MUST-SEE
Among several very good shows this fall the best and most promising is Chuck (NBC, Mondays, 9 p.m.; premieres September 24), one of two excellent new offerings from The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz. A quick-witted blend of action and comedy, Chuck follows an aimless slacker who accidentally becomes a living computer full of government secrets. Recruited to help a pair of bickering secret agents, he of course has to keep quiet about his new gig and continues to strike out with the ladies while working a lame retail job. The characters are likeable and fun to watch, the action is exciting, and the jokes are funny; Chuck may not be a masterpiece, but it’s certainly the most fun of any new show this fall.
Fun is the operative word for most of the good new stuff this year, including the best new sitcom (in an increasingly small group), Samantha Who? (ABC, Mondays, 9:30 p.m.; premieres October 15). With a premise similar to NBC’s My Name is Earl, it stars Christina Applegate as a woman who wakes from a coma with no memory, only to discover that she is apparently a horrible person. Trying to reconnect with her old life as well as distance herself from it, Samantha turns out to be as endearing as Earl, while the show has a bit more edge than its more heartfelt counterpart. Plus, in a rarity for sitcoms these days, it’s actually funny.
There’s also a lot of humor to the perhaps overly quirky Pushing Daisies (ABC, Wednesdays, 8 p.m.; premieres October 3), from Dead Like Me creator Bryan Fuller. Its convoluted premise—about a guy who can bring dead people back to life, briefly—makes the pilot very exposition-heavy, and the art direction and costumes are a little excessively twee. But the characters are winning, and the world has a lot of possibilities. The central relationship between the main character and the back-from-the-dead love of his life, whom he cannot touch for fear of killing her, is both sweet and heartbreaking.
A little darker but still with a wicked sense of humor is Schwartz’s other new show of the season, Gossip Girl (The CW, Wednesdays, 9 p.m.; premieres September 19). It puts Schwartz back in teen-soap territory, and in many ways is the East Coast counterpart to The O.C. Based on a popular series of books, it follows the love lives of a group of Manhattan prep-school teens, who are as snarky as they are wealthy. Less lighthearted than The O.C., it’s nevertheless the best new soap in a season strangely full of them, and should appeal equally to fans of Seth Cohen and Amanda Woodward.
CHECK 'EM OUT
Bionic Woman
Just missing must-see status are three more high-concept sci-fi shows: Bionic Woman (NBC, Wednesdays, 9 p.m.; premieres September 26), Reaper (The CW, Tuesdays, 9 p.m.; premieres September 25) and Journeyman (NBC, Mondays, 10 p.m.; premieres September 24). All share one of this season’s persistent annoyances—the convoluted premise—but have enough to recommend at least a couple of viewings. Bionic, a remake of the ’70s staple from Battlestar Galactica’s David Eick, is pulpy and sometimes silly, but has exciting action and an appealingly grim tone. Reaper, like the far superior Chuck, is about a slacker caught up in a battle bigger than himself (he’s forced to serve as a bounty hunter for Satan), but it doesn’t quite succeed in its melding of goofy and serious tones. And Journeyman, like a latter-day Quantum Leap, finds its protagonist skipping through time, righting wrongs while trying to figure out what’s happening to him. The pilot is a little confusing, but a few hints at the ongoing story will leave you curious about what happens next.
Two sprawling soaps about rich, powerful families—Cane (CBS, Tuesdays, 10 p.m.; premieres September 25) and Dirty Sexy Money (ABC, Wednesdays, 10 p.m.; premieres September 26)—feel a little overly familiar but have strong enough acting and sufficient plot twists to be worth a shot for fans of the genre. Likewise, two conventional sitcoms—Aliens in America (The CW, Mondays, 8:30 p.m.; premieres October 1) and Back to You (Fox, Wednesdays, 8 p.m.; premieres September 19)—take familiar comedy settings (the family, the workplace) and mine them for a decent number of laughs. Aliens is a bit edgier, with its take on a Muslim exchange student in middle America, but both shows are at heart quite traditional.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS
ABC’s sitcoms Cavemen and Carpoolers are studies in groan-inducing, unfunny comedy, although the former is not quite as bad as its TV-commercial origins would indicate. It’s high art compared to this season’s worst new show, CBS’ painful, demeaning The Big Bang Theory, which represents everything wrong with old-fashioned sitcoms. ABC’s Big Shots is an insulting, stereotype-filled take on gender relations, while The CW’s Life is Wild is its opposite—a gooey, wholesome and completely boring family drama. And CBS’ bizarre musical/drama hybrid Viva Laughlin—with characters singing along to classic rock tunes—is just baffling.