The 10 Most Promising New TV Shows of Fall 2009

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6. “Melrose Place”
Network: The CW
Premieres: September 8th, 2009, 8pm CST

Stephanie Jacobsen as Lauren, Colin Egglesfield as Auggie, Ashlee Simpson-Wentz as Violet, Shaun Sipos as David, Katie Cassidy as Ella, Michael Rady as Jonah, Jessica Lucas as Riley in MELROSE PLACE on The CW.
Photo credit: Patrick Ecclesine/The CW

We’re not trying to claim that the new version of “Melrose Place” is going to draw comparisons with the best of television. This is not “Lost” or “Mad Men”. But not everything needs to be. We all need a guilty pleasure or two, fun shows with laughable characters doing ridiculous things to one another in the name of pure, stupid entertainment, and “Melrose Place” could easily be the most successful guilty pleasure of the new season.

All of the ingredients are there including a great villainess in the Heather Locklear mode (the show-stealing Katie Cassidy, most recently seen on “Harper’s Island”), a pop star turned actress (Ashley Simpson-Wentz), a cast of beautiful people, and tawdry plotlines (in the premiere, a medical school student may turn to sex for money to pay the bills and a young filmmaker may blackmail a high-profile producer after catching him fooling around).

“Melrose Place” is the kind of show that really shouldn’t work and that you may not admit to your friends that you watch it while they’re discussing the latest “Dexter” or “Breaking Bad,” but it could easily be appointment television every week and one of the true water cooler (or more like water fountain in the high school hallway) shows of this season.

5. “Trauma”
Network: NBC
Premieres: September 28th, 2009, 8pm CST

Kevin Rankin as Tyler.
Photo credit: Chris Haston/NBC

We know, we know - ANOTHER medical drama? What we like about “Trauma” is how different it feels from not just NBC’s other medical offering “Mercy” but also most medical shows we’ve seen to date. It also has arguably the most promising cast of the season and, if given time to find an audience, could really become the next “ER” for the peacock network.

The difference between “Mercy” and “Trauma” is simple - the former is mostly set at the hospital with the patients and the people who take care of them while the latter focuses on the people who are tasked with getting injured or dying people to the nurses and the doctors no matter what. It’s an action-driven show more than a typical medical drama.

Take for example the opening scene of the premiere with a helicopter crash that is more adrenalin-pumping than a lot of the summer movies from the season just passed. “Trauma” immediately sets itself up as a heart-racer, a show that tries to put you in the middle of the intense action that comes with rescuing people from dangerous situations. These are the men and women who run toward the leaking gas tanker just in case there’s someone underneath. It makes for some riveting television. And the cast is spectacular, led by the great Derek Luke and underrated Cliff Curtis. If NBC gives it time to find an audience “Trauma” could be must-see television.

4. “Mercy”
Network: NBC
Premieres: September 23rd, 2009, 7pm CST

James Tupper as Dr. Chris Sands, Taylor Schilling as Veronica Flanagan Callahan.
Photo credit: Mitchell Haaseth/NBC

Nothing makes us angrier about this Fall than the fact that NBC has given five hours of time previously devoted to scripted programming to “The Jay Leno Show”. The network that brought us such amazing dramatic writing as “St. Elsewhere,” “Hill Street Blues,” “ER,” and “L.A. Law” is essentially giving it up to the cable channels, admitting that reality TV has won the war and the place for writing is on networks like HBO, AMC, Showtime, and FX. If we were TV writers, we would ignore all calls from NBC. They don’t care about you. And yet, they’re not completely surrendering. They have an aggressive slate of mid-season shows (which I think is just in case Jay doesn’t take off, but don’t tell him that) and three new shows for the Fall. Much to our surprise, all three have enough potential to make the list (tied with ABC for the most in the top ten).

The best is “Mercy,” a medical series with a strong enough ensemble and writing to overcome the deja vu created by yet another 2009 show about nurses (after the inferior “HawthoRNe” and superior “Nurse Jackie”). From a creative team that includes veterans of “Friday Night Lights” and “Pushing Daisies,” “Mercy” is the most expertly-paced new hour of the season. Newcomer Taylor Schilling stars as Nurse Veronica Callahan, a young lady returning to Mercy Hospital after a tour in Iraq. Jamie Lee Kirchner, Michelle Trachtenberg, James Tupper, Guillermo Diaz, and James Le Gros co-star as fellow hospital employees on a show that feels the most like “The New Grey’s Anatomy” of 2009.

Schilling is very good and the diverse supporting cast (which also includes James Tupper and Diego Klattenhoff) keeps the show from getting stale or predictable. Ironically, “Mercy” wasn’t even supposed to be on the Fall schedule, being moved up from mid-season after health issues forced the delay of “Parenthood” to later in the TV year. They were saving this for mid-season? Anyone still think they’re not buying insurance for the chips they’ve bet on Leno?

3. “FlashForward”
Network: ABC
Premieres: September 24th, 2009, 7pm CST

ABC’s “FlashForward” stars Br?an F. O’Byrne as Aaron Stark, Courtney B. Vance as Stanford Wedeck, Peyton List as Nicole Kirby, John Cho as Demetri Noh, Dominic Monaghan as Simon, Joseph Fiennes as Mark Benford, Zachary Knighton as Bryce Varley, Christine Woods as Janis Hawk, Sonya Walger as Olivia Benford and Jack Davenport as Lloyd Simcoe.
Photo credit: Bob D’Amico/ABC

A man wakes up in the middle of a nightmare. He crawls from a crash scene, where he hears screaming, sees a man on fire, and a supernatural mystery begins. Is this “Lost, Part Deux”? The creators of “FlashForward” will probably grow tired of the parallel pretty quickly, but it’s an inescapable one for this show that clearly wants to build the same kind of “WTF” buzz about the mystery at its core.

So, is it “Lost” or is it “Harper’s Island”? An obsession or a show that audiences won’t commit to every week? It’s too soon to say how audiences will respond to such an unusual concept but it’s easily the most interesting set-up of the season. For a little over two minutes, everyone in the world blacks out and sees their own future on April 29th, 2010. Naturally, the blackouts cause some serious, immediate problems like massive highway crashes, worldwide death, and an amazing sequence with a helicopter crashing into a building, but the bigger mystery is going to be what drives the show - why did people see the future and is there any way to change it or even make sense of what some of them saw?

The premiere of “FlashForward” doesn’t have the impact of the first episode of “Lost,” although it’s not for lack of trying. A bombastic score, slow-motion action, the creators of “FlashForward” are really trying to tide you over until “Lost” returns. There’s even a random animal like the Polar Bear in the “Lost” premiere. We’ll cover it in more depth when it premieres with a full-length review, but there’s a few elements of “FlashForward” that need tightening before it can live up to its massive potential.

The cast, led by Joseph Fiennes, Sonya Walger (Penny from “Lost”), John Cho, Courteney B. Vance, and the great Brian F. O’Byrne (mark my words, if the show takes off, he’ll be the “Locke”) is spectacular. A great concept, a strong cast, and a final shot that’s one of the best in YEARS (it’s a real chill-inducer and something to get people talking) will keep viewers coming back for week two and probably beyond. That’s potential.

2. “The Middle”
Network: ABC
Premieres: September 30th, 2009, 7:30PM CST

ABC’s “The Middle” stars Chris Kattan as Bob, Patricia Heaton as Frankie, Neil Flynn as Mike, Eden Shur as Sue, Charlie McDermott as Axl and Atticus Shaffer as Brick.
Photo credit: Bob D’Amico/ABC

Patricia Heaton (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) and Neil Flynn (“Scrubs”) star in this single-camera comedy that feels like a blend between “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development”. Produced by writers from the former, Heaton and Flynn play the parents of a middle-class family in flyover country. They’re middle-aged, middle class, and living in the middle of the country. It sounds like it could have easily been a set-up for yet another crappy sitcom - bad family comedies are as common as infomercials - but “The Middle” works. It’s funny, clever, and very well-cast. It’s the best new sitcom of the season.

The deadpan style that made Flynn so effective as the Janitor on “Scrubs” proves to be a perfect counterbalance to Heaton’s more manic delivery as a truly harried wife and working mother of three. Heaton’s Frankie has to balance a dirty teen son, awkward pre-teen girl, and straight-up weird youngest son with her job at a car dealership (with “SNL” alum Chris Kattan) and trying to find any bit of her time for herself. Frankie and her clan could easily be the breakout comedy stars of the year.

The only thing holding them back may be their neighbors. “The Middle” has a lead-in and lead-out of new sitcoms, stuck in the center of an entire evening of new programming on ABC, arguably the riskiest move of the season. (It’s unusual to have five new shows on one entire night, much less one network on one night.) If one or two fail, they could drag the whole lineup down and the odds that all five will connect seem slim. Let’s hope “The Middle” breaks out from the pack.

1. “Glee”
Network: Fox
Premieres: September 9th, 2009, 8PM CST

The new comedy for the aspiring underdog in all of us premieres Wednesday, Sept. 9 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Pictured Clockwise from L: Jenna Ushkowitz, Chris Colfer, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley, Kevin McHale and Lea Michele.
Photo credit: Matthias Clamer/FOX

We’ve already raved about the first episode of “Glee,” which will rerun on September 2nd, 2009, but we’ve been lucky enough to see the next two episodes already and there’s absolutely zero dip in quality. In fact, the show might even get better in “Showmance,” airing September 9th, and “Preggers,” airing September 23rd. From creator Ryan Murphy (“Nip/Tuck”), “Glee” is a clever blend of satire, pop tunes, laugh-out-loud comedy, and rich, interesting characters. It’s easily the best new show of the season and, if it maintains the quality of its first three episodes, it’s one of the best shows on TV… period.

What’s so promising about “Glee” is the scope of the storytelling and the strength of the ensemble. The main focus of the show will always be the actual Glee Club and their clever, plot-driven song choices (including in the next few episodes “Gold Digger,” “Single Ladies,” and an amazing version of “Take a Bow”), but the high school setting and its characters would work brilliantly without the music.

The women rule the first few episodes with Lea Michele, Jane Lynch, Jayma Mays, and the spectacular Jessalyn Gilsig stealing the opening trio of “Glee”. A semi-musical satire with a strong female cast? This is as unique a show on the network schedule as anything we’ve seen in years. “Unique” shows often struggle to find an audience. Don’t let “Glee” struggle.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com