Since last year's TV season was full of so many pleasant surprises, it's perhaps inevitable that this year will be a bit of a letdown. Shows like ABC's Lost and Desperate Housewives were critical and ratings successes because of their original premises and clever executions. In Hollywood, success breeds imitation, and the problem with trying to copy those shows is that the networks are copying the premises rather than what made them successful, which was having original ideas. So there is a deluge of Lost-style supernatural shows and shows driven by season-long mysteries (also like another of last season's excellent shows, Veronica Mars, which was critically praised but drew tiny ratings).
Of those shows, the best so far is Invasion (ABC, Wednesdays, 10 p.m., premieres September 21), which will be airing directly after Lost. While all of the pilots set up vaguely defined mysteries, Invasion, with its ominous threat of body-snatching aliens in a small Florida town after a hurricane, is the most suspenseful and intriguing. But the first episode moves so slowly, it's possible the show eventually will get more frustrating than is worth the time.
Given the generally dismal state of the sitcom, it's strange that the season's biggest promise lies in its new comedic entries. Pilots for Everybody Hates Chris (UPN, Thursdays, 8 p.m., premieres September 22) and My Name is Earl (NBC, Tuesdays, 9 p.m., premieres September 20) were unavailable at press time but both have been generating buzz for months as the best new shows of the season. Chris is a Wonder Years-style show loosely based on the life of its narrator, comedian Chris Rock, and is UPN's latest bid for respectability after the praise it got last season for Veronica Mars. Earl is a single-camera comedy about a loser who wins the lottery and decides to make amends to all the people he's wronged. Despite being from a former producer of Yes, Dear, it's said to be hilarious.
The best new show of the season that I've had the chance to see is Kitchen Confidential (Fox, Mondays, 8:30 p.m., premieres September 19), another single-camera comedy, being paired with the acclaimed but little-watched Arrested Development. With a top-notch cast including Bradley Cooper, Nicholas Brendon, John Cho and Bonnie Somerville, it follows the backstage doings at an upscale New York restaurant. Although it's occasionally predictable, it's got plenty of genuine laughs and a warm but not sappy tone. In a season full of vague mysteries and 687,597 police procedurals, that's enough to make it the best.