The TV Column

Marvel's Inhumans, new Will & Grace premiere

Marvel’s Inhumans stars (from left) Eme Ikwuakor as Gorgon, Ken Leung as Karnak, Anson Mount as Black Bolt, Serinda Swan as Medusa, Isabelle Cornish as Crystal and Iwan Rheon as Maximus.
Marvel’s Inhumans stars (from left) Eme Ikwuakor as Gorgon, Ken Leung as Karnak, Anson Mount as Black Bolt, Serinda Swan as Medusa, Isabelle Cornish as Crystal and Iwan Rheon as Maximus.

Today and Friday will see one new series arrive, the highly anticipated revival of an old favorite and the return of 11 veteran scripted shows.

Here's the new/semi-new stuff.

Marvel's Inhumans debuts with back-to-back episodes at 7 p.m. Friday on ABC. Think of this as a Shakespearean family drama, except the family members are a race of superhumans with special powers.

Inhumans is set in the familiar Marvel Cinematic Universe and stars Anson Mount as Black Bolt, the head of the Inhuman Royal Family and the king of the city of Attilan, which is currently on the moon. His power: He doesn't talk because his hypersonic voice can destroy a city.

Others in the series include:

Serinda Swan as Medusa, "The Queen." Black Bolt's wife has freaky prehensile hair.

Isabelle Cornish as Crystal, "The Princess." Medusa's younger sister is impetuous and can control the four elements of fire, earth, water and air.

Eme Ikwuakor as Gorgon, "The Guardian." Black Bolt's cousin and head of the Attilan's military, Gorgon can generate destructive seismic waves with a single stomp of his hooves. Yes, he has hooves instead of feet.

Ken Leung as Karnak,"The Visionary." Black Bolt's other cousin and closest adviser has the ability to see the fault in all things, including people.

Iwan Rheon as Maximus, "The Revolutionary." Clever and charming, the younger brother of Black Bolt has his own bellicose plans to deal with humans and serves as the series villain.

Trivia: Is Rheon being typecast? He had the role of the vile, depraved and detested Ramsay Bolton on Game of Thrones.

And then there's Lockjaw, the family's hippo-size bulldog. I mean huge. He can teleport himself and others anywhere.

First up -- A coup by Maximus leaves the royal family stranded in Hawaii. They must find a way to reunite before their way of life is destroyed.

Will & Grace picks up at 8 p.m. today on NBC. It'll be, more or less, where we left off when the series ended 10 years ago. There will be an explanation dealing with the series finale that indicated Will and Grace had a falling out and weren't speaking.

Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally reprise their roles as Will, Grace, Jack and Karen "with a slew of razor-sharp jabs and dirty martinis."

As equally important to me, the legendary James Burrows, director of every original Will & Grace episode, is also back.

RETURNING TODAY

Grey's Anatomy, 7 p.m. on ABC. It's a two-hour premiere for Season 14 (!) that picks up right after last season's finale. The producers promise a "lighter and funnier" season. That'd be easy. After all, the hospital nearly burned down in the last episode.

Superstore, 7 p.m. on NBC. Season 2 ended when Amy (America Ferrera) and Jonah (Ben Feldman) were trapped in the store during a tornado and shared a kiss. The storm passed and everyone emerged to find the store destroyed. What now?

The Good Place, 7:30 p.m. on NBC. This is the regular time slot premiere after the Sept. 20 special preview. Reminder: The Good Place is, in reality, the Bad Place.

Thursday Night Football, 7:25 p.m. on CBS. First game is Chicago Bears at the Green Bay Packers. CBS will air the games through Oct. 26.

Great News, 8:30 p.m. on NBC. Season 2 will focus more on the secondary characters in the office, particularly Portia (Nicole Richie), who is engaged to a professional football player.

Chicago Fire, 9 p.m. on NBC. The cliffhanger from Season 5: Casey (Jesse Spencer) and Mouch (Christian Stolte) were trapped in a burning factory. Also, Eloise Mumford joins the cast as Hope Jacquino, a troublemaker from Sylvie Brett's (Kara Killmer) past.

How to Get Away With Murder, 9 p.m. on ABC. This show is so convoluted, I'm not even going to try to explain where we left off. You're either a fan and already know, or hopelessly behind.

RETURNING FRIDAY

MacGyver, 7 p.m. on CBS. Cliffhanger: Look out! Murdoc (David Dastmalchian) escaped from prison and is coming after MacGyver (Lucas Till).

The Exorcist, 8 p.m. on Fox. Season 2 finds us leaving the Rance family behind and moving to a remote island where there is a home for (uh-oh) troubled children.

Hawaii Five-0, 8 p.m. on CBS. Daniel Dae Kim (Chin) and Grace Park (Kono) have left the series over salary disputes, so new characters will be added for Season 8.

Blue Bloods, 9 p.m. on CBS. Last season the Mexican drug cartel came back for revenge and burned down Danny's (Donnie Wahlberg) house. Ah, but it was family that made it a home. Onward to Season 8.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

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Weekend on 09/28/2017

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