This is a very, very strong season for American TV.
There are numerous new hour-long dramas that are both entertaining and sophisticated. Some are very smart indeed. Thematically, there is much melancholy, some anger at authority and a deep suspicion of government. This excellent season seethes with paranoia and features many sinister scenarios. The uplifting storyline is as elusive as the truth on many new dramas.
There are two elements propelling U.S. network TV right now. First, the success of Lost, 24, Prison Break and Desperate Housewives has convinced network bosses that ongoing, serial dramas are a growth area. The viewers coveted by networks, those young and affluent people who don't watch much TV but are drawn to a smart, compelling drama once or twice a week, are the prey. And this season there is plenty of bait.
Second, the often doom-laden tone of Lost and 24 has created a new acceptance of seriousness. Yes, this year, there are several dramas that are officially genre-specific. There are cop shows, legal dramas and workplace dramas set in a variety of glamorous industries. But while the genres are recognizable, this season is not only marked by the themes of paranoia and tensions inside the American culture, it is defined by them.
On the highly touted and star-driven ABC drama Brothers & Sisters, there is a direct attempt to confront the drama of the cultural tensions of the United States today. The show is about a family. The family business seems to be going bust. One son is gay. Another son has served in Afghanistan and came home mentally damaged by the experience. One daughter - the central character played by Calista Flockhart - is a right-wing radio pundit about to make the leap to TV. These characters stand around in the family kitchen arguing about Sept. 11 and the politics of it.
Jon Robin Baitz, creator of Brothers & Sisters, said recently, "It's their great change and crisis. I don't think I was trying to hit the 9/11 parallel too heavily, but it's impossible to think about our lives now without it, the fragility and danger of it."
The CBS drama Jericho posits a post-apocalyptic America. The town of Jericho is cut off the rest of the country after a mysterious nuclear accident or attack - it's not clear what happened - and the inhabitants are obliged to create their own functioning new community under new rules. The ABC drama The Nine is about nine people who survive a bank robbery gone awry. They decide to meet up later and continue being a group bound by the terrible experience.
Smith, which is superficially a crime-caper drama on CBS, also features a group of people trying to function as their own separate community. It's just that they are highly skilled thieves who live outside conventional society. Their leader lives like an ordinary working Joe while committing high-risk crimes.
Something compels this group to stick together.
Runaway, a drama on the CW network, is about a family on the run. Dad is a successful lawyer trapped in some conspiracy and the family must flee, living together under assumed names, always wary of cops and other authorities. Kidnapped, an NBC drama, features - like the already-running Fox drama Vanished - an intricate plot in which nefarious political and judicial authorities are at work to screw up one family's life. Something very sinister is going on.
Across the broad spectrum of these dramas, the writers and producers are clearly entranced by the idea that U.S. society is in a traumatized state. It has been manipulated by everybody from the vice-president (interestingly, it's always the office of the vice-president that's creepy) to some lowly but lying FBI officer. There is an overriding tone of bleak dismay at the isolation and vulnerability of ordinary people.
It's possible to read a post-9/11 theme in these shows. The groups thrown together on Jericho, The Nine, Runaway, Smith and even the family on Brothers & Sisters are representative of a U.S. society coming to terms with the new reality of endless distrust and alienation.
The thread that connects so many of these new, fine dramas is the melancholy feeling that nothing is getting better and optimism is impossible. Even in the ABC drama Six Degrees, which seems on the surface to be about young people just steps away from connecting romantically in New York, there is a fiercely desolate sensibility. Nothing goes right. An ex-criminal and gambler trying to go straight falls back into crime. A young woman who seems to embody sweetness carries a terrible secret.
This is not fanciful critic's conjecture. Producer Hank Steinberg has acknowledged his show The Nine is "connected" to 9/11, but not so much about that terrible day as "about what happens to people afterward." Of course, there are some shows that are not connected by this thread. Ugly Betty is a surefire hit that brims with hope, but does so subtly. There are a handful of good new comedies full of zesty humour.
And several of the excellent new dramas will fail. Either the time slot will make survival impossible, or later episodes won't be as compelling as the pilot.
Still, in the next two months, some of the best U.S. TV ever made will air. Much of it has a sinister theme and a lot of it is sensationally good.
10 essential shows to watch
Smith (Tuesdays, CBS, Mondays, CTV, starts this Monday on CTV, this Tuesday on CBS) has the best pilot episode in years. Ray Liotta plays Bobby, a master thief who leads a group of elite thieves performing high-risk jobs. The thing is, Bobby also has a regular job and a wife (Virginia Madsen) and kids. When he's supposed to be on a sales trip selling paper cups, Bobby is stealing art from a museum with his team. His wife is suspicious, but as we learn in the pilot, she's not the long-suffering spouse that she seems to be. The shadowy figure pulling the strings is played by the great Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo ( 24). What's intriguing is the cynicism of the characters - the thieves wear literal white masks as disguises, but all wear figurative masks all the time. The calm coldness is breathtaking.
Dexter (Mondays, Showtime, TMN, starts Oct. 2) is not a network series, it's from cable outfit Showtime. And it shows - Dexter is about a serial killer with a heart of gold. Michael C. Hall (the gay David Fisher on Six Feet Under) plays Dexter, a medical examiner in Florida. He knows his way around a dead body and forensics are a breeze to him. By night, he's a vigilante killer, hunting down and murdering the criminals he despises. Hall is brilliant in what is a very challenging role - Dexter is empty, calculating, sadistic and charming. The grim tone and the graphic depiction of Dexter's revenge murders present a challenge for viewers; this is for adults only. This 12-part series is based on the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay.
The Nine (Wednesdays, ABC, Saturdays, CTV, starts Oct. 4) is about nine people whose lives are forever changed because they were present in a bank when it was robbed. The robbery went horribly wrong and the customers were held hostage for 52 hours. This is complex drama, the narrative being elliptical and the twists being unexpected. Yet the multitude of characters is expertly drawn and immediately compelling. Kim Raver, who played Jack Bauer's girlfriend on 24, is one of the stars.
Six Degrees (Thursdays, ABC, Global, starts TBA on Global, this Thursday on ABC) feels uplifting at first. A young assistant district attorney in New York falls hard for a young woman who got into trouble for some innocent larking around. Then he can't find her. She's not who she says she is. Meanwhile, these two characters are connected to a grieving, distraught widow and a photographer (the excellent Campbell Scott) who is a recovering drug adduct. This is excellent ensemble work in a very smart, brooding drama created by J.J. Abrams, who also created Lost and Alias.
Brothers & Sisters (Sundays, ABC, CTV, starts Sept. 24) is about the Walker family of California. Dad (Tom Skerritt ) runs a successful fruit business. Mom (Sally Field) frets about her children. One daughter (Rachel Griffiths from Six Feet Under) works for dad and worries about the company's finances. Another daughter (Calista Flockhart) is a very pro-Republican pundit. Patricia Wettig, Balthazar Getty and Matthew Rhys also star. The series has an earnestness that is off-putting, but it's compelling because it's striving to be relevant.
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (NBC, CTV, starts tomorrow on CTV, Monday on NBC) is a buzz show - the latest from Aaron Sorkin ( Sports Night, The West Wing). It takes viewers behind the scenes of a live sketch-comedy show similar to Saturday Night Live. The actors on the fictional show are hideously neurotic and ego-driven, the writers are back- stabbers and the network execs are callous creeps. The cast includes Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford, Amanda Peet, Steven Weber, D. L. Hughley and Timothy Busfield. At times superbly written, the pilot is dramatically wonky.
Kidnapped (Wednesdays, NBC, Global, starts this Wednesday) is a gripping drama about the long search for the teenage son of a wealthy family. After he's kidnapped, everyone is under suspicion, including the cops and his billionaire dad (Timothy Hutton). Maybe even mom (Dana Delany). A hired gun, played by Jeremy Sisto (the crazy Billy on Six Feet Under), begins the search and instantly knows there's something weird about this kidnapping. This is one paranoid, stylish thriller with a great cast.
Ugly Betty (Thursdays, ABC, CITY-TV, starts Sept. 28) is widely predicted as the season's first huge hit. Betty (America Ferrera ) is a plain girl from Queens who miraculously becomes the assistant to the head of a top fashion magazine. Betty is a fish out of water and a gaggle of bitchy fashionistas conspire to get her fired. Based on a Spanish-language "telenovela" and produced by Selma Hayek, the show is sweet and the star is adorable. Light, breezy and far from stupid, it's very funny and charming.
The Class (Mondays, CBS, CTV, starts this Monday) is one of the few notable comedies. Essentially, it's an endless-school-reunion comedy. A guy decides to call the people he knew in Grade 3 for a get-together to please his girlfriend. Of course, years later, it's a motley crew that shows up. Breezy, funny and created by the expert team of David Crane ( Friends) and Jeffrey Klarik ( Mad About You), the endlessly moving interconnections make it fresh.
The Knights of Prosperity (Tuesdays, ABC, Saturdays, CTV, starting Oct. 17 on ABC) is the other snappy comedy. Originally called Let's Rob, it begins with a group of hosers deciding to rob Mick Jagger's Manhattan condo when their leader (wonderfully played by Donal Logue) sees Mick's pad on TV. Jagger appears in the pilot episode, cheerfully spoofing himself. Deftly written to avoid broad humour, this is a very clever satiric comedy poking fun at everybody who is rich and famous.
Five non-essential, but worth seeing
Runaway (Mondays, The CW, CH, Starts Sept. 25) is a seemingly unlikely series from Sex and the City producer Darren Star - an entire family is on the run, because dad (Donnie Wahlberg) is accused of murder. Canadian Leslie Hope plays the mom. It's tense and engaging as the family tries to outwit law enforcement.
Jericho (Wednesdays, CBS, A-Channel stations, starts this Wednesday) is about what happens when, without warning, a nuclear mushroom cloud appears on the horizon near a small Kansas town. The residents don't know if the rest of America knows they're alive. They struggle to create a new kind of town in tense conditions. Skeet Ulrich, Gerald McRaney and Pamela Reed star in what is in an eerie, doom-filled drama.
Shark (Thursdays, CBS, Global, starts this Thursday) is a House knockoff. James Woods eats the scenery as a cutthroat defence-lawyer-turned-prosecutor. He's full of himself and his sarcasm is rapid-fire, but he's not half as clever as Dr. House. The junior lawyers working with him look more like models than lawyers. Some people will love Woods's overblown style, others sure won't.
Standoff (Tuesdays, Fox, Global, already airing) is a weird blend of cop drama and romance. It follows two top negotiators in the FBI's Crisis Negotiation Unit (Ron Livingston, Rosemarie DeWitt) who are also lovers. The pilot is unclear about whether it's about the dramatic hostage-takings or the lovers. The romance material is more promising.
Heroes (Mondays, NBC, Global, Starts Sept. 25) is on the cusp of being truly great. An odd drama about ordinary people who find that they have supernatural powers - this happens after a solar eclipse - it feels like a series with a screaming message: "The world needs saving!" The ensemble cast, including Adrian Pasdar, Ali Larter and Masi Oka (from Scrubs) is excellent. This could be a truly great series, depending on how it develops.
Avoid at all costs
30 Rock (Wednesdays, NBC, Saturdays, CTV, starts Oct. 11 on NBC) is a horrible, unfunny version of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It's also about the backstage antics at a Saturday Night Live-type show and was reportedly created when the SNL bosses heard about Studio 60.
Men in Trees (Fridays, ABC, CITY-TV, already airing) has Anne Heche as a "relationship guru" who lands in Alaska when her fiancé dumps her and she stays there. A bluntly contrived knockoff of Northern Exposure with a shot of Sex and the City, it's wretchedly unfunny and clueless.
Big Day (Fridays, ABC, starts in November) tries to do a 24 on a wedding situation. One long wedding day is dramatized for fun over an entire season, as the bride and groom battle, and the relatives bicker. Funny for 30 seconds only.
Key returning shows
Desperate Housewives (ABC, CTV) returns Sept. 24; Lost (ABC, CTV) is back Wednesday, Oct. 4; My Name Is Earl (NBC, Global) returns this Thursday and moves to 8 p.m.: Grey's Anatomy (ABC, CTV) returns this week, on Thursday this season, on CTV at 8 p.m. and ABC at 9 p.m. (ABC's move puts it competition with CSI on CBS, returning this Thursday) and The O.C. on Fox, returning Nov. 2); ER (NBC, CTV) stays on Thursdays at 10 p.m. and returns this week; 24 returns on Fox and Global in January.