The 2013 Fall TV Preview: the New Shows on FOX

FOX will premiere five or six new shows, including a reality series I chose not to preview. It's Friday evening of the Labor Day weekend. I need to get food, so let's just jump in!

SLEEPY HOLLOW

Created By Alex Kurtzman & Len Wiseman & Phillip Iscove & Roberto Orci

Premiere Date: Monday, September 16 at 9PM

Premise: (from FOX's press release, May 2013) What if you suddenly woke up from the throes of death 250 years in the future to find the world is on the brink of destruction, caused by unimaginable events, and you are humanity's last hope? Welcome to SLEEPY HOLLOW, the thrilling new mystery-adventure drama from co-creators/executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci ("Star Trek" and "Transformers" franchises, "Fringe").

Thoughts: Leave it to FOX to make its Sleepy Hollow adaptation as uninteresting as possible. Crane finds himself 250 years in the future, in the present day, and immediately hooks up with police to solve different crimes each week. The police need him for the headless horseman investigation. The headless horseman is adept with automatic weaponry. Crane misses pop-culture references because he's 250 years old. Don't laugh or even chuckle at the Captain America line, America. There's a centuries old mystery involving President Washington and the pyramid on the $1 bill. I'm so disenchanted with the new dramas on network television.

DADS

Created By Alec Sulkin & Wellesley Wild

Premiere Date: Tuesday, September 17at 8PM

Premise: (from FOX's press release, May 2013) Honor thy father. Way easier said than done. Especially when your dad's broke, living in your house and ruining your life.

Thoughts: Hollywood writers need to sort out their complicated feelings about their parents. Every sitcom mines comedy from a dysfunctional parent-child relationship. Dads is yet another series about grown children who hate their fathers (it's usually 50/50 for whom the child hates). The fathers get a poor portrayal. They're rude, irritating, inappropriate, and eager to ruin their respective son's happiness. Seth Green's one of the leads. Dads is executive produced by Seth MacFarlane. FOX wants to make more money with Seth. I don't doubt they will make more money.

BROOKLYN NINE-NINE

Created By Michael Schur & Dan Goor

Premiere Date: Tuesday, September 17 at 8:30PM

Premise: (from FOX's press release, May 2013) From Emmy Award-winning writer/producers Dan Goor and Michael Schur ("Parks and Recreation"), and starring Emmy Award winners Andy Samberg ("Saturday Night Live") and Andre Braugher ("Men of a Certain Age," "Homicide: Life on the Street"), BROOKLYN NINE-NINE is a new single-camera ensemble comedy about what happens when a talented, but carefree, detective gets a new captain with a lot to prove.

Thoughts: Michael Schur compared Samberg's Brooklyn Nine-Nine character to Jimmy McNulty, a character in The Wire, adding that Samberg's a comedic Jimmy McNulty. Jimmy McNulty was a hilarious character, broken and damaged but hilarious. Samberg's making grade school faces and wearing speedos. I'm not anti-Samberg. I'll never watch Hot Rod in my life, but I enjoyed him on SNL. He reminds of goofy dudes I knew in high school. Terry Crewes and Andre Braugher are strong castmates. Terry Crewes killed it in season 4 of Arrested Development. The story's secondary to the casting. If you like the cast, check it out. If you don't, don't (as Jimmy Eat World sang on Bleed American).

ALMOST HUMAN

Premiere Date: Monday, November 4 at 

Created By J.H. Wyman

Premise: (from FOX's press release, May 2013) From Emmy Award-winning executive producer J.J. Abrams ("Fringe," "Lost," the "Star Trek" and "Mission: Impossible" franchises) and creator/executive producer J.H. Wyman ("Fringe," "The Mexican"), comes ALMOST HUMAN. Starring Karl Urban ("Star Trek") and Michael Ealy ("Sleeper Cell," "Common Law"), the new series is an action-packed police drama set 35 years in the future, when police officers are partnered with highly evolved human-like androids.

Thoughts: Karl Urban looks different without his Middle Earth beard and attire. Is it fair to compare Almost Human to a Philip K. Dick story? I used to have interest in Abrams' sci-fi shows, but the recent string of Bad Robot shows haven't been good. Alcatraz was a mess. Revolution should've been a movie or mini-series.

ENLISTED

Premiere Date: Friday, November 8 at 9:30PM

Created By Kevin Biegel

Premise: (from FOX's press release, May 2013) Three brothers, one Army, but absolutely no fighting! ENLISTED is an irreverent but heartfelt single-camera comedy about three brothers on a small Florida Army base and the group of misfits who surround them.

Thoughts: Geoff Stults will find a show that lasts more than 13 episodes eventually. I'll root for Enlisted's success in the ratings for Stultsy. The YouTube comments about Enlisted are uninformed and misguided. A top comment reminds folk any show you like will get cancelled. It's not 2002-2004 anymore. I'm still amazed FOX gave Arrested Development three years. Enlisted seems like a good show to chill down with on a Friday night.