Tonight is the second night of the fall season and it is the worst night of television on all of the networks except for NBC. Tonight, we will be crying over This Is Us and tomorrow the heads of ABC, CBS and Fox will be crying over their how bad their shows are.
As I did yesterday and will continue to do, I will do my opinion of best to worst and tonight is a lot of worse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvMCbzrToAo
I will start off with New Amsterdam that debuts at 10p on NBC. It is my favorite new show of the season. It was the only pilot that made me cry. That is because there is a lot of heart in the medical drama. It is not too focused on medical procedures or being a soap opera. It is about the patient as an individual and the doctors who want to make them feel better.
Dr. Max Goodwin (Ryan Eggold) is the brand medical director at Bellevue Hospital in NYC. He is going to shake things up at his new job. He tells the doctors put the patient before billing and he means it. He fires the whole cardiac surgical unit because that is what they do.
He wants to hear what the doctors want, so they can make the hospital a better place. The doctors are more than willing to do it, and it is starting to make them better doctors. How long can they do this before the money people make them stop? Not only that Dr. Goodwin has a secret of his own, one that might limit how long he stays at the hospital.
Thankfully he has a lot of good doctors to back him up like Dr. Hana Sharpe (Freema Agyeman), Dr. Laura Bloom (Janet Montgomery), Dr. Floyd Pearson (Jocko Sims), Dr. Anil Kapoor (Anupam Kher) and Dr. Iggy Frome (Tyler Labine).
I just love the feel of the show because it is a medical drama but not one that makes you feel like you might get diagnosed with one the unusual illnesses they have. Plus, Ryan Eggold plays the role so brilliantly. He is one of them, while also being their boss. You can feel the compassion in his performance.
Actually, you feel the compassion about the whole show and that is why it is my favorite new show of the season.
It is the first Monday after the Emmys and that means it is time for the start of the fall season on broadcast TV. As much as this pains to me say, this is the weakest one for new shows in a really long time. Since there are a lot of shows premiering over the next few weeks, I am going to put them all in one post on a daily basis from, what I think is, best to worst.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhKmfJrnrw0
The best show of the night goes to a new one and that is Manifest that debuts on NBC at 10p. Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh) and her family went on vacation with her brother, Ben (Josh Dallas), his wife Grace (Athena Karkanis), their twins, Cal (Jack Messina) and Olive (Luna Blaise) and their parents (Malachy Cleary and Geraldine Leer) and it is time to go home.
Michaela is ready to get home, but she will do anything not to travel with her nagging mom. When the airline opens up 4 seats, she decides to go along with her brother and his son who is battling cancer. Cal’s diagnosis is grim, so Ben wants to spend some time alone with him. They just have no idea what will happen next.
Their flight seems normal until they hit some turbulence. Once things level out, it is time to land at JFK. Air traffic control tells them to land at a nearby airport instead. When they get there, they find out that it has been 5 and 1/2 years since they took off. No one has aged a day in that time, while everyone else on the ground, including their family, has.
After several hours of quarantine, the passengers are reunited with their families. Now, they have to adjust to being together again. That is not the only difference, they start hearing a voice in their head that tells them to do something. They do not understand and that is something we are going to find out.
While I really like the pilot, I am cautionary optimistic because we have been down this road before with sci-fi shows. They give a good pilot and then it is all downhill from there. Hopefully, this will break that pattern. Please break the pattern because there is a lot of potential here.
For the rest of tonight’s reviews, then click here!
Last year, ABC didn’t think that they needed sitcoms on Friday and they were very wrong. Therefore, they are making TGIF a thing again.
Remember in the ’90s our Fridays nights were full of Perfect Strangers, its spinoff Family Matters and Boy Meets World? Now in 2018, it is about ’90s based sitcom Fresh Off the Boat and modern-day’s Speechless.
Thus, someone at ABC thought it would be cool to merge the two eras with stars from the past and present. They are PS’s cousins Bronson Pinchot and Mark-Linn Baker, everyone’s favorite dad Reginald VelJohnson from FM, BMW teen dream queen Danielle Fishel, FOB’s Constance Wu and Randall Park, and Speechless’ John Ross Bowie and Cedric Yarbough.
You know if ABC were smart, they would do a massive revival of their old shows. Seeing the stars from yesteryear makes me miss them and Dinosaurs. I want my baby back because you gotta love him!
Until then I will be spending my Fridays with Fresh Off the Boat and Speechless starting on October 5th at 8p.
Last season, The Good Doctor was my favorite new show. There was just something so special about it. All season long each episode delivered the perfect remedy for the Monday blues.
When a show has a really amazing first season, you worry the second season will not be as good. Today, ABC released the first look for the medical drama and it looks like it will not be suffering the sophomore slump.
Which is a good thing for The Good Doctor. Make sure to mark your calendars because you are not going to want to miss the season premiere on September 24th.
BTW when it comes to what is my favorite new show for this season. It is another medical drama, NBC’s New Amsterdam.
We are exactly two months away from the start of ABC’s 2017-2018 season. I know that because they released when their old shows will be back and their new ones will debut. ABC will be airing not, but two editions of Dancing with the Stars. One for adults and one for kids. Why it is not paired with Child Support is beyond me.
Their Tuesday night shows are being delayed because of The Connors late production start, because you know why, and they cannot start without it. At least they think they cannot. They are risking taking a beating because of the late start.
When it comes to why I posted the A Million Little Things trailer, I did it because it is the absolute worst new show of the year. Actually in a really long time. Great cast, horrible writing and plotline. It was like let’s make a show more depressing than This Is Us, but don’t include any of the heart or redeeming qualities. It is depressing to be depressing and that is all. When it comes to the others, I will discuss them at a later date.
MONDAY, SEPT. 24
8:00-10:01 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars” (Season 27 premiere)
10:01-11:00 p.m. “The Good Doctor” (Season 2 premiere)
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 26
8:00-8:30 p.m. “The Goldbergs” (Season 6 premiere)
8:30-9:00 p.m. “American Housewife” (Season 3 premiere; new time)
9:00-9:31 p.m. “Modern Family” (Season 10 premiere)
9:31-10:00 p.m. “Single Parents” (Series premiere)
10:00-11:00 p.m. “A Million Little Things” (Series premiere)
THURSDAY, SEPT. 27
8:00-10:00 p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy” (Season 15 premiere; two hours)
10:00-11:00 p.m. “How to Get Away with Murder” (Season 5 premiere)
FRIDAY, OCT. 5
8:00-8:30 p.m. “Fresh Off the Boat” (Season 5 premiere; new day and time)
8:30-9:00 p.m. “Speechless” (Season 3 premiere; new day)
9:00-10:00 p.m. “Child Support” (Season 2 premiere; new time)
SUNDAY, OCT. 7
8:00-10:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars: Juniors” (Series premiere; two hours)
10:00-11:00 p.m. “Shark Tank” (Season 10 premiere)
