The New Fall Season

I am going to be honest-I’m not feeling the fall television season.  I didn’t really feel last year either, though, so I’m not sure I am a great judge.  The network lineups leave a heap to be desired-the last network show that I started to watch religiously was New Girl and the last new show that I loved was American Horror Story (obviously on cable, and yes, we’ll be recapping them again this fall, along with Glee!).  I have picked the five shows that I am most excited about seeing this new season, but am desperately looking for suggestions if I’m missing a diamond in the rough.  In particular, an excellent sitcom would be great-30 Rock and The Office are both done, Community and HIMYM are both soon to be leaving, which means I will watch only four live-action sitcoms at the end of the season (a ridiculously low number for someone who watches as much television as me).  Anyways, in descending order of what I’m most looking forward to seeing:

Mom (CBS)

Don't judge, I know he created Two and a Half Men, but he also created The Big Bang Theory and re-launched Melissa McCarthy's career-that has to count for something.  Plus, Anna Faris, Allison Janney, and Nate Corddry all add up to a lot of things I love (I'm going to pretend French Stewart is a pilot-only character).  This could be good, and I need at least one sitcom on this list.

 Almost Human (FOX)

The beginnings of the initial trailer to this show had me so excited: futuristic dramas have been all the rage on the big screen lately, but no one has managed to land an iconic futuristic drama on the small screen.  The second half, however, has me worried that this will be a procedural (an unwavering love of SVU aside, not a format I gravitate toward), but this is good enough for me to give the pilot a shot.

The Blacklist (NBC) 

On paper I think I would hate this.  I don’t like James Spader.  I don’t like procedurals.  But that trailer works, and the early buzz is that this seems to be fairly strong.  Spader can act, even if it’s nearly always overacting, and him playing a villain week-after-week could be a success.  I just hope that they infuse some mystery surrounding the man (and that the reason that he picked this woman to be his partner isn’t something obvious like she’s secretly his daughter).

Masters of Sex (Showtime)

I get Showtime for free for another month or so, and then I will have to figure out how to cancel it (DirectTV-is this going to be easy?).  That is, unless I can find a show to love on this channel-I always feel that HBO has the shows that are a little bit darker, a little bit more epic (or maybe that’s just Game of Thrones), so I watch with that channel more regularly.  Casting Lizzy Caplan, who is one of my favorite young actors working today, helps considerably, and Michael Sheen doesn’t hurt things at all.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (ABC)

I hate myself just as much as you do for putting this at Number One, but you saw the trailer-it looks fun, doesn’t it?  It’s got a procedural vibe as well, but not in the same way as the other two, and while I desperately wish they could get Cobie Smulders into a few more episodes (love her), Ming Na is always delightful.  Also, maybe television can find something new to say in the superhero genre since the big screen seems to have exhausted all of its collective story-power.

Those are it.  I like elements of some of the other shows: James Wolk as a womanizer on The Crazy Ones, Toni Collette as a desperate woman on Hostages, and Marcia Gay Harden as an angry ex on Trophy Wife (someone figure out a way to combine that show, and I'm on-board), but each has an element to their show that either seems tired or been-there-done-that.  I'm hoping I'm missing something here, as I don't see a new favorite show amongst the bunch, so I'm reaching out to you-what looks to be the best new show of 2013?  What is already programmed into your DVR?  And who wants even money that Dads is the first cancelled show of the new year?