TV Tuesday: Fall TV Preview

My husband and I are excited for the fall TV season, bringing back some of our favorite shows with new episodes, along with a few new shows for us to try. We still watch a lot of network shows via cable On Demand, but most of them are also available through streaming channels and/or on the network website, so I'm including both network and streaming shows in this post. Links go to my reviews, where available. Here's what we're looking forward to:

Returning Favorites:

Medical Shows

The Resident, starring Matt Czuckry, started its sixth season last week. We were fans of Czuckry from The Good Wife, and have enjoyed watching him in this hospital drama set in Atlanta. It was questionable last spring whether it would be renewed for a sixth season, so I figured this was its last ... but the one of the co-creators was quoted as saying, "It could go on and on" like E.R., so who knows?

New Amsterdam stars Ryan Eggold (who we enjoyed in Blacklist) as the super-enthusiastic, "we can do anything" head of this fictional NYC hospital. This is one my husband is tiring of, but I still enjoy the actors, humor, and drama. It returned last week for its fifth and final season.

Grey's Anatomy returns next week for its 50th season ... ha ha, just kidding! It's only season 19! This is still a favorite of mine. During my recent relapse of my chronic illness, I have been amusing myself while stuck on the couch by starting back at season 1 and rewatching old Grey's Anatomy, and I just love it so much! It has everything: drama, humor, suspense. It makes me laugh and cry! The past two seasons have been a bit depressing--which I'm sure is what my husband dislikes (I personally like a good fictional cry)--but the trailer for this new season looks like they will once again be focusing on a new set of interns and getting back to a lighter touch, which is how the show started, so this should be fun!

Action and Suspense

My husband still watches the medical shows mainly for my sake. What he likes best are shows with action, suspense, and maybe a bit of science fiction. I like those, too. Here's what we're excited to see again:

The Rookie came back for its fifth season on Sunday, and I can't wait for my husband to return from his business trip so we can watch it! This is our current favorite show. It stars Nathan Fillion as a 40-ish rookie with the LAPD (though at this point, he's past his rookie stage). Yes, it's a police drama featuring crime, mysteries, action, and suspense, but it's also about the lives of the police officers and has a wonderful sense of humor. If you haven't watched it yet, give it a try!

Big Sky came back last week for its 3rd season. This is a crime drama featuring two female detectives in the big sky country of Montana. Each season has an on-going mystery/investigation. Season 1 dealt with human trafficking and a creepy serial killer, Season 2 focused on two drug syndicates. Season 3 kicked off with a missing hiker and some mysterious goings-on at a local outdoor resort where Reba McEntire plays the resort's host. Good suspenseful start!

La Brea is back for its second season starting tonight. The premise is that a giant sinkhole opened up in LA where the La Brea tar pits are, and a bunch of people fell through ... and into a prehistoric world. Those down there want to figure out how to get back to the modern world, while they try to survive, and those left behind are trying to figure out how to get them back. We always enjoy these kinds of suspense/action shows with a sci fi twist, but they have a bad track record of not lasting long enough for a satisfying conclusion! So, we're glad this one is back for a second season.

Yellowstone returns in November for its fifth season. We love this modern western about a ranching family in Wyoming, starring Kevin Costner, but it airs on Paramount Network (which is, apparently, different from Paramount Plus??). It's quite confusing, but we know we'll have to wait a month or two until it's available On Demand or though streaming. It's worth the wait!

Amazing Race offers a different kind of action and suspense! It returned last week for its 34th (!) season. We watched it with our sons when they were young (great for families), then skipped a bunch of seasons, but we got back into it last season. My childhood best friend also loves the show, and last season we discovered the fun of texting each other while we watch it from our separate states! This is the only reality TV show we enjoy.

Handmaid's Tale is back for a fifth season ... and they've just announced a sixth season is coming! This is one of the best shows on TV ... ever. Seriously. Elizabeth Moss stars as Offred, the main character from Margaret Atwood's well-known dystopian novel. Everything about this show is outstanding: the writing, the acting, cinematography, twisty plot. The first two episodes of this new season blew our minds!

New Shows To Try:

I know, that's already a lot of shows to juggle! But there are always shows ending, and it's fun to watch some new ones. We're not bingers. We still like to watch TV the old way, watching one episode a week so that every night brings something different. Variety is the spice of life! With that in mind, we plan to try these new shows:

Quantum Leap premiered last week. This classic show from the 80's/90's has been rebooted and modernized with a whole new cast. You probably know the premise: a scientific team has developed--but not perfected--time travel technology, and one of their team, in this case played by Raymond Lee, is stuck "leaping" through time and space, where each time, he needs to figure out how to save someone in order to leap again. I love anything to do with time travel, but I never watched the original! We enjoyed the first episode set in 1985 last week.

So Help Me Todd is a detective/crime show with a twist: it features a mother-son team. Marcia Gay Harden plays a high-powered lawyer who helps out her son, played by Thomas Cadrot, by hiring him as an investigator for her firm. It's a great cast and it looks like it has a sense of humor (always a plus), so we're going to give it a try.

Alaska Daily premiers next week on October 6. It stars Hillary Swank as a journalist who moves to Alaska to start over and ends up investigating the case of a missing girl. It looks great, and we love this sort of thriller/crime drama.

Reboot is something different for us, a comedy (we're also currently enjoying Hacks on HBO Max). This is about the behind-the-scenes of a reboot of a 90's sitcom. It has an all-star cast, including Paul Reiser, Keegan-Michael Key, Rachel Bloom, Judy Greer, and more. It got good reviews from the crew at Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, it's from the co-creator of Modern Family, and the trailer looks like fun:

 

What shows are you looking forward to this fall?