So, there are shows debuting on different platforms every day and they're some of the best things you can watch/stream/download. But I still get excited by fall TV and the premieres of broadcast network productions. I'm keeping it tight this year, only seven shows that I think you should add to your TV diet. Whether you've unplugged or not, find a way to incorporate these nutritiously entertaining, unapologetic, laughter or even -- gasp, yes, network can still do this -- thought-inducing programs into your world. And let me know what you think!
Monday
Blindspot, NBC, 10 p.m., premieres 9/21
I pretty much always like a Greg Berlanti show, but this one, of two I'm recommending this season, is the less predictable one. It's big high concept: a beautiful girl is found in a duffle bag in the center of Times Square, covered in tattoos with no idea how she got there. (For those of us that worked for Condé Nast during the Times Square era, this does just seem, like, any Tuesday.) But hey, turns out she's a badass with mad combat skills and one of the tattoos, hidden on her body, indicates she's a Navy Seal, although her memory has been completely wiped. Another tat mentions Kurt Weller, an FBI agent played by hottie Sullivan Stapleton, who takes a special interest in Jaime (Thor! Lady Sith!) Alexander's beguiling and surprisingly-helpful-for-a-Jane-Doe-in-a-duffle walking enigma. While so much plot would crowd out character in a lesser show, this one takes care to present characters that, for all their outlandish situations, seem like actual people, that you might want to spend a season or two getting to know.
Supergirl, CBS, 8:30 p.m., premieres 10/26
Of course, my favorite new program this season a Greg Berlanti show about beautiful people coming to terms with their troubling past, romantic possibilities, extraordinary powers and stupid freakin' beauty. And, shocker, that show takes place in the DC comics 'verse and is about a girl from Krypton. I KNOW. But Melissa Benoist as Kara Zor-El, (I cannot figure out why she's Kara Zor-El, rather than Kara El, a la Kal El. If you are geekier than me and can explain this, a, whoa... props, and b, please get in touch.) aka Supergirl, is sweet, warm and affecting. In the model of Buffy (my highest praise) and Smallville (also really high praise), Benoist, who was previously underutilized on the final seasons of Glee, exudes the wonder and thrill of discovering your unique gifts and finding your place in a great metropolis. Whether a yellow sun gave you the power to soar or coming into your own in the profession and city of your dreams-even if, like me and Kara, that's print journalism -- all but the deadest of you should thrill to her coming of age. The cherries on top are Calista Flockhart as Metropolis staple badass Kat Grant and Mehcad Brooks as James -- not Jimmy -- Olsen. The cameos from Helen Slater and Dean Cain? I can't even.
Tuesday
Limitless, CBS, 10 p.m., premieres 9/22
Jake McDorman plays the everyguy who takes an NZT pill and explodes the possibilities of his world, much like Bradley Cooper (he's got a cameo in the pilot!) did in the movie of the same name. Jennifer Carpenter is the cool cop with a personal mission who gives him a chance and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio plays her super serious boss. I didn't expect to like Limitless so much, I found the movie rather paint-by-numbers, but the show is fun, potentially because McDorman is so sweetly likable, both when he's an f-up and when he's soaring high. And Ron Rifkin and Blair Brown are in it! Try it, it's goofy, but thrilling and enjoyable.
The Grinder, FOX, 8:30 p.m., premieres 9/29
Sitcoms are a tough sell for me these days. So many of them stick to tried and true laugh-track tropes like, oh my god these diapers! But The Grinder surpasses its unfortunate name with a fun premise (he played a lawyer on TV, that means he can do the alwyering in real life, right?) and, duh, Rob Lowe. Fred Savage, as the regular dude doubting lawyer brother to Lowe's played-a-lawyer-on-TV scape is as lovable as ever. The chemistry on this show just works and it's a concept we haven't seen a million times, so give this a watch.
Thursday
Angel From Hell, CBS, 9:30 p.m., premieres 11/5
Jane Lynch as a cranky drank-ass angel doing everything she can to make sure Maggie Lawson's every blonde girl sees the potential and amazingness in herself that her deceased mother tried to instill? Yeah, this got me. Even if the details of the concept don't speak as directly to you as they did to me, this laugh-before-the-track-tells-you-to comedy is well-timed, well-acted and lovely. Check it.
Sunday
Blood & Oil, ABC, 9:00 p.m., premieres 9/27
I've read the stories about the black gold oil rush that is North Dakota these days and have been fascinated by the possibilities of the stories that must be blossoming in the rich soil of that unexplored frontier. In my dreams, Chase Crawford would play the sexy young upstart with a big dream and Don Johnson would play the sexy older, crooked yet charming oil tycoon who gives him a chance. Guess what!? That's what ABC imagined too! It's soapy and sultry and smooth and so much fun.
Quantico, ABC, 10 p.m., premieres 9/27
Here's the thing: Priyanka Chopra, the mega Bollywood star I never heard of before who stars in Quantico, is so pretty, the show would be entertaining if it did nothing else than show her glowering, asskicking and smoldering. But Quantico does all that and also has twisty fun seductions, lots of hot people working out and plot twists I didn't see coming. The fact that it makes a terrorist event in NYC the big bad is a frightening why you always gotta do that bummer, but you end up rooting for Chopra and for co-star Dougray Scott, who plays her twisted-but-brilliant FBI boss, to nail that American accent sometime soon.