Fall TV 2017 Roundup

As I said in my post about Premiere Monday, I didn’t expect to get around to blogging the whole premiere week. Yet, I think I should go ahead and leave my brief thoughts on the other new shows that came out in the Fall:

9JKL: Awful. Horrible. Dated humor, Jewish stereotypes, definitely disappointing.
The Gifted: An X-Men show without the X-Men. A family on the run, but the family is too annoying to root for. A couple good-looking actors playing mutants really can’t salvage this. Moreover, the premise – a family on the run – is a false one, as it is just an excuse to get them to meet up with the mutant group.
The Mayor: underrated comedy about a young, inexperienced mayor that always tries to do the right thing, even if he trips over himself while doing so. Lea Michele does well in a restrained supporting role.
Kevin (Probably) Saves The World: this feel-good dramedy about angel guiding an unlikely righteous soul is good when it doesn’t dwell on its mythology too much. 10pm is rather late for a show like this that can appeal to the whole family.
Seal Team: One of four distinct military/police shows to premiere in the fall. Not bad, but its side stories that served no clear purpose (including a main cast member whose entire storyline takes place in training far from the team) and general disregard for the terrorists/villains that are being chased down in the main story proved a bit too distracting.
Dynasty: This reboot of the 80s classic is fine if you liked the original, but leaves little to lure in new viewers except the mostly good-looking cast. I couldn’t get past some of the absurdities of its plot twists or that the most compelling part (the murder mystery) was largely kept in the background.
Will & Grace: This revival waves its hand over the plot of the original series finale… and it’s as if the show never ended. The magic is still there, the cast looks good, and the updated comedy is smart. Only some of the plot lines feel simple and dated, but as long as I’m laughing I don’t mind.
SWAT: The last of the 4 militaristic (or in this case, police) to premiere. Like the others, it is a procedural that can be a drag to watch over 22 episodes. However, it handles its rookie character better than Seal Team does by putting him right there with the rest of the cast.
Inhumans: Awful. Horrible. Weak premise (a coup against a royal family) with a weak antagonist. Don’t get me started on the CGI.
Ghosted: Not as good as it could be. It can’t decide if its comedy stems from the buddy-cop relationship, the sci-fi, or generic workplace, or something else. And since it’s a sitcom, it’s not really handling its sci-fi elements in any serial or interesting way.
Ten Days in the Valley: Generic. I thought a writer whose daughter is kidnapped, in a way similar to the plot of the show she writes, might be an interesting self-referential take on the usual family/kidnapping drama, especially if it’s revealed that the writer is going crazy. Unfortunately, the first episode played the plot straight, and promised a generic conspiracy story, and I lost interest from there.

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P.S. Let me add my thoughts about a show that did not premiere in the fall:

Once Upon a Time: Season 7 is almost like a whole new show, given only 3 cast members were kept, we have a new protagonist, and a time jump brought us to a new curse in a new town. Some of the elements that repeat from Season 1 were too obvious and the more original elements came too late in the season for the audience to notice, which is a shame. The show still knows how to bring us some twists, even if they pull some out of left field. My biggest complaint was the original 6 seasons made a bigger deal out of traveling between realms, about how difficult it was to grow a magical bean, and yet Season 7 makes it seem almost as easy as riding a motorbike.