Welcome to the 2016 Fall TV Season, your gateway to Peak TV for the year. At this year’s Summer TCA Press Tour, FX CEO John Landgraf put up some frightening numbers about how many series are premiering or returning this year (over 450) and how many are projected to premiere in the next year (over 500), thanks particularly to expanding online content from Amazon, Netflix, Crackle, and many,manymore.
We’re here to help. Each week during this premiere season, we’ve updated this guide with another round of reviews for series premiering or returning soon, from pilots to full seasons. The list includes broadcast, cable, premium networks, and streaming. Admittedly, we’re not going to get toeverything,but with 65 shows reviewed below, this should certainly get you started.
The final round is below along with ourstar ratingsand reviews from earlier rounds includingAtlanta,Better Things,Fleabag,Gotham,Quarry,Luke Cage,The Exorcist,Son of Zorn,This Is Us,The Good Place,Westworld,Transparent,MacGyver,Pitch,Black Mirror,Poldark,Blunt Talk,Conviction,Ash vs Evil Dead,Divorce,Frequency,Rectify,Good Girls Revolt,Chance, & and many, many others. (Note: you may need to scroll slowly to ensure each review loads).
For even more, check out the cancelled and renewed status of over 150 scripted shows with ourTV Lifeline, and for an expanded list of what is premiering when, head over to ourTV Premiere Datescalendar.
Premiere: Friday, November 4th on Netflix
Cast: Claire Foy, Matt Smith, Jared Harris, John Lithgow
For a certain kind of Anglophile, there may not be a more anticipated series this year thanThe Crown, which examines the early reign of England’s Queen Elizabeth II. From the looks of the first two episodes (out of the first season’s 10), it won’t let its supporters down.The Crownis beautifully directed in sumptuous yet staid tones, as young Elizabeth (Foy) — newly married to Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh (Smith) — first lives as a privileged princess before having to transition into the position of Queen. From there, as her grandmother cautions her, there will be two Elizabeths at odds with one another: one who is a young woman with her own hopes and dreams, and one who is a royal, whose life will be full of duty and sacrifice. “But the crown must always win.”
Foy is again exceptional, as she always is (we last saw her as Anne Boleyn inWolf Hall, a far cry from the kind of monarch she plays inThe Crown). Her huge blue eyes and placid, doll-like features can easily go from a questioning innocence to a stern acceptance of duty in a moment, and she imbues Queen Elizabeth’s story with striking warmth and humanity (something that can be forgotten when regarding someone who has been a monarch for over half a century). The excellent casting extends to every role, from Smith’s take on the handsome but irreverent Philip to Harris’ anxious, measured King George VI. Perhaps most inspired of all is Lithgow as an aged Winston Churchill, whose story is reaching its twilight as Elizabeth begins her rise.
The Crownis a fascinating and easily engrossing portrait of a young monarch in a fairly modern age, and benefits from having one writer (creator Peter Morgan) to lend it narrative continuity. The story, which offers a glimpse of many familiar faces associated with government at the time, glides through history and crosses the globe, yet is most effective when its examining the nuances of Elizabeth’s life and the lives of those around her who must change the way the regard her (from a wife, sister, and daughter, to a monarch they must defer to at all times). The trappings of power, such as they are, are shown here as being claustrophobic and wearisome, even though the lavish lifestyle it seems to offer is also seductive. And that is why, once you enter into the regal world ofThe Crown, you will not want to leave. It always wins.— Allison KeeneRating: ★★★★
Good Behavior
Premieres:Tuesday, November 15th on TNT
Cast:Michelle Dockery, Juan Diego Botto, Terry Kinney, and Joey Kern
Considering her character in the immortalDownton Abbey, it makes sense that Michelle Dockery’s first major role following that show’s end would be, well, different. Where Lady Mary Crawley took a bit to warm up and was proper to say the absolute least, Dockery’s Letty Dobesh, the central character of TNT’sGood Behavior, is exactly the opposite of prim and mannered. An ex-con who makes her change by robbing hotel rooms, Dobesh is the main protagonist of Blake Crouch’s series of novels and she’s the sort of character that could carry a movie franchise under the right direction. And though Dockery doesn’t evoke the character’s intelligence and skill as often as one might hope, the talented actress nails her sense of humor, her regret, and her ability to perform at will.
In the series, she’s paired with Juan Diego Botto’s handsome, good-humored hitman for much of the story but the pull of TNT’s latest comedic drama remains largely with Dockery and Dobesh. The problem is that, even when Dockery’s performance holds the line, the series pivots almost exclusively on plot points and details that will inevitably be called back later. Dobesh is a messy but lovable character, someone with lots of charm and talent but short on focus, goals, and self-confidence, even as her job is in the confidence game. As such, the long-form storytelling feels weirdly antithetical to the perspective and very persona of the character as she was originally conceived. Of course, Crouch and the rest of the creative team on the series are under no realistic obligation to replicate the material in its adaptation, but the issue doesn’t touch merely on the narrative. The visual temp of the series
Of course, Crouch and the rest of the creative team on the series are under no realistic obligation to replicate the material in its adaptation, but the issue doesn’t touch merely on the narrative. The visual tempo of the series plays like a movie, meaning that the opening 50 minutes feels as if they’re setting up a story and character that will end within 200 minutes. Because of this, the pacing comes off as egregiously safe and familiar in how it times out each plot twist or turn to arrive exactly when you expect it to happen. The show ultimately feels like a kind of meager mechanism, fine-tuned to deliver jolts, laughs, and maybe even tears, which is the exact opposite of who Dobesh is in the pages of Crouch’s books.– Chris Cabin
Rating: ★★
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
Premiere:Saturday, October 22nd, BBC America, 9 p.m.
Cast:Samuel Barnett, Elijah Wood, Hannah Marks, Fiona Dourif, Jade Eshete, Miguel Sandoval, Richard Schiff, Neil Brown Jr., Dustin Milligan, Michael Eklud, Mpho Koaho, Aaron Douglas, and Christian Bako
Max Landis certainly doesn’t make it easy for you to like him. At a time when most of the world was celebrating that sitting throughStar Wars: The Force Awakenswas a joy rather than a chore, Landis was nitpicking storytelling elements that he found unbelievable in a movie about another galaxy where laser swords are a common weapon and aquatic creatures the size of Texas roam the alien oceans. He’s opinionated to a fault and even when he can’t explain his perspective totally, he assumes he’s right and you’re wrong.
What’s most annoying about all of this, however, is that Landis is a talented screenwriter as well as being a pompous, under-watched enfant terrible.Chronicleis a minor miracle, while less satisfying works likeAmerican UltraandMr. Rightstill have ample wit and simple, involving stories, as well as exquisite performances from the likes of Jesse Eisenberg, Anna Kendrick, and Kristen Stewart. There’s a similar feeling at the center ofDirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Landis’ adaptation of the Douglas Adams novel of the same name for BBC, which is top-lined by the immediately ingratiating Elijah Wood. Wood plays Todd, the depressed, hesitant right-hand man to the titular, bizarre investigator, played by Samuel Barnett, who you probably remember best as Renfield inPenny Dreadful. As Dirk suggests when they first meet, amidst a number of deeply odd occurrences, they were meant to work together on at least one case, one that involves a missing teenager and her wealthy and apparently quite dead father.
The story proper isn’t really of much interest early on in the series, though that changes to increasingly pestering effect. The show’s “charm” is in Wood and Barnett’s playfulness with one another, the well-oiled engines of their comedic diptych when their characters are faced with a cadre of violent heathens, a homicidal landlord, several governmental agencies, and a cute, stray corgi. And to be fair, that alone does make the series enjoyable for most of the premiere, but soon enough, the weirdness and enigmatic nature of the world feels more entertaining for Landis than it is for the audience. The problem here is the writing, which consistently feels belabored and overtly complicated while the show itself remains largely just about Dirk and Todd and their adventures. A procedural show with Wood and Barnett solving supernatural crimes may have done well, but the closer we get to an explanation for all this nonsense being required,Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agencygrows more and more innocuous in its effects.– Chris Cabin
People of Earth
Premiere: Monday, October 31st on TBS
Cast: Wyatt Cenac, Ana Gasteyer, Michael Cassidy, Alice Westerlund, Brian Huskey
Though TBS has long been known as being a place to catch classic comedy reruns, it hasn’t had much success with its original series lately (aside from its cutting edge late-night seriesFull Frontal with Samantha Bee, that is). WithPeople of Earth, that has a chance to change. The comedy, created by David Jenkins with Conan O’Brien and Greg Daniels serving as EPs, focuses on a small-town alien abduction support group. The conceit is one that could easily dismiss its characters as cranks and yahoos, butPeople of Earthinstead delivers a story that is sincere, layered, and funny.
People of EarthstarsThe Daily Show’s Wyatt Cenac as a sardonic journalist, Ozzie, who is assigned to cover the support group as a fluff piece, but ends up bonding with them as he begins to recover his own memories of an abduction. The series smartly builds its foundation on stereotypical alien conspiracy touchstones, including the look and behavior of the aliens, but subverts expectations by making it all real. And yet, it doesn’t allowallof its characters’ paranoias and theories to be true — many are just the projections of lonely, broken people looking for a sense of community.
People of Earthis a very, very strange series, and not all of it works (including a recurring talking deer). But it has a surprising amount of character development, a great cast, and a low-key, almost indy approach to humor (“There is dickery happening in Beacon”) that makes Ozzie’s transformation from skeptic to believer one that is both silly and sincere, and worth watching.— Allison KeeneRating: ★★★
Premiere:Wednesday, October 19th on Hulu
Cast:Hugh Laurie, Gretchen Moll, Ethan Suplee, and Clarke Peters
Hugh Laurie owes his fame outside of England to his work on television in the addictive medical-drama proceduralHouse M.D.on Fox. His attempts to break out in movies over the years has not been particularly fruitful, though his presence inTomorrowlandand theFlight of the Phoenixremake was crucial to those movies not being complete wastes of time. Regardless, his return to TV was not inevitable but likely and following a great guest-starring run on HBO’sVeep, he’s back in front inChance, Hulu’s latest attempt at a genuine hit with a big leading man and a major director behind the camera to set the table.
In this case, that director is Lenny Abrahamson ofRoomandFrank, and he evinces a distinct vision of San Francisco, the city where Laurie’s Elden Chance works as a psychiatrist and a detective of sorts. It’s here that he not only begins a kind of partnership with a local antique furniture store run by a formidable, suave dealer, played with menace and gravitas by the indispensable Clarke Peters, and his right hand man, D (Ethan Suplee), but also begins investigating Gretchen Moll’s Jaclyn, a complicated patient. These two elements are what lead our melancholic, sardonic hero down the primrose path toward possible oblivion and inevitable physical pain.
Abrahamson’s stylish lensing, framing, and overall aesthetic gets the shadowy, overcast visual timbre to match the angry, enigmatic, and somber undertones of the characters in the scripts, but he never gets too ambitious. The result is a classic, handsomely shot mini-series, in the vein of those 3-4 episode series that the BBC specializes in, such asWallanderorBroadchurch.The show teases a fascination with psychological behavior and violence but about halfway through the series, nothing particularly insightful comes of this thematic interest. So, though the series remains entertaining, attractively moody, and sensationally well-acted, there’s a lack of urgency and personal import that can be felt throughout that keeps this inarguably good show from being a great one.– Chris Cabin
Rating: ★★★
Rectify Season 4
Premiere: Wednesday, October 26th on SundanceTV
Cast: Aden Young, Abigail Spencer, Clayne Crawford, Adelaide Clemens, J. Smith-Cameron, Luke Kirby, Bruce McKinnon, Jake Austin Walker
For fans of Ray McKinnon’s devastatingly good drama seriesRectify, there is good and bad news. On the positive side, the series returns as beautifully nuanced and casually devastating as ever; the bad news is these are the last episodes we’ll get to spend with the Holdens and Talbots. AsRectifymakes the turn into its final run of episodes, the family is fractured. Daniel (Young) is in Nashville in a halfway house, alone even while he is among people. In the raw and emotional premiere, Daniel is challenged to answer the question of whether or not he believes he deserves to have a life, regardless of his past. It points towards a hopeful ending for the series where we see Daniel embracing a life among others after completely losing his sense of self while in solitary confinement for 19 years.
In the second hour, things return to Pauly, and catch up with the rest of the family, and how they are moving on without him. For most, it’s back to a Daniel-less normalcy, but for his mother (Smith-Cameron) — who mirrors her son in so many ways — it’s a daily struggle to understand life with him out of jail but also not with the family.
No show understands the South or portrays it with such a beautiful intimacy asRectify, which continues to be an extended reverie and a meditation on the richness of our inner lives. What ties it so perfectly to the South is how the characters struggle to be open and honest and “real,” and to not just sweep things under the rug, smiles pulled tight across their faces, faking it to one day make it true that things are ok.
Rectifyhas never answered the question of whether Daniel committed the crime he was convicted of and told to confess to, even though at times (particularly in Season 3) it seemed determined to focus on wanting us to know the truth without ever revealing it. In Season 4, viewers should (at least initially) feel at peace with the uncertainty regarding Daniel’s story — even if we do want to see Trey brought to justice. But that’s exactly what makesRectifysuch a rich series, and so rewarding as a viewing experience. It allows us to know and care for these characters even when they attempt to hold us at arm’s length, by embracing their truths in quiet moments that connect us to their loneliness, uncertainty, and ultimately their hope.— Allison Keene
Rating: ★★★★★
Good Girls Revolt!
Premiere: Friday, October 28th on Amazon
Cast: Genevieve Angelson, Anna Camp, Erin Darke, Chris Diamantopoulos, Hunter Parrish, Jim Belushi
Picking up more or less whereMad Menleft off for characters like Joan and Peggy,Good Girls Revolttakes place at a time where women are accepted into the newsroom, but only as researchers. Heaven forbid a woman write! That is what led to the first class action lawsuit by female journalists against an employer, a real-life event that took place among Newsweek employees in the late 60s and early 70s.Good Girls Revoltfictionalizes a lot of the details (here it’s called “News of the Week” and the leads are all new characters, save for Mamie Gummer as Nora Ephron and Joy Bryant’s ACLU lawyer Eleanor Holmes Norton), but the themes remain intact, and sometimes uncomfortably relevant.
Though the 60s have become a wearily overused setting for movies and TV series (you’re able to guess the soundtrack before it even begins),Good Girls Revoltis bolstered by a strong cast and a unique take on newsroom culture, one which includes some of the vile “locker room talk” that’s been in heavy media rotation lately, but also in more nuanced ways as well. At News of the Week, women are often paired with men and given a facade of power and influence, but they must ultimately be deferential to those male counterparts. The culture is sexist and patronizing, but the strong women at the center of the series — Angelson is a pushy, counterculture broad, Camp is sly with a bouffant style, and Darke is a repressed wife who longs for options — have very different responses to it.
Good Girls Revoltis careful to not demonize anybody; both the men and women have copious flaws. And though the cultural touchstones may feel a little tired at this point given its setting, what the show does do well is create a workplace atmosphere that feels both contemporary and retro, a sometimes startling commentary on how far we’ve come, yet how far we still have to go. AsMad Men’s Joan said, “no dull times or dull men tolerated.”— Allison Keene
Rating: ★★★★
The Great Indoors
Premiere: Thursday, October 27th on CBS
Cast: Joel McHale, Stephen Fry, Christopher Minz-Plasse, Christine Ko, Shaun Brown, Susannah Fielding, Chris Williams
The most offensive thing aboutThe Great Indoors, which prides itself on making light of Millennials, is that Stephen Fry is so wasted in a show like this. And yet, Fry is of course utterly charming and makes the best of the time and material he has, something the star Joel McHale attempts to do as well. The problem is that the show and its humor are relics of an increasingly unsuccessful formula for TV comedy.
The Great Indoorsis based on one stale joke: McHale’s character Jack Gordon has been pulled from the wilds to run his adventure magazine’s publishing department, which is now solely online and populated by 20-somethings. There’s not much more to the series than that, as Jack dismisses things like dating apps and balks at the over sensitivity of his young co-workers. In typical CBS form, it’s a show about a grumpy middle-aged man who is confounded by the changing world around him (See Also:Man with a Plan).
The bottom line is that if you’re interested in a show that deals with a Gen X-er navigating a workplace run by Millennials in a smart and even emotional way, check outYoungeron TV Land instead (you can find that review from Kayti Burt below)— Allison Keene
Eyewitness
Premiere: Sunday, October 16thon USA
Cast: Gil Bellows, Warren Christie, Julianne Nicholson, James Paxton, Tyler Young, Amanda Brugel, Mercedes Morris, and Rainbow Francks
USA’s latest interwoven crime drama is almost remarkably unremarkable. The series opens with a series of “provocative” acts, ranging from a risqué rendezvous between two young men exploring their sexuality to genuine murder. The characters that are introduced don’t come off as individuals even for a moment, but rather, as simply functioning as elements of a dramatic mechanism, creaking and whirling in repetition. Talented actors like Gil Bellows, Julianne Nicholson, and Warren Christie fit into the central murder investigation, but creator Adi Hasak drains the action of all personality, and of all idiosyncrasies and consuming passions. Each action only seems to push on to keep the multifaceted plot moving on but there’s nothing even remotely intimate or substantive in a way not pointedly aimed toward mustering the bare minimum of familiar action-based drama. Even if one were to exclusively count the procedural thrill of such murder-centric stories,Eyewitnesscomes up staggeringly short of what it’s going for.— Chris CabinRating:★
Berlin Station
Premiere: Sunday, October 16th on Epix
Cast: Richard Armitage, Richard Jenkins, Rhys Ifans, Michelle Forbes, Tamlyn Tomita, Leland Orser
Feeling rather reminiscent toHomelandSeason 5, Epix’s first drama series (set to run for 10 episodes) follows a CIA agent (Armitage) who is tasked with an undercover operation in Berlin to find out who is leaking intel to the press, Assange (or Snowden) style. Armitage leads a truly great cast, all of whom are nuanced in their approach to characters with both known and unknown agendas, each one layered in their personal and professional lives which often intertwine.
Filmed in Berlin and Spain’s Canary Islands,Berlin Stationhas the right look and feel of a great spycraft series, but it lacks the drive or urgency of a show likeHomeland, or evenThe Night Manager. It’s very slow, dense, gray, and measured as it unfolds its tale of state secrets and treachery (much of which is too easily telegraphed). But for fans of spy series in general it may serve as a particular kind of catnip. However, for casual viewers, it has trouble catching fire — even though it’s worth tuning in initially for Armitage’s performance alone.— Allison KeeneRating: ★★
