Flops And Fantasies In A Fall TV Season

A look at the good and bad of the new fall television season. And a preview of the Emmys on Sunday.

The fall rollout of new TV shows and hot returns is not what it used to be, with shows showing up all year round now on cable and the Internet and even the networks. And still, there is a fall rollout and it’s on right now. Old and new and the old made new. Miss Piggy is back with "The Muppets."  Muppets dating humans now. "Empire"’s back.  Watch out for that Cookie. "Supergirl." "Master of None." "Fargo." "The Leftovers." We’ve been talking the “Golden Age of Television.” Critics aren’t sure this is it. But we’re looking for the gold. This hour On Point, top critics on the fall TV season – good, bad and ugly.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Willa Paskin, television critic for Slate. (@willapaskin)

Alan Sepinwall, television critic for HitFix. Author of "The Revolution Was Televised." (@sepinwall)

Slate: Must-Please TV -- "The fall TV season, in which the networks shower audiences with a storm of new shows, puts me in mind of a parade that has fallen on hard times. Years ago, every September, the networks would roll out dozens of gleaming series to cheering throngs eager to watch all the new sitcoms roll by on fancy floats. Now, every September, the parade still happens, but there are no crowds, just a few stragglers standing on the sidewalk, looking at their phones, occasionally glancing up to see a sitcom plod past on a rinky-dink flatbed."

HitFix: 'Muppets,' 'Supergirl,' 'Evil Dead' & more: Intriguing new fall shows — "In the strange new world that is Peak TV in America, the idea of getting excited about the start of the fall TV season feels on one level silly and antiquated. In a year when there will be over 400 original scripted shows in primetime, and so many terrific new shows have already debuted that I cringe just thinking about winnowing them down to a Top 10 list in December, what's the big deal about fall premieres?"

New Yorker: Be Mine -- "'The Mindy Project' is now one of a wave of similar experiments, many off the beaten track: Amazon’s lovely 'Catastrophe'; the sleeper rom-com 'Scrotal Recall,' on Netflix; and the sparkling 'You’re the Worst,' which is currently entering its second season, on FXX, after a near-perfect first. These shows are a sharp and likable crowd, unafraid of fun and pleasure, like friends of friends at a party you’re glad you showed up for. In contrast to Hollywood’s rom-coms—whose pleasures often feel like 'settling'—their TV analogues have a romanticism that is at once earnest and earned."

"Empire" (Wednesday at 9/8c PM on FOX)

"The Muppets" (Tuesday at 8/7c PM on ABC)

"Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" (Monday at 8/7c PM on the CW)

"The Daily Show with Trevor Noah" (Monday - Thursday at 11/10c PM on Comedy Central)

"The Good Wife" (Sunday at 9/8c PM on CBS)

"Project Greenlight" (Sunday at 10/9c PM on HBO)

"Fargo" (Tuesday at 8/7c PM on FX)

"The Leftovers" (Sunday at 9/8c PM on HBO)

"Transparent" (Streaming on Amazon Prime)

"Supergirl" (Monday at 8:30/7:30c pm on CBS)

"Master of None" (Streaming On Netflix)

"Jane the Virgin" (Monday at 8/7c PM on the CW)