Fall 2017 TV Preview (Part I)

It's that time again. Kids are going back to school, the leaves are starting to drop, and another packed season of new shows arrive instantly in your home. Power is at your finger tips, and this season I thought I'd check out a good chunk of new shows where I'll be jotting down my initial thoughts to them. I'll be doing two more parts of this TV preview, so stay tuned!

The Good Doctor

I was excited to watch this mainly because Freddie Highmore was in it. I was a following his work in movies just before he did Bates Motel, and with that show done I was really interested to see what he'd do next, and boy he didn't disappoint. Not only that, but the show itself was a lot better than I thought it would be. Brought to you by David Shore, creator of House, comes this very sweet and emotional journey about this brilliant doctor who has autism working at a hospital. After two episodes I'm already deeply invested in these characters, and the show, that this is a MUST WATCH. (2 episodes)

Ghosted

This show had some potential. It's about two guys coming together after being kidnapped by our super secret paranormal government agency to figure out what happened to a certain character. It involves aliens...and...it had potential. It's not bad per se, but when you're competing with hundreds of shows a year, even in a season, you need to be better than OKAY. I caught myself playing on my phone way too often while watching the pilot. The visuals were neat, and I really liked the color pallet the show was going for, but it's supposed to be comedic and I barely chuckled. There's one great visual gag towards the end that I thought was funny, but other than that I couldn't believe how average it felt. (1 episode)

The Gifted

Somehow part of the X-universe, The Gifted takes place after a time where the X-men have vanished and mutants are being locked up. The episode doesn't start off strong, but I thought it had a nice build up towards the end. While there are some familiar storytelling going on I have to say I was invested. This pilot does a nice job to visually highlight what every character's powers are, who in this world is important, and does a nice job at telling a really Good story. There's plenty to like about this comic book show even if you've never heard of the X-men. It's more realistic, in a way, than other superhero shows at the moment, and I feel like it'll be the show where a lot of people will relate. (1 episode)

Young Sheldon

The preview of this show surprised me. Hearing the pitch that this would be a prequel series about one of the characters on The Big Bang Theory smelled like corporate greed, but after seeing the trailer I decided to give it a try. One aspect about sitcoms that you'll always find are jokes that tell backstory are rarely canon in the mythology of the show. In later seasons they'll most likely retcon it because they forgot, but in the pilot alone I was surprised to see so many references Sheldon had made on The Big Bang Theory about his childhood actually show up. Not only that but it felt natural to the story rather than a checklist type of nod. The aspect of this show that I'm enjoying the most is Sheldon's relationship with his mother, and his mother always worrying over her son. I'm not sure what it is about that relationship, but they got the perfect actors for them. The pilot set up interesting ground work for this show, so I'm going to Wait and See where this goes after a few episodes before making up my mind.

Well, that's the first batch of Fall 2017 shows. Stay tuned next week for the next batch, and if you've seen any of these shows don't hesitate to share your opinions in the comment section!