As the premieres of the new fall shows approach, we'll be giving you a peek at this fall's newbies and our opinions on each network's new shows all week!
Since the cable networks premiere almost all of their new shows in the summer, there are only a few premiering this fall, but they're certainly worth getting the scoop on below! Also check out our network fall previews: The CW Fall Preview, FOX Fall Preview, NBC Fall Preview, ABC Fall Preview, and CBS Fall Preview.
The Best:
Bored to Death - Premieres September 20th on HBO
This show has two factors that guarantee it'll be a fantastic new quirky comedy: it's on HBO which has an amazing success rate for great original shows, and it stars Jason Schwartzman of Rushmore, I Heart Huckabees, The Darjeeling Limited and more who is a dark comedy genius! The series features Schwartzman as Jonathan Ames, a down on his luck alcoholic writer who begins to moonlight as a detective. From the HBO promo, it looks like he'll be surrounded with a wonderful cast of quirky (but not annoyingly so) characters, and the plot will be fun, but in the more tragic way of a dark comedy done right, unlike the supposed dark comedy that was the weirdness of Hung this summer. This promises to be a much more quality and actually funny comedy that here at SideReel we can't wait to love!
The Wild Card:
White Collar - Premieres October 23rd on USA Network
USA always delivers when it comes to the light dramas, so we're expecting this newbie to fall in place with the likes of Monk, Burn Notice, and the others, but the wild card part of this review comes from the fact that it seems almost too light and to be taking itself too seriously at the same time. I shall explain. If you check out the promo, you'll see it has the drama of needing to solve a big important case, and it provides the humor from the helpful criminal (Matt Bomer of Chuck and Tru Calling) who's just plain sexy, clever, and somehow humorous in his mysteriousness. His character seems like an interesting one, but like he's not quite a funny enough actor to be the comic relief, and the other main character, the FBI agent (Tim DeKay of Tell Me You Love Me and Carnivale), seems too stiff to play off of. While this one may surprise us with better character dynamics than we're expecting, for now, it falls into our pile of maybe a hit for what it's worth, or maybe just a flop for not measuring up to cable fall standards.
The Worst:
Lock 'N Load - Premieres October 21st on Showtime
Lock 'N Load is a light documentary that is the "fly on the wall" in a gun shop. The Showtime promo actually makes it look somewhat interesting, but honestly, watching that promo is about all the entertainment I can get from people buying and shooting guns. Given it's clearly not all people who are just going to shoot their own feet in the middle of the night when they think there's an intruder, so that may make things more interesting. But, in general, I think it's fair to say there's only so long (about 5 minutes) most Showtime viewers would be entertained by this unless it has an actual plot beyond showing us why real people buy guns.
Saved for Late Fall:
Which of new cable shows will you be checking out?
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