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Fall TV preview: Shows you should not miss

 
RED BAND SOCIETY: From Steven Spielberg‚€™s Amblin Television and starring Academy Award-winning actress Octavia Spencer (‚€œThe Help,‚€ ‚€œFruitvale Station‚€), Dave Annable (‚€œBrothers & Sisters,‚€ ‚€œ666 Park Avenue‚€) and a charismatic cast of fresh faces, RED BAND SOCIETY is a provocative, inspiring and, at times, comic young ensemble drama told through the eyes of a group of teenagers who meet as patients in the pediatric ward of Ocean Park Hospital in Los Angeles. RED BAND SOCIETY will air Wednesdays (9:00 - 10:00  ET/ PT) this fall on FOX.  Pictured L-R: Griffin Gluck as Octavia Spencer as Nurse Jackson. © Copyright 2014 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Alex Martinez / FOX.
RED BAND SOCIETY: From Steven Spielberg‚€™s Amblin Television and starring Academy Award-winning actress Octavia Spencer (‚€œThe Help,‚€ ‚€œFruitvale Station‚€), Dave Annable (‚€œBrothers & Sisters,‚€ ‚€œ666 Park Avenue‚€) and a charismatic cast of fresh faces, RED BAND SOCIETY is a provocative, inspiring and, at times, comic young ensemble drama told through the eyes of a group of teenagers who meet as patients in the pediatric ward of Ocean Park Hospital in Los Angeles. RED BAND SOCIETY will air Wednesdays (9:00 - 10:00 ET/ PT) this fall on FOX. Pictured L-R: Griffin Gluck as Octavia Spencer as Nurse Jackson. © Copyright 2014 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Alex Martinez / FOX.
Published Sept. 10, 2014

Perhaps taking cues from the success of Breaking Bad and its imitators, the 2014-15 television season this year definitely makes some exciting breaks from the norm — suburban black families, superheroes, cancer wards and murder mysteries. Here are my top five picks for new shows you should catch:

Red Band Society

Wednesday, 9 p.m., Fox

Perhaps jumping on The Fault in Our Stars bandwagon, this series ambitiously treats cancer and other illnesses with dark comedy. Like other shows on this list, Red Band Society seems worth watching at first mostly because its premise is so different from what we're used to. Named for the bands high-risk patients must wear while in the hospital, the show follows a group of teenagers living together in a hospital's pediatric unit, watched over by hovering nurses (one played, in an unusually A-list pick, by The Help's Octavia Spencer). Presumably a comedy but likely to have you crying by the end of the season, Red Band Society might give you tonal whiplash as you take an enjoyable ride to the inevitable.

Gotham

Sept. 22, 8 p.m., Fox

The first superhero show to hit the air this month actually isn't a prequel about its most notable hero, but rather the city that made him. Gotham begins years before Batman's first appearance, as the new GCPD recruit James Gordon is assigned to solve a tricky murder case: the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Along the way Gordon starts to care for the couple's orphaned son, Bruce, and comes face-to-face with a young Catwoman and presumably a fair amount of foreshadowing. The pilot's dark, Gothic (sorry) mood looks like the Christopher Nolan trilogy that inspired it, and DC fans and newbies alike can enjoy its slow-burn original story.

Black-ish

Sept. 24, 9 p.m., ABC

The sitcom, that most conventional of TV genres, is promising to be shaken up a bit this season. The story of a middle-class black family isn't one often told on overwhelmingly white networks. But Black-ish spins the tale of one such household, featuring a son who really just wants a bar mitzvah and Laurence Fishbourne in a velour track suit. If nothing else, it should be a welcome relief from the usual sitcom fare; at best, it has the possibility to be entertainment and a cultural critique all at once. ABC's Cristela and Fresh Off the Boat promise some equally intriguing, and of course, funny, stories about race and class in America.

How to Get Away With Murder

Sept. 25, 10 p.m., ABC

Many TV viewers might not know Shonda Rhimes' name, but they certainly know her characters — Olivia Pope, President Fitzgerald Grant — and her show Scandal. Rhimes continues her plan to dominate the airwaves (not that anybody minds) with How to Get Away With Murder, starring The Help's Viola Davis as a ruthless law professor who accidentally gets her students entangled in a homicide. Very little information has been released about the series' plot, besides what's supposed to be a legendary twist in the middle of the pilot, which is even more motivation to tune in to this modern whodunit.

The Flash

Oct. 7, 8 p.m., the CW

This second of two new superhero offerings this fall serves as a more lighthearted spinoff of the CW's wildly popular Arrow, following scientist Barry Allen after he is struck by lightning and becomes — well, you know. Not only is the show set in the same universe, opening the possibility for a tantalizing Green Arrow or Black Canary teamup some seasons down the line, but its trailer also looks slightly wild and wildly funny. After years of increasingly dour and despairing movie offerings from DC Comics, a bit of fun could be exactly what the brand and its fans need.

Runnersup: Karen Gillan, at left with John Cho, rides her post-Guardians of the Galaxy wave with Selfie, a modern retelling of My Fair Lady ripe with text-speak and mockery of hipsters, starting Sept. 30 at 8 p.m. on ABC; Amazon Prime premieres Transparent, about the gender transition of a neurotic Jewish family man, available for instant streaming at a TBD date in September; and superhero fans have a fourth option with Constantine, following the famous demon hunter, starting Oct. 24 at 10 p.m. on NBC.

Returners of note: Lovable staple sitcoms The Mindy Project and New Girl come back for their third and fourth seasons, respectively, on Tuesday at 9 and 9:30 p.m. on Fox; Agents of SHIELD returns for a second year to keep Marvel fans occupied until May's Avengers sequel, starting Sept. 23 at 9 p.m. on ABC; the CW's fan favorite Supernatural kicks off its 10th and reportedly final season Oct. 7 at 9 p.m.; and Scandal begins its fourth year of Olivia Pope's DC investigations Sept. 25 at 9 p.m. on NBC.

Red Band Society



Gotham



Black-ish



Black-ish