Advertisement

15 TV shows we're looking forward to in early 2015

 
The ensemble cast of Galavant includes Luke Youngblood as Sid, Mallory Jansen as Madalena, Joshua Sasse as Galavant, Timothy Omundson as King Richard, Vinnie Jones as Gareth and Karen David as Isabella.
The ensemble cast of Galavant includes Luke Youngblood as Sid, Mallory Jansen as Madalena, Joshua Sasse as Galavant, Timothy Omundson as King Richard, Vinnie Jones as Gareth and Karen David as Isabella.
Published Dec. 26, 2014

By Michelle Stark Times Staff Writer

Ah, January. Time for the networks to roll out a slate of fresh TV shows, to rejuvenate their brands after a lackluster fall season and to head into the new year with some more high-profile fare.

And, in keeping with the low (ish?) temperatures and shorter days, the 2015 winter TV season is going to the dark side. Murderers, detectives, spies — they're all here in a particularly heavy lineup of new and returning dramas (and some comedies) queued up for the first few months of 2015.

There's the brutally attacked young couple in 12 Years a Slave writer John Ridley's American Crime; a dying hip-hop mogul in Fox's Empire; the criminals and the lawyer who represents them in AMC's Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul; the creepy and mysterious townspeople in Fox's Wayward Pines, a 10-episode "event thriller" from M. Night Shyamalan. (In fact, after a really rough fall in which most of its new shows — Mulaney, Red Band Society, Gracepoint — were panned and then canceled, Fox looks to have one of the more interesting 2015 schedules.)

Luckily, there are nuggets of joy sprinkled throughout the gloomy doom, things like the third season of MasterChef Junior, a national treasure if ever there was one. (It premieres Jan. 6, somewhat oddly right on the heels of Season 2, which ended Dec. 16. Hey, we're not complaining.) ABC's silly musical-comedy Galavant and Netflix's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt from Tina Fey will also lighten things up. It's worth noting, however, that even the comedies seem slightly darker: Kimmy Schmidt is about a woman who escapes from a cult, while Galavant is a musical that takes place in medieval times.

Here are 15 new and returning shows we're going to make space for in the early part of our busy 2015 TV schedules. (Dates and times subject to change.)

NEW Galavant

ABC, premieres at 8 p.m. Jan. 4

Sure, this new dramedy described as a "medieval musical fairy tale" sounds completely ridiculous, but ... well, okay, it is completely ridiculous, down to the cheesetastic singing and setting. But that's what makes it fun! Plus, Disney alums composer Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast) and lyricist Glenn Slater (The Little Mermaid, Tangled) are on board for the music. Throw in guest stars like John Stamos, Weird Al Yankovic and Ricky Gervais, and this is definitely not a bad way to spend Sunday nights. Note: Two episodes will air in a one-hour block for four weeks.

NEW Marvel's Agent Carter

ABC, premieres at 8 p.m. Jan. 6

The second Marvel TV series is a period piece centered on a woman, which makes it infinitely more interesting than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (And without the annoying acronym!) That woman would be Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), who finds herself marginalized working for the covert SSR (Strategic Scientific Reserve) after WWII in 1946. Oh, and she just lost the love of her life, Steve Rogers. You might know him as Captain America.

NEW Empire

Fox, premieres at 9 p.m. Jan. 7

New hip-hop drama Empire arrives early in the season, moving to an intoxicating rhythm that makes this one of the strongest new shows right out of the gate. It was created and written by filmmaker Lee Daniels (The Butler, Precious) and Danny Strong, who worked with Daniels on The Butler, was part of the team that wrote The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 and 2, and won an Emmy for writing HBO's Game Change. These people know what they're doing.

Planning your weekend?

Planning your weekend?

Subscribe to our free Top 5 things to do newsletter

We’ll deliver ideas every Thursday for going out, staying home or spending time outdoors.

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

Empire stars Terrence Howard as Lucious Lyon, the CEO of Empire Entertainment, a music empire that in the pilot is on the verge of becoming a publicly traded company. Lucious has worked his way up from poverty; "I started selling drugs at age 9 to feed myself," he says. The hook of the show is that Lucious is going to die — he is diagnosed with ALS in the pilot and given a couple of years to live —and he wants to groom one of his sons to take over the company.

Lucious' hip-hop bona fides and ruthless high standards are introduced in a goosebump-inducing opening scene, in which he coaches a female musician recording a song in his studio to "show me your soul in this music" by recalling memories of her dead brother. Howard plays Lucious with quiet intensity, allowing just a few key outbursts that show the deep anger simmering underneath his stoicism.

The other thing that grabs you in that first scene is the music. With producer and hitmaker Timbaland (he has worked with Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake and Rihanna, to name a few) as executive music producer, this stuff is legitimately good. There are at least three solid hooks in the first episode alone.

Empire is a soap opera in the best sense of the word, more operatic than soap, with a big mess of family dynamics front and center. Lucious' three sons are well drawn and provide lots of tension between each other and with their father: The youngest, Hakeem (Bryshere Gray), is a hip-hop star in the mold of his father, and middle son Jamal (Jussie Smollett) is also an aspiring musician, though he is told by his father that the hip-hop community won't accept him because he's gay. The eldest, Trai Byers (Andre Lyon), thinks he deserves the keys to Empire.

But none of them is as interesting as Taraji P. Henson's matriarch Cookie Lyon, who struts onto the screen wearing animal print and a vengeful smirk. In the pilot, she has just been released from prison after 17 years for what's alluded to as a drug bust she took the fall for. Cookie isn't happy, natch, and wants what she believes is hers: half of Empire Entertainment. Henson is a firecracker in the role; everything is brighter when she's on screen.

Empire, which joins Black-ish as one of the only network shows to feature a predominantly African-American cast, is confident from the get-go, luring you into the Lyons' familial web of lies, backstabbing, passion — and really catchy music.

Looking

HBO, Season 2 premieres at 10 p.m. Jan. 11

Something about this little-watched HBO comedy centered on a group of gay men living in San Francisco really struck a chord with me when it debuted almost a year ago. It's almost like the anti-Girls, the HBO comedy that returns Jan. 11 for a fourth season of shenanigans in Brooklyn and now Iowa. (Hannah is there for a writers program.) But where Girls last season tried a bit too hard to make everything mean something, Looking settled into a naturalistic storytelling rhythm that allowed us to feel everything as its characters were. The very different trials of pals Patrick (Jonathan Groff), Agustin (Frankie J. Álvarez) and Dom (Murray Bartlett) were brought to life with care, and with little of the histrionics and cliches that tend to accompany stories about gay men.

Broad City

Comedy Central, Season 2 premieres at 10:30 p.m. Jan. 14

You can thank producer Amy Poehler for recognizing the comedic genius of Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, Upright Citizens Brigade alums who first created this as a Web series. As a millennial female squarely in the show's demographic, I found Season 1, about two 20-something best friends navigating life in New York City, was one of my favorite TV shows in 2014. But Abbi and Ilana's adventures are universally uproarious, absurdist riffs on everything from going to parties in the city to workplace etiquette to living with inconsiderate roommates. Here's hoping Season 2 continues to capture the wild energy of these misanthropic buddies.

NEW Backstrom

Fox, premieres at 9 p.m. Jan. 22

Happy to see Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) back on TV, sad to see him stuck in this crime procedural where he plays a conspicuously House-like antihero who only goes by his last name, Backstrom. Let me guess. He's also brash and rude but really good at his job.

The Americans

FX, Season 3 premieres at 10 p.m. Jan. 28

Season 1 of The Americans was impressive, a confident freshman outing that knew what story it wanted to tell and did it solidly: That of two KGB spies, Keri Russell's Elizabeth and Matthew Rhys' Philip Jennings, living fully undercover as a family in a 1980s American suburb with two growing children. Season 2 took that concept even further, exploring the couple's twisted relationship dynamics (both professional and, um, sexual) and how their dangerous jobs have slowly crept into their home. Season 2's shocking ending — the KGB now wants Elizabeth and Philip's teenage daughter Paige for the cause when she turns 18 — was chilling, unexpected and a perfect setup for the show's next season. Season 3 picks up after the death of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1982, which will no doubt further complicate things for the Jenningses. And movie veteran Frank Langella is joining the show as Gabriel, the pair's former KGB handler who comes out of retirement to take over for Claudia (Margo Martindale).

NEW Better Call Saul

AMC, premieres at 10 p.m. Feb. 8

If anyone could meet the criminally high expectations conjured for this Breaking Bad spinoff, it's Bad creator Vince Gilligan, who co-created Saul with writer Peter Gould and will run the show with him. The series, which has already been renewed for a second season, focuses on Bob Odenkirk's criminal lawyer Saul Goodman. It will apparently have a fluid timeline that will overlap with Breaking Bad's, which means there's potential for lots of cameos. (Bad's fixer Mike, played by Jonathan Banks, is already on board as a Saul character.) We say leave the Bryan Cranstons and Aaron Pauls out of it and focus on making this show its own great thing. Note: It debuts on a Sunday then moves to Mondays at 10 p.m.

NEW The Odd Couple

CBS, premieres at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 19

Could this be the post-Friends Matthew Perry show that finally succeeds? After Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Mr. Sunshine and Go On failed, we're ready for this updated version of the classic play and TV show starring Perry and Thomas Lennon as unlikely roommates to stick. After perusing hours of Friends clips earlier this month for a story about the show coming to Netflix, I can't help but think how wrong it is that TV has been deprived of Perry's sharp wit and comedic timing since that show ended. And, as guest spots on The Good Wife have proved, the guy can really act!

NEW Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Netflix, premieres in March

This new comedy from 30 Rock dream team Tina Fey and Robert Carlock was set to air on NBC before the network decided not to pick it up and Netflix swooped in and saved the day with a two-year commitment for the series — because they wisely know never to bet against Fey, even when the premise for her new show sounds a bit wonky. Kimmy Schmidt stars suitably quirky The Office alum Ellie Kemper as a woman who moves to New York City after escaping from a doomsday cult.

NEW The Last Man on Earth

Fox, premieres at 9 p.m. March 1

Former Saturday Night Live cast member Will Forte stars in this show he created and wrote about the last man on Earth in the year 2022. That would be enough to get us to watch at least the first episode, but Forte also got the guys who directed and wrote The Lego Movie, Chris Miller and Phil Lord, to direct the pilot. Awesome! Technically, we're not sure how a show about one guy will sustain itself over multiple episodes, but with Forte at the center we're sure it will be slightly odd and definitely amusing.

NEW Secrets and Lies

ABC, premieres at 9 p.m. March 1

For what it's worth, ABC gave the go-ahead to this 10-episode show before the Australian series it's adapted from had even premiered. Like a lot of new dramas this year, this one's premise revolves around a mysterious murder/town and, as in a slew of 2014 shows, the murder is of a young child. Ryan Phillippe stars as Ben Crawford, a guy who becomes a prime suspect after he finds the body of his neighbor's son. Juliette Lewis, who also stars in Fox's Wayward Pines in May, plays a detective trying to figure out the truth. We give this one credit for at least spelling out what it's about in its title.

NEW American Crime

ABC, premieres at 10 p.m. March 5

John Ridley, the Oscar-winning writer behind 12 Years a Slave, writes and directs this 11-episode drama boldly taking the place of How to Get Away With Murder on ABC's Shonda Rhimes Thursdays. The plot of the pilot is about as bleak as you can get, and with Ridley penning scripts there's no levity in sight: A couple in Modesto, Calif., are attacked, leaving the man, a war veteran, dead and his wife unconscious. Socioeconomic and racial tensions are heightened as the community tries to deal with the tragedy. At least we're confident heavy-hitting leads Timothy Hutton and Felicity Huffman can handle this material.

Mad Men

AMC, second half of Season 7 premieres this spring, date TBA

Sure, we hated the idea of Mad Men splitting its final, seventh season into two seven-episode halves, with the first airing this past spring and the final episodes airing in a few months. But we still found Season 7's first half exquisite, with a handful of beautiful, poignant moments that indicated the end is near: Don and Peggy dancing in the office; Don, Pete and Peggy gathered for dinner at Burger Chef; Bert Cooper's death. It's not going to be easy to say goodbye to these characters, but it will likely be a pleasure to watch.

NEW Wayward Pines

Fox, premieres at 9 p.m. May 14

This one makes the list purely on the strength of its cast, which includes Matt Dillon, Melissa Leo, Terrence Howard (also of Empire), Carla Gugino and Juliette Lewis. Oh, and it's being adapted (from a book) by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs.) Dillon plays a Secret Service agent who's on a mission to find missing federal agents when a car accident lands him in a hospital in creepy Wayward Pines, Ind. From there, it gets real Twin Peaks-y, with a host of mysterious characters and Dillon's character questioning his sanity. Yep, sounds right up Shyamalan's alley. Just please don't let the twist be that everyone in Wayward Pines is dead. Fox at least seems to think it has a hit on its hands: The show will debut in more than 125 countries at the same time it debuts here, making it "the world's largest day-and-date launch for a scripted series ever," according to Variety.

Michelle Stark can be reached at mstark@tampabay.com. Follow @mstark17.