Autumn is back in swing, but the other change in the air is the new television season.
This is when networks present new shows they hope viewers will like and want to return for more seasons.
With the 2011 primetime season now in session, here is a breakdown of my top comedy and drama picks to watch… or wait for cancellation.
“New Girl”
Fox Tuesdays 9pm
The biggest hype for the new comedy this fall is Fox’s “New Girl,” starring hipster queen Zooey Deschanel.
Deschanel plays Jess Day, who recently broke up with her model boyfriend after catching him cheating. In a desperate move to get out of her place and away from her model friends, she moves in with three average Joes.
While trying to help Jess get over her ex and find a new love interest (to be played by Justin Long in future episodes) her guy roommates attempt to woo her model friends and learn what it’s like to live with a girl.
“Pan Am”
ABC Sundays 10 pm
After the successes of “Mad Men” and “Boardwalk Empire,” dramas set in the past have begun to pop up like whack amoles.
“Pan Am,” set in the 60’s stars Christina Ricci and features the iconic lives of pretty airline stewardesses and the suave pilots. We’ll see if the series lasts long enough to reach the 70’s.
“Up All Night”
NBC Wednesdays 8 pm
On paper, the new NBC show, “Up All Night,” starring Christina Applegate and Will Arnett looks like gold that you could never sell. Applegate and Arnett play Regean and Chris, a married couple that just had a baby named Amy.
While Regean returns to work as a production manager for a TV talk show host, played by Maya Rudolph, Chris puts his career on hold to be a stay at home dad.
They learn that their old ways of partying all night and cursing all the time is not the best way to raise a baby.
“Terra Nova”
FOX Monday 8 pm
FOX has always taken the lead in scifi-dramas with “The X-Files” and the current otherworldly obsession, “Fringe.”
With “Terra Nova,” produced by Steven Spielberg, FOX hopes to continue that trend, starting in the year 2149 as Earth is coming to its last orbit around the sun. To beat overpopulation and depleting air quality, the Shannon family and a handful of other Chicago citizens timetravel back to prehistoric civilization where the air is clean, the earth is green and when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
Featuring Stephen Lang, well known for his role in Avatar as Colonel Miles Quaritch, “Terra Nova” looks like a mix of Jurassic Park, “Lost” and Avatar. The show itself comes down to asking what is worse, fighting to survive a crumbling Earth, or going against a Tyrannosaurus Rex?
“2 Broke Girls”
CBS Mondays 8 pm
This is a show that is flying low on the radar about two girls struggling to survive in New York City with dreams of starting a cupcake shop. It stars quick-witted Kat Dennings as Max and newcomer Beth Behr as former rich girl Caroline working at a Brooklyn restaurant as waitresses.
While Max has a knack for interacting with people, Caroline has never lifted a finger to do work before. Hopefully they won’t kill each other before they open the bakery. Produced by comedian Whitney Cummings, this is great addition to the CBS Monday lineup.
“Person of Interest”
CBS Thursdays 9 pm
This suspense drama from J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan, stars Michael Emerson as a billionaire looking to spend his cash, and Jim Caviezel as a former CIA agent that was presumed dead.
With the help of a computer program that reveals limited information about future crimes, they try to stop crimes before they occur. On their violent and questionable path for justice, they are hunted down by a NYPD detective played by the wonderful Taraji P. Henson.
“Persons of Interest” will be the best show of the year, gaining a lot of attention from the minds of the writer of The Dark Knight (Nolan) and Super 8 (Abrams).
PHOTO COURTESY of dailytribune.com
