TUESDAY
SEPTEMBER 23
2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Next year it will be 20 years since NBC premiered JAG, a drama about lawyers working in the Navy. NBC canceled that show after one season, but CBS picked it up, and watched it develop into a hit series that ran for a decade. And in the interim, in 2003, CBS launched a spinoff series, called NCIS, which now is the most popular drama series on television, and has launched several spinoffs of its own. (Basically, NCIS is to NBC what The Beatles are to Pete Best.) And tonight, on the same evening NCIS launches its latest spinoff, NCIS: New Orleans, it also presents the season premiere of its own series. Season premiere number 12.

 
  
 
 

ABC, 9:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Two different drama series, on two different networks, begin their new seasons tonight with plots that are remarkably similar: In order to survive, and combat the bad guys, a team of heroes goes underground, adopting new identities to evade detection while planning their next moves against the evil forces amassed against them. On this series, Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg), already revived from the dead at the start of this series, has to exercise his talents for rebirth once again, as he gathers what’s left of S.H.I.E.L.D. and recruits new faces as well. This allows for some new recurring guest stars, including – ready? – Lucy Lawless, who shows up tonight as a trusted former colleague of Coulson’s, and who is a great get for any series, genre or otherwise.

 
  
 
 

CBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: This new CBS series was presented initially as a back-door pilot (with Scott Bakula, the star of New Orleans, established as a Southern NCIS cohort in a regular episode of NCIS, opposite flagship series star Mark Harmon). Now the baby bird flies from tne nest and goes out on its own. Will it soar in the ratings? No question, really. If there’s any show this season that’s guaranteed to succeed, NCIS: New Orleans is it.

 
  
 
 

CBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Two different drama series, on two different networks, begin their new seasons tonight with plots that are remarkably similar: In order to survive, and combat the bad guys, a team of heroes goes underground, adopting new identities to evade detection while planning their next moves against the evil forces amassed against them. On this series, Finch (Michael Emerson) and his team have to separate, and assume alter egos, so that the evil new supercomputer, Samaritan, can’t track them down. That makes the new super-surveillance machine a Bad Samaritan – and this new season a basic reboot of the series premise. Instead of working for such an artificial intelligence, this gang is now working against one.

 
  
 
 

FX, 10:00 p.m. ET

To say that, in this show’s final season, it’s gone to the dark side is a bit of an understatement. Jax (Charlie Hunnam) has gone from being tortured (agonizing over the death of his wife) to being torturer (brutalizing and killing the man he was told was responsible). And since he acted on bad information, from his own murderous mother (Katey Sagal), things are setting up for one nasty Freudian climax: a veritable case of Oedipus wrecks.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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David Bianculli

Founder / Editor

David Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975, including a 14-year stint at the New York Daily News, and sees no reason to stop now. Currently, he's TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and is an occasional substitute host for that show. He's also an author and teaches TV and film history at New Jersey's Rowan University. His 2009 Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour', has been purchased for film rights. His latest, The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to the Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific, is an effusive guidebook that plots the path from the 1950s’ Golden Age to today’s era of quality TV.