With scores of new scripted shows premiering in September and October alone, the fall season redefines eclectic: Fairy-tale themes! Unlikely roommates! Witches and ghosts! Unlikely couples! Hilarious parents! High-tech paranoia! Dinosaurs!
Yet winding through it all is a curious sense of nostalgia, as if writers and network execs were sharing a collective Facebookian desire to resurrect old relationships, to reconnect viewers with the people we once knew and the people we once were.
Certainly the midlife career renaissance continues, at least among white males between ages 50 and 70. Following in the footsteps of Ed O'Neill and Craig T. Nelson, Tim Allen, after an overlong stint with the Intergalactic Alliance, returns to active duty as a comedic paterfamilias, this time in ABC's "Last Man Standing."
Ted Danson, who has illuminated cable in the past few years on "Damages," (FX) "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Bored to Death" (both HBO), has decided to go not just network but network franchise, replacing Laurence Fishburne on "CSI." Another "Cheers" survivor, Kelsey Grammer, is pulling a Ray Romano by playing totally against type as an ailing but ruthless Chicago mayor in "Boss." (Coincidentally, Romano, who just lost his against-type-role with the cancellation of "Men of a Certain Age," is reuniting with Patricia Heaton for the return of Heaton's current show, "The Middle.") And a season after his "Boston Legal" spouse William Shatner came and went with "$*! My Dad Says," James Spader returns to TV, replacing Steve Carell on "The Office."
Yet winding through it all is a curious sense of nostalgia, as if writers and network execs were sharing a collective Facebookian desire to resurrect old relationships, to reconnect viewers with the people we once knew and the people we once were.
Certainly the midlife career renaissance continues, at least among white males between ages 50 and 70. Following in the footsteps of Ed O'Neill and Craig T. Nelson, Tim Allen, after an overlong stint with the Intergalactic Alliance, returns to active duty as a comedic paterfamilias, this time in ABC's "Last Man Standing."
Ted Danson, who has illuminated cable in the past few years on "Damages," (FX) "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Bored to Death" (both HBO), has decided to go not just network but network franchise, replacing Laurence Fishburne on "CSI." Another "Cheers" survivor, Kelsey Grammer, is pulling a Ray Romano by playing totally against type as an ailing but ruthless Chicago mayor in "Boss." (Coincidentally, Romano, who just lost his against-type-role with the cancellation of "Men of a Certain Age," is reuniting with Patricia Heaton for the return of Heaton's current show, "The Middle.") And a season after his "Boston Legal" spouse William Shatner came and went with "$*! My Dad Says," James Spader returns to TV, replacing Steve Carell on "The Office."
No comments:
Post a Comment