The new fall TV season will soon be upon us with a host of new shows vying for viewing time or at least space on our DVRs. As in most years, we find new comedies to make us laugh, and new dramas to bring us to tears; spin-offs of some of our favorite shows, and familiar faces cast in new settings.
Wasn’t That a Movie?
Reversing recent trends of movies reviving television series (Star Trek, A-Team, Starsky & Hutch, 21 Jump Street, to name a few), several popular movies have been repackaged as TV shows this fall.
The Exorcist
The classic horror film from the 1970s transitions to the smaller screen on FOX. Starring Geena Davis, Alfonso Herrera, and Ben Daniels, the series follows the terror of demonic possession in a Chicago family and the attempts by two priests with very different personalities to banish the demon.
Lethal Weapon
The Mel Gibson – Danny Glover movie franchise is given a restart with Clayne Crawford and Damon Wayans playing the roles of Riggs and Murtaugh. In the Fox series, Riggs is still coping with the tragedy of his wife’s death, but in this version he is a transplant from Texas who’s just arrived in LA. He is still suicidal, takes too many risks, and directs his anger onto suspects. Murtaugh is still risk averse and looking forward to retirement. Mayhem reigns when these mismatched partners investigate.
Frequency
The original movie featured Jim Caviezel as NYPD detective John Sullivan, and Dennis Quaid as his deceased fireman father Frank. John still hasn’t gotten over his father’s death 30 years previously and, through atmospheric irregularities, is able to contact his father via his father’s ham radio. In the process, he saves his father’s life, solves a cold case, and changes the timeline of his and his family’s life. In the CW television series, Frank Sullivan, played by Riley Smith, is a deceased NYPD detective who is contacted by his daughter Raimy (Peyton List) through the ham radio as he helps her solve a cold case and change both of their fates.
Van Helsing
The movie version featured Hugh Jackman as Gabriel Van Helsing, a vampire hunter uncertain about his own past, based on the character of Abraham Van Helsing in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. In the Syfy channel’s version, Kelly Overton plays Vanessa “Van” Helsing, the daughter of Abraham Van Helsing, who is resurrected to lead the resistance against the vampires who control a post-apocalyptic world.
Westworld
HBO is resurrecting the 1973 Michael Crichton film about a futuristic amusement park in which androids with artificial intelligence begin to malfunction and kill the vacationers. In the new version, more attention is paid to the causes of that malfunction as the androids become more self-aware and the humans have a harder time distinguishing between fantasy and reality.
The all-star cast is headed by Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Jimmi Simpson, and Ben Barnes.
For midseason replacements, NBC features Taken and Emerald City, while CBS has Training Day.
Didn’t I Used to Watch That on Television?
This fall will also see some reboots of past shows.
MacGyver
In the original, Angus “Mac” MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson), an agent of the Phoenix corporation, extracted himself from impossible situations by creating solutions using common items and the practical application of his immense scientific knowledge. In the CBS remake, Lucas Till stars as the young MacGyver, who creates a clandestine organization within the U.S. government using his scientific knowledge and creations to save lives.
Slated as midseason replacements are reboots of Prison Break and 24: Legacy on Fox.
And Then There Are New Shows
Bull
Michael Weatherly stars in this CBS drama as Dr. Bull, a charming and brilliant trial consultant who uses intuition, psychology, and data to analyze the behavior of attorneys, witnesses, the accused, and jurors. The series is inspired by the early career of the real-life trial consultant, Dr. Phil McGraw. Freddy Rodriguez, Geneva Carr, Christopher Jackson, Jaime Lee Kirchner, and Annabelle Attanasio also star.
Conviction
Hayley Atwell stars in this ABC drama as the irresponsible, but brilliant daughter of a former president who is blackmailed into heading the newly created Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) in Los Angeles. The role of the CIU is to examine cases where there is reasonable suspicion the wrong person might have been convicted. With a team of lawyers, investigators and forensic experts, featuring Eddie Cahill, Shawn Ashmore, Emily Kinney, Manny Montana, and Merrin Dungey, they try to make certain the right person is behind bars.
Designated Survivor
Kiefer Sutherland stars as Tom Kirkman, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development on this ABC drama. On the night of the State of the Union, a catastrophic explosion kills the president, the cabinet, and everyone else in the line of succession, except Secretary Kirkman, who was the cabinet member assigned to be the designated survivor. The series focuses on Kirkman’s assumption of the powers of the presidency in spite of his own doubts and the doubts of those around him, as well as the investigation of who is behind the attack.
The Good Place
Eleanor (Kristen Bell) has not been a very good person. After being struck by a tractor-trailer, she awakens in the afterlife, being told by her mentor Michael (Ted Danson) that she’s in The Good Place because of the good deeds she has done by trying to save people on death row. Realizing they’ve made a mistake, Eleanor is torn between remaining in a world where everyone is nice or trying to get back to her old life.
Son of Zorn
In this blend of live action and animation on Fox, Jason Sudeikis stars as Zorn, an animated hero who forgoes killing villains in a distant galaxy to return to Earth and reconnect with his live action son (Johnny Pemberton) and his ex-wife (Cheryl Hines). He finds that dealing with an office job, suburban life, and family difficulties are much more difficult than battling on his home world.
This Is Us
This ensemble drama on CBS focuses on a group of unconnected people who share the same birthday, including a couple expecting triplets in Pittsburgh, a star of a sitcom, a woman battling weight and romance issues, and a man who tracks down the father who abandoned him. The series follows these lives and how they intertwine, and it stars Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, and Sterling K. Brown.
Jeremy is a writer by day, sofa spud by night. He enjoys the thrill of a finding a good TV show and writing for Stylin’ Online.
