than being scheduled for one month later it would have been a strong candidate for first cancellation of the season Depending on what happens during the next four weeks it may still be a contenderGrimm amp8211 NBC Premieres Oct 21A young detective learns that he has inherited the ability to detect supernatural beings most of which turn out to be monsters from the Grimm fairy tales and other supposedly fictional classics of the genre All those stories were based on reality or so this story goes Then he and his partner get about stopping them from their evil pursuits Oddly NBC has scheduled this show opposite The CW39s Supernatural a far superior series about two guys hunting nasty things making the outlook for Grimm very grim indeedOnce Upon a Time amp8211 ABC Premieres Oct 23Credit where it39s due Nobody who samples this imaginative fantasy drama will be able to accuse ABC of manufacturing cookiecutter television In fact in terms of its creativity Once Upon a Time is easily the most ambitious and imaginative new series of the season Unfortunately it is also the most complex so much so that ABC Entertainment Group president Paul Lee admitted his concerns about how it will hold up beyond its third episode at the Summer 2011 Television Critics Association tour It39s set in a creepy small town in Maine where fairy tale characters are stripped of their memories and held against their wills or something like that The cast including Ginnifer Goodwin and Jennifer Morrison is as appealing as the concept is muddledHell on Wheels amp8211 AMC Premieres Nov 6I haven39t seen the finalized pilot but the version offered to critics at the summer TCA tour seemed close to completion so I39m comfortable noting that the gritty and sometimes very violent Hell on Wheels bears little resemblance to the sanitized TV westerns of old It39s not as tough as HBO39s Deadwood but it doesn39t shy away from depicting the harsh realities of postCivil War western expansion either As with every original series AMC has on its schedule the overall quality of Wheels is firstrateI Hate My Teenage Daughter amp8211 Fox Premieres Nov 23Many of the fall season39s new series depict adult males as total idiots This one turns its guns on grown women amp8211 specifically two simpering single moms who have no control whatsoever over their absolutely hateful teenage daughters Everything about this show is unpleasant especially the wasted talents of its leading ladies Emmy winner Jaime Pressly and Tony winner Katie Finneran They39re both so awful here that you39ll wonder how they ever won anything The only thing that will save this show is its enviable time period it will occupy the slot after The XFactor at a time when the competition on that likely juggernaut will be entering its home stretch

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"Pan Am," "Terra Nova" and More: Fall Season Premieres -- Plus a Look Ahead - Ed Martin

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Ed Martin

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