Some new fall broadcast shows have already aired their third episodes – Ordinary Joe and The Big Leap have a head start on the competition – while others have yet to air! The parody series Ghosts and the return of CSI to Las Vegas in CSI: Vegas are both premiering this week on CBS.
However, are either better than what has already launched, such as La Brea, The Wonder Years, or NCIS: Hawai’i? Are these new series, however, any good? Below you’ll find quick surveys of all of the new shows on the Big 5 networks – ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox, and NBC – as well as trailers, cast information, and premiere dates. As other shows near their premiere dates, we’ll update this story as well.
CSI: Vegas
Premieres: Wednesday, October 6 at 10/9c on CBS
It is for fans of CSI, CSI: NY, CSI: Miami, CSI: Cyber
Cast: William Petersen, Wallace Langham, Paula Newsome, Matt Lauria, Mel Rodriguez, Mandeep Dhillon
What it’s about: The gang has reassembled! Consider most of them. With Gil Grissom, Sara Sidle, and David Hodges confronting crimes with some new collaborators in Sin City, the spin-off of the classic series returns to Las Vegas. The crime scene zooms and criminal.
Review: It’s exactly what you’d expect. Six years without CSI was a long time for CBS, but because of the revenues of Petersen, Fox, and Langham, this is essentially a CSI revival. Lead expert Josh Folsom (Lauria), Head Medical Examiner Hugo Ramirez (Rodriguez), and CSI Allie Rajan (Dhillon) are among the new characters.
The Big Leap
Premieres: Monday, September 20 at 9/8c
It is for fans of Underdogs, So You Think You Can Dance, dramas about showbiz.
Cast: Piper Perabo, Scott Foley, Teri Polo, Simone Recasner, Jon Rudnitsky
What it’s about: Individuals from all origins in Detroit are looking for a new beginning by auditioning for a moving unscripted TV drama in this satire dramatization! With a broadcast production of Swan Lake, the show-within-ashow will come full circle, regardless of how wonderful of an artist its cast members are (and they’re not entirely satisfactory). The Big Leap not only follows the “contenders” on their journeys, but it also takes a look at the scenes at the making of the show, which is frequently twisted in evil organization chief ways to gain ratings.
Review: The Big Leap feels like a mash-up of several series, some of which are better than others (a few portions feel like So You Think You Can Dance, while Foley’s showrunner feels like he’s in a different version of UnREAL), but all of them compete for screen time. As it tries to fit six pounds of hotdog into a four-pound package, the series becomes a little frantic, with poorly drawn characters and rushed stories. That’s a common symptom of troupe dramatized scenes, but it’s solid here. The Big Leap doesn’t indicate which part of the show will feel like throughout the season until the very end, and it’s almost “a-ha!” second, but watchers will have reached the point of no return. This is just another authoritative Fox show that feels like it could be skipped.
NCIS: Hawai’i
Premieres: Monday, September 20 at 10/9c
It is for fans of NCIS’ from all over the world, Hawaii, loco moco
Cast: Vanessa Lachey, Yasmine Al-Bustami, Jason Antoon, Noah Mills, Tori Anderson
What it’s about: It’s a stretch to improve on it down to the self-evident: It’s NCIS yet in Hawaii.
Cast: You’ll surely know if you enjoyed the previous NCIS series. CBS brings its venerable brand to the islands, but it sticks to the same formula as its city cousins – replete with the weird tech master – but with new faces. However, some aspects distinguish it from the pack. Vanessa Lachey is the first female star of an NCIS show, and she plays the primary female specialist in charge of the Pearl Harbor Field Office. A lesbian bond exists between the two, which is unusual. Most of the performers are non-white, and the environment is lush with palm trees, so it’s a bit different. However, the main component – resolving infractions involving military personnel – remains unchanged, which will be comforting to some.
La Brea
Premieres: Tuesday, September 28 at 10/9c on NBC
It is for fans of Terra Nova, disaster movies, spectacular sci-fi bombs
Cast: Natalie Zea, Eoin Macken, Karina Logue, Zyra Gorecki, Jack Martin
What it’s about: When an enormous sinkhole opens up in the centre of Los Angeles – directly close to the La Brea Tar Pits – individuals are swept down into an ancient world that resides just underneath the outer layer of the Earth. A mother (Zea) and her child (Martin) get isolated from the remainder of the family and need to make due, alongside others, threats like wolves, sabretoothed tigers, and dinosaur-looking things.
Review: The season’s flashiest series too far is also its most egregiously wrong, with characters devolving into silliness and mysteries piling up faster than you can keep track. If you don’t care about anything like that and want to seek improvements, I’ve got some bad news for you: It appears to be a disaster. Also, assuming you enjoy such harmful programs that they’re tolerable, this is either incredibly bad or not bad enough because there’s no joy to be had here.
Even Fox’s similar Terra Nova had a lot of potentials when it first aired.
