The TV world has been buzzing this fall with the debuts of Apple TV+ and Disney+, two new streaming services joining a world that already has too much TV. But that doesn’t mean broadcast TV is dead. Far from it.
Three of the best new shows this fall are airing on ABC and CBS, and they’re worth your time – and a DVR season pass or a watch on Hulu or CBS All Access – at least as much as fancy “Star Wars” shows or Jennifer Aniston soaps.
ABC’s “Emergence” and “Stumptown,” along with CBS’s “Evil,” are smart, well-crafted series that are not only good but getting good-enough ratings. (“Evil” has already been renewed for a second 13-episode season). That’s a difficult feat for broadcast dramas, but these series have done it, somehow, with super-powered kids, Portland, Oregon, humor and a lot of priests. What else do you need for your TV diet?
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“Emergence” is a network version of “Stranger Things”: A Long Island, New York, police chief (the great Allison Tolman) discovers a mysterious superpowered young girl with memory loss, chased by men in suits. “Stumptown,” based on a graphic novel, stars Cobie Smulders (“How I Met Your Mother”) as a down-and-out private detective in Portland. “Evil” is a religious variation of “The X-Files,” in which a priest-in-training (Mike Colter, “Luke Cage”), a forensic psychologist (Katja Herbers, “Westworld”) and a tech specialist (Aasif Maandvi, “The Daily Show”) investigate whether demonic possessions, miracles and prophets are legitimate or hoaxes. (One’s a believer, and two are skeptics, to keep things level-headed.)
Although the three series are quite different, they all have perfectly cast leading women. Smulders, always a gem on “HIMYM” and criminally underutilized in her few Marvel films, finally gets to flaunt her talents in a lead role.
Dex Parios, the ad-hoc detective she plays, is a type you’ve seen before – a messy personal life, a history of trauma, a hard-edged personality but fiercely protective of her loved ones – but Smulders makes her seem new and fresh. Dex has a surprisingly strong moral compass and sense of duty that seems at odds with her penchant for punk rock.
More: ‘Stumptown’ star Cobie Smulders: ‘Going through cancer has made me a better person’
The series relies on a case-of-the-week format, and so far it’s managed to be compelling but not overly complex. The supporting cast, which includes Jake Johnson and Michael Ealy, is also delightful. The characters genuinely like one another, and many times that makes for a more pleasurable watch than tense police dramas.
Tolman, of ABC’s canceled-too-soon “Downward Dog” and the first season of FX’s “Fargo,” is also a strong leading actor who just needed the right project. “Emergence” feels, at times, like the latest in broadcast TV’s long line of “Lost” remakes, but the writers make it more family drama than supernatural caper, which helps strike the right tone and balance. Jo’s job as a cop makes the unraveling of the central mystery far more expedient, so the series can concentrate on the emotional ramifications of the sci-fi revelations rather than trying to make every mystery more confusing than the one before. A steady diet of questions and answers keeps the series chugging along easily, as does the cute kid (Alexa Swinton).
Perhaps requiring a bigger leap of faith than an indestructible little girl is “Evil,” from Robert and Michelle King, the creators of “The Good Wife,” and led by Herbers as Dr. Kristen Bouchard. She and Colter definitely have Scully and Mulder vibes and nearly as much chemistry. The series mixes religious oddities of the week with a bigger, season-long arc involving an evil Michael Emerson (as creepy as he ever was on “Lost”) and debates about science versus faith. The series is also genuinely scary at times, especially in a Halloween episode with a new twist on the somewhat tired exorcism story. Parts of the story can lean into the fantastical, but Herbers, with her expressive eyes and cool dialogue delivery, is a grounding constant.
Investing in a new broadcast show can always be a risky proposition when it comes to quality and cancellation risk. But this year the trio demonstrates the big-network platform is not yet dead, creatively speaking, and hopefully we’ll be seeing a lot more of Dex, Jo and Kristen in seasons to come.
