Madam Secretary (CBS)
CBS continues satisfying their old person viewer base by introducing this political snoozer. I suppose Tea Leoni shines in this Veep for old people but I couldn't find myself getting into this. Especially since there is far better political satire in House of Cards on Netflix and we apparently still live in this post-West Wing world where the executive branch is the most interesting side of government. The pilot is pretty straightforward. A political science professor gets appointed to the Secretary of State position after the previous one mysteriously disappears in a plane crash (no, really) and spends the entire episode getting some rich, white kids out of an Iranian gulag. It's the kind of political intrigue and "ripped from the headlines" stories your mother and/or grandmother will love but there are certainly better shows out there.
Should I watch: Watch if you're over the age of 65 and miss The West Wing. Don't Watch if you don't feel the icy hand of death and just watch Veep and House of Cards instead.
Gotham (FOX)
Fox continues it's incredibly ambitious programming with Gotham, a pre-Batman show featuring the city of Gotham and its colorful cast of heroes and villains, including a pre-pubescent Bruce Wayne. The pilot's focus is mostly on rookie detective Jim Gordon and his relationship to bad cop Harvey Bullock. Rounded out in the episode are a flood of teenage Batman rogues such as The Penguin, The Riddler, and Catwoman. Newcomer rogue Fish Mooney, played beautifully by Jada Pinkett Smith, is a welcome addition to the Batman mythos. The episode is technically impressive and the only fault it is guilty of is perhaps too much allusions to classic Batman tropes and stories. This is bound to settle down once the show gains its footing and isn't slavish to a comic book checklist.
Should I watch: Watch if you love the world of Batman and are looking for something fresh and new in that setting. Don't Watch if you think nothing can top the Nolan films or the comics and enjoy fanboy nitpicking.
Scorpion (CBS)
Scorpion is certainly not a show for old people (although they probably have heard of Walter O'Brien unlike me until this show) but it's definitely a CBS show in that it's a standard procedural and it's dealing with quirky characters. This show is essentially in the genre of nerd fantasy which is The Big Bang Theory meets The Blacklist. Started by shows like Chuck, it typically stars a prototypical white male who is awkward around girls but it actually a super spy/hacker/thief James Bond without any of the Connery charm (but certainly the good looks). Scorpion takes that concept and multiplies it by four giving us the essentially the same character with slightly different character traits. You have the leader, the Jonah Hill numbers guy, the morally grey gambler, and the girl. Add in a love interest (Katharine McPhee in a non-singing role!), a grizzled mentor (Robert Patrick?), and a kid with non-diagnosed autism (he's not different, he's just smart!) and you basically get Scorpion, a show based off a real person who most certainly cannot exist or real life is like TV more than I thought it was.
Should I watch: Watch if you've never seen Chuck and really, really like bad hacker/tech shows. Don't Watch if you've basically seen this before.
Forever (ABC)
Television's latest entry into the doomed-to-fail supernatural procedural doesn't have any ghosts or magical children but it's pretty close to that level of ridiculous. Ioan Gruffud plays a centuries old forensic doctor who is immortal in that he can't die. If he does, he just wakes up in the nearest body of water. And that's pretty much the premise. What's weird is that show doesn't really know what it wants to be. In the pilot alone, there were echoes of it being everything from a romance to a comedy to a drama to a procedural. There just seemed to be no focus. Sporadically, there are flashbacks throughout the episode where it shown that Gruffud's character is some sort of "white savior" who has freed slaves and saved Jews from the Holocaust. So yeah, I guess it has that going for it. I'd almost respect this show more if the main character was a vampire or something but that would be just Angel set in a morgue, which is really too on the nose.
Should I watch: Watch if you are sexually turned on by Ioan Gruffud. Don't Watch if you're done with shows like Awake or Believe or Touch or this.
NCIS: New Orleans (CBS)
Oh boy. I may have to step out of this one due to personal bias. Being a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana I can certainly say that this show takes stereotypes of the city I live in to unprecendented K-Ville levels. But I suppose if you're only familiar with N'awlins as a cardboard cutout Pleasure Island Disney theme park, there's really nothing to gripe about. NCIS:NO (get it?) is a pretty standard episode of NCIS in that some rough-and-tumble cop types solve some type of case related to ports and/or the navy. Apparently, this show already had a backdoor pilot which I didn't see nor care too. That's pretty much it. It's NCIS. Your grandpa probably likes it.
Should I watch: Watch if you're not offended by New Orleans stereotypes and like other NCIS shows. Don't Watch if the concept of NCIS makes you groan.
Black-Ish (ABC)
This show is ABC's attempt to make Modern Family for a black demographic and it's largely successful. Anthony Anderson is the strongest part of this show which might be the first time that statement was ever true. The jokes in this pilot are surprisingly clever and don't rely on a large number of negative black stereotypes. The premise is that Anderson's family makes enough money that they can live in affluent mostly white suburbs. Anderson's father, played by a crotchety Laurence Fishburne, is concerned his kids are in danger of losing their culture and heritage. There is both office and family-related humor in this pilot and it's nice to see that ABC is aiming for more diversity in their TV schedule.
Should I watch: Watch if you like situational family comedies like Modern Family. Don't Watch if you if that's not really your thing.
How to Get Away with Murder (ABC)
Lemme tell you. This pilot was mighty impressive. I'm no stranger to Shonda Rimes. Grey's Anatomy is a bit too formulaic for me and while Scandal is indeed an interesting watch, it doesn't satisfy a political itch that other shows do for me. With Murder, that itch is satisfied through both soapy crime-drama and intense lawyering featuring students in a law school. Viola Davis, who delivers perhaps one of her best performances as Prof. Annalise Keating, is especially impressive as befitting of an award winning actress who has been nominated for two Oscars. She takes five budding law students under her wing who in turn help her solve the cases that she takes one all the while involving them in an actual murder plot. The story is bound to have some delightful twists and turns and I, among with many others, am all for it. Check this out and you won't be disappointed.
Should I watch: Watch and be ensnared by the charms of Viola Davis' panther-like eyes. Don't Watch if you dislike lawyer shows but I mean there's a lot more than just that going on so you should probably still watch.
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