THE TV COLUMN

It’s official: Fall TV shows are now in full swing

The new fall season is finally officially upon us. Here is this week’s schedule, with new series in bold.

Monday

7 p.m.: How I Met Your Mother (CBS); The Voice (NBC).

8 p.m.: 2 Broke Girls (CBS).

8:30 p.m.: Mom (CBS).

9 p.m. The Blacklist (NBC); Castle (ABC); Hostages (CBS).

Tuesday

7 p.m.: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC); NCIS (CBS).

8 p.m.: The Goldbergs (ABC); NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS): The Voice results (NBC).

8:30 p.m.: Trophy Wife (ABC).

9 p.m.: Chicago Fire (NBC); Lucky 7 (ABC); Person of Interest (CBS).

Wednesday

7 p.m.: The Middle (ABC); Revolution (NBC).

7:30 p.m.: Back in the Game (ABC).

8 p.m.: Criminal Minds (CBS); Law & Order: SVU (NBC); Modern Family (ABC).

9 p.m.: CSI (CBS); Nashville (ABC).

Thursday

7 p.m.: The Big Bang Theory (CBS); Parks and Recreation (NBC).

7:30 p.m.: The Millers (CBS).

8 p.m.: The Crazy Ones (CBS); Glee (Fox); Grey’s Anatomy (ABC).

8:30 p.m.: The Michael J. Fox Show (NBC); Two and a Half Men (CBS).

9 p.m.: Elementary (CBS); Parenthood (NBC).

Friday

7 p.m.: Dateline NBC (NBC); Junior Masterchef (Fox); Undercover Boss (CBS).

8 p.m.: Hawaii Five-0 (CBS).

9 p.m.: Blue Bloods (CBS).

Saturday

9 p.m.: 48 Hours (CBS).

10:30 p.m.: Saturday Night Live (NBC).

I’ll cover the other new shows in Tuesday’s and Thursday’s columns. Here’s a brief overview of Monday’s new offerings:

First up is Mom, a sitcom from CBS that stars two talented actresses - Allison Janney and Anna Faris.

Fans most likely know Faris from the Scary Movie films, and Janney from her long run as C.J. Cregg on The West Wing.

Janney plays Bonnie, the free-spirited, unfiltered mom of Faris’ recently sober Christy. Christy is, herself, the single mom of a young son and a sexually active teen daughter.

Bonnie is also a recovering drug and alcohol abuser, so it’s a complicated relationship. Bonnie is still a loose cannon.

The comedy is from Chuck Lorre, the guy who created Grace Under Fire, Cybill, Dharma & Greg, Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, and Mike and Molly.

(Mike and Molly, by the way, has been renewed by CBS for a full 22-episode Season 4. It just doesn’t have a time slot to return. It’ll slip in at midseason once some other show falters.)

If you like those Chuck Lorre shows, you should like Mom. But don’t stumble into it unaware. Lorre is the king of risque and there’s plenty of that here, including Christy sleeping with her (married) boss played by Nate Corddry and her teenage daughter (Sadie Calvano) sleeping with her slacker boyfriend.

But Janney and Faris are a delight to watch interact. Four-time Emmy winner Janney, especially, is having great fun playing a wild woman far from her West Wing role.

The Blacklist is one of the new series getting a lot of buzz in the preseason. It’s ranked in the top three most promising new shows by the Television Critics Association (to which I belong).

TCA is a highly respected international organization (it includes Canadians) of 220 discerning, critically minded, literate journalists and keen observers of the television industry.

That, and we all get advance preview screeners before the general public, so we can pontificate without fear of contradiction.

The top two most promising new shows, by the way, are ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., debuting Tuesday, and Showtime’s Masters of Sex, which debuts at 9 p.m. Sept. 29. More on the series about human sexuality pioneers Masters and Johnson (Michael Sheen, Lizzy Caplan) next Sunday.

Meanwhile, The Blacklist owes much of its positive hype to the marvelously sinister performance of James Spader (The Office, Boston Legal), who portrays ex-government agent Raymond “Red” Reddington.

For decades, Reddington had been one of the FBI’s Most Wanted for brokering shadowy deals for criminals around the world. And then one day he walks into FBI headquarters and surrenders. With a catch.

Reddington will help capture presumed dead terrorist Ranko Zamani under the condition that he gets to deal only with young Liz Keen (Megan Boone of Law & Order: Los Angeles), a newly minted FBI profiler.

Think Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs. Only without the culinary aspect.

What are Red’s true intentions? Why has he chosen Liz? Does she have secrets of her own? She does, but does not know it yet.

But there’s a list in the title. Red has compiled a who’s who roster of bad guys far beyond Zamani. His blacklist of criminals contains politicians, mobsters, spies and international terrorists.

Let the drama begin.

The end arrives. Here’s your reminder that the series finale of Dexter is at 8 p.m. today. Showtime promises “an explosive, shocking conclusion” to the series that has kept millions enthralled for eight seasons.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email: [email protected]

Style, Pages 52 on 09/22/2013

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