Ripping Good Yarns: Five to Try

It's a new Fall TV season!

Not the same ring it used to have, but at least for the broadcast networks, they still present a fleet of new programs.

Of these, the Strait Household may sample a quarter or less.  I think that would be typical of most Rippers (at least those that deign to admit they watch TV).

As time escapes, I am not doing my evening to evening breakdown quite the same as last year.  I will do a series of stories highlighting different aspects of the new season.

In this post, I am sharing the five series we are most likely to try.  I have read both Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide, and the series I selected are listed as "best of the new season" in one or both magazines.

Gotham! Fox Mondays at 8 PM.  Yet ANOTHER retelling of the Batman story, this time starting with the the brutal murders of Bruce Wayne's parents.  It is designed to focus on the city of Gotham, it's incredible corruption, and the beginning of many in the Batman canon.  We saw the premiere showing last night and give it a thumbs up.  Benjamin wants to see it as well, so it will be a full family series at the Strait household.

Black-ish  starts tonight (Wednesday at 9:30 on ABC), having the sweet spot right after Modern Family.  It has some echoes of The Cosby Show, featuring an upper middle class African American family.  It promises to have a point of view (like some of the great situation comedies of the 70s), but with an amusing bite, and characters that  (hopefully) you can grow to love.  It is the only new comedy we are considering at this point.

How to Get Away With Murder  premiers Thursday on ABC at 10 PM.  It is done by the brilliant TV creator, Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy, Scandal) and stars the highly talented Viola Davis as a law school professor who is also a criminal defense attorney, spinning herself and her students into an intriguing web of cases.

 Gracepoint premieres Thursday at 9 on Fox, and is pretty much a straight ripoff of the British series Broadchurch.  I was only able to see one episode of the series, but it was very good, and I am looking forward to trying this Americanized version.  As to who that guy is standing at cliff's edge?  Yeah, that's Doctor Who (David Tennant), taking on an American accent (he played the same part in Broadchurch).  The woman with him?  Well, uh, I guess that would be his, uh, "companion".

The Flash! will be on Tuesdays at 8 on the CW.  The guy playing it looks more like Wally West to me than Barry Allen, but what do I know?  Although the costume looks a little cheesy, the speed scenes look awesome, and it's comes from the same people that do Arrow, a show that has improved rapidly over the last season.

Jane the Virgin (CW Mondays at 9) looks bizarre enough that I may have to try it at least once, and since I have read over a hundred comics featuring him, I will probably at least sample Constantine (Fridays at 10 PM on NBC).

There are, of course, many other new shows premiering.  NCIS spinoffs are threatening to subsume all of CBS's schedule, for example.  But please, fellow Rippers and others, if you have other shows you have sampled or are thinking about sampling, please let us know.  I want to hear from you!