Fall TV schedule has something for everyone

Here comes another harvest of fall shows, half of which are probably headed for the compost pile. I’ve reviewed 30 of them, and my top picks this season include Cinemax’s superb “Quarry,” HBO’s “Insecure” and Amazon’s “Fleabag.” Other bright spots? NBC’s “Timeless” and “This Is Us,” as well as HBO’s “Divorce” and Joel McHale picking on millennials in CBS’s “The Great Indoors.” (Some real clunkers, too – as usual. Two to avoid: CBS’s “Bull” and ABC’s “Notorious.”)

“Quarry”

Cinemax at 9 p.m. Fridays, premiered Sept. 9

Nothing’s better for a TV critic than falling in love with a show that didn’t sound like much on paper. Cinemax’s lean and mean new eight-episode drama “Quarry,” based on Max Allan Collins’ crime novels, is about Mac Conway (”Prometheus’” Logan Marshall-Green), a Marine who comes home to Memphis from Vietnam in 1972 and finds little opportunity for a veteran of an unpopular war - so he reluctantly becomes a hired gun for an enigmatic crime boss who calls himself The Broker (Peter Mullan).

See? Describing “Quarry” only makes it sound like one more cable drama about a difficult man drawn into a world of despicable, murderous people. Created and written by Michael D. Fuller and Graham Gordy (with Greg Yaitanes as showrunner/director), “Quarry” instead comes to life as soon as you turn it on, with a heartbreaking sense of soul, a strong ear for dialogue and an array of supporting players (including “Justified’s” Damon Herriman) who lend the show an impressive degree of grit, gallows humor and suspense.

Marshall-Green, however, delivers a superb performance as the emotionally and mentally wounded Mac; he is matched scene for smoldering scene by Jodi Balfour, who plays his wife, Joni. Moreover, the show’s set direction and period details are impressively flawless, whether depicting the ’70s-era blues-rock scene and riots over school busing, or the small things, down to the pull tabs ripped off beer cans and the Scripps-Howard lighthouse logo on the front page of the Memphis Press-Scimitar.

“Quarry’s” knack for conveying moral ambiguity and its mastery of setting remind me of another very good show that took forever to catch on: It was about a cancer-stricken chemistry teacher in Albuquerque who started cooking meth to make money. Don’t wait for the buzz that may or may not arrive - move “Quarry” to the top of your watch list now.

Grade: A

“Fleabag”

Amazon streaming, premiered Sept. 16

British writer and actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays the title role in this funny, highly profane but surprisingly poignant dramedy (originally a stage play) about a sexually compulsive woman in London.

At first, Waller-Bridge’s character (we only ever know her as Fleabag) seems to exist as a vessel for satirical prurience, constantly breaking the fourth wall to deliver a cutting insight about sex or the men she’s having it with. Bit by bit, we begin to see how her habits (not merely sexual) affect her relationships with her successful older sister, Claire (Sian Clifford), her ex-boyfriend (Hugh Skinner), her father (Bill Paterson) and her mean-spirited stepmother (”Broadchurch’s” Olivia Colman). More deeply, Fleabag is still grieving the death of her best friend and business partner, Boo (Jenny Rainsford), with whom she owned a small cafe that is about to go under.

“Fleabag” is only six episodes long (just like another fiercely funny, London-set Amazon comedy, “Catastrophe”), but story-wise, it accomplishes as much or more as most premium cable comedies do in 10 episodes. Romping along with our protagonist/narrator, we begin to see the fragility behind her vicious wit and uninhibited personality; Waller-Bridge masterfully portrays someone who pretends to live without shame while being quietly consumed with guilt. At a silent, all-female yoga retreat with her sister, Fleabag is irresistibly tempted to spy on a men’s workshop next door, where the participants work out their misogynistic feelings by yelling “SLUT!” at a female effigy. It’s as if they’re calling out her name. “Fleabag” starts off like a dirtier “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” but it soon develops into a more nuanced and heartbreaking (still humorous) novella about a person trying to find her truest self.

Grade: A-minus

“Insecure”

HBO at 9:30 p.m. Sunday, premieres Oct. 9

Almost as fun as watching Issa Rae’s pointed and endearing HBO comedy “Insecure” will be watching as white critics, cultural observers and other television connoisseurs fall over themselves (and their words) to “explain” it. Even HBO treads clumsily in press materials for the show, saying it “touches on a variety of social and racial issues that relate to the contemporary black experience.”

Well, duh. But enjoying the show doesn’t have to be complicated. What’s happened is that the TV biz has finally (and meaningfully) begun to correct a lack of diversity behind the camera as well as in front of it; this fall adds a few other dramas and comedies (including Donald Glover’s FX comedy, “Atlanta”) that feel like a step in the right direction, so long as we don’t overthink (or oversell) it. At its best, “Insecure” doesn’t try to be groundbreaking. It’s about black people in the southern part of L.A. County (think Inglewood, not Compton) the way “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is about white Jews in West L.A. - whatever culture-specific jokes you don’t get, you’ll grasp by context and feel smarter for it.

Rae plays a character called Issa who works at an insipidly named nonprofit organization (”We Got Y’all), which helps minority teenagers; Issa is the only black person among a staff of woefully insensitive white people who think they’re doing the world a big favor. Her best friend, Molly (Yvonne Orji), is a successful law-firm associate trying too hard to nab the qualified, eligible man that suits her notion of success. While Molly hunts, Issa is bored by her long-term boyfriend, Lawrence (Jay Ellis), and begins a flirtatious relationship with an old flame.

See, I told you: “Insecure” is simple, funny and authentic. Who needs another 2,000 words to say so?

Grade: A-minus

“Divorce”

HBO at 9 p.m. Sunday, premieres Oct. 9

With its dreary winter setting and poisonously mean mood, “Divorce” is sure to be a letdown for some viewers, particularly fans of Sarah Jessica Parker’s “Sex and the City” era of fizz and fun, which is, as this series makes sharply clear, far behind us. Once you’re over that hump, this 10-episode dramedy created by Sharon Horgan (one half of Amazon’s hilarious hit “Catastrophe”) begins to reveal itself as something more than just the doleful story of one couple’s dissolution.

Parker is terrifically on point as Frances Dufresne, whose husband, Robert (Thomas Haden Church), discovers that she’s been having an affair and kicks her out of the Hudson Valley, New York, house they share with their two children. He also throws her iPhone in the trash, which I keep pointing out to others as proof that “Divorce” is not set in the 1970s or ’80s - the show’s pallid tones and classic FM soundtrack can make it seem that it’s set in some pitiable past. Nope, it’s set in a pitiable now.

“Divorce” struggles at first with tone, leavened somewhat by comically absurd supporting characters (including “Saturday Night Live” alum Molly Shannon as a friend of Frances’s who pulls a gun on her own husband during a 50th birthday party). Another problem is Haden Church, who has been gifted and cursed with exactly one acting style, which, while initially grating, becomes an asset as a viewer begins to understand the depth of Robert’s insecurity and bluster. As Robert and Frances work through the stages of parting (counseling, mediation and acquiring venomous legal counsel), there are momentary - almost obligatory - glimmers by the sixth episode that love might prevail.

But who are we kidding? “Divorce” is best when it sticks to its title.

Grade: B-plus

“High Maintenance”

HBO at 10 p.m. Fridays, premieres Sept. 16

It’s interesting to see how pot humor, pot narratives and even pothead stereotypes evolve as laws against marijuana possession begin to ease. “High Maintenance,” an already well-regarded web series that has quietly upgraded to HBO (appropriately slotted after “Real Time With Bill Maher”), is a step in the right direction away from Cheech & Chong tropes, choosing instead to show the drug’s ubiquity - an almost banal occurrence in the lives of its users.

Created by husband-wife team Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld, “High Maintenance” stars Sinclair as “The Guy,” an exceptionally laid-back New York weed dealer who makes bicycle deliveries to a diverse array of clients. The show is a series of vignettes about the customers - from an unhappy couple (Lee Tergesen and Amy Ryan) who break the rules of their swingers’ group; to a gay man (Max Jenkins) trapped by his co-dependent friendship with his female roommate (Helene Yorke); to a youth-seeking retiree (Peter Friedman) who lives downstairs from his uptight yuppie daughter and son-in-law. We meet elderly Chinese immigrants, a Muslim college student, a reclusive son grieving the loss of his sick mother, and a young woman who is ruinously obsessed with her social-media persona. One story is even told from the perspective of a dog who falls in love with its hired walker (Yael Stone).

The common thread, of course, is the marijuana, which neither increases nor decreases the happiness in its users; it’s simply another form of brief release from the human condition, which “High Maintenance” portrays with subtly observed skill. Near the end of this six-episode ride, we learn a little more about The Guy himself; beneath his hipster front, he’s carrying some pain, too.

Grade: B-plus

“This is Us”

NBC at 9 p.m. Tuesday, premieres Sept. 20

Finally, a worthy proposal for the vacant lot where “Parenthood” once stood: “This Is Us,” from the writer and directors of the 2011 film “Crazy, Stupid, Love,” seems at first to be about a bunch of random people; they all share an important connection, but NBC really, really doesn’t want those of us who’ve seen the show to reveal it. I have every faith that viewers will figure it out for themselves within about 10 minutes of the first episode.

Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore star as a married couple on the verge of becoming parents - her water breaks on his birthday. Speaking of birthdays, we meet Kevin (Justin Hartley), the often-shirtless beefcake star of a dreadful sitcom called “The Manny,” who is having existential doubts on his 36th birthday. His twin sister, Kate (Chrissy Metz), is down in the dumps, too, dragging herself to a support group for obese people where she meets a man named Toby (Chris Sullivan), who asks her out on her first date in ages. Meanwhile, in some other town, a successful businessman named Randall (Sterling K. Brown from “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”) is also turning 36 and receives personal information he’s hunted for his whole life.

As I said, they made us do the TV critics’ pinky-swear, so no more details. And while I’d like to see another few episodes to make sure, there’s something comfortably gooey right away about “This Is Us,” reminding us once more that amid all the high-functioning detectives, emergency-rescue personnel and secret-agent superheroes covered in cryptic tattoos, there are very few network dramas aimed at viewers who are simply interested in everyday people and how they feel. This is us, saying thanks for noticing.

Grade: B-plus

“Timeless”

NBC at 9 p.m. Monday, premieres Oct. 3

This is a TV show in an admirably old-fashioned sense of the word, with a tight, action-packed pilot episode that is casually fun and intriguingly executed. There’s also a thought-provoking science-fiction premise that doesn’t clumsily reach for the profoundly metaphorical.

Abigail Spencer (”Rectify”) stars as Lucy Preston, a history professor summoned by the government to help out with a highly classified crisis: A determined criminal named Garcia Flynn (”ER’s” Goran Visnjic) has stolen our top-secret time machine and for some reason taken it to New Jersey in May 1937 - the time and place of the Hindenburg airship crash.

What, why? (How?) Never mind - off we go! Teamed up with a rakish ex-soldier (Matt Lanter as Wyatt Logan) and a geek scientist (Malcolm Barrett as Rufus Carlin), Lucy takes the lab’s spare time machine (the clunkier beta model) to 1937 to stop Flynn before he significantly alters history. Arriving there (or then) is a visual treat, with the kind of period details that only a network budget can buy, even though Rufus nervously points out that traveling to any point earlier than about 1980 sounds like a losing proposition to a black man like himself.

A coyly convoluted plot kicks in, as our gang tussles with bad guys aboard the Hindenburg. I won’t tell you if it still blows up or not, but I did like “Timeless’” kicker, when Abigail returns to the present day to discover that even the slightest futzing with history has profound (and personal) paradoxical consequences, which set a tone for further travels with her team. (Amelia Earhart’s disappearance! Abe Lincoln’s assassination!) Along the way, I hope they land in an era when viewers were less overwhelmed with choices and a clever show like this stood a better chance.

Grade: B-plus

“American Housewife”

ABC at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, premieres Oct. 11

Katy Mixon (”Mike & Molly”) makes easily enjoyable work out of creator Sarah Dunn’s comedy about a rebellious stay-at-home mom who resents her skinny peers in status-conscious Connecticut. The first episode spends an uncomfortable amount of time fixated on weight: Mixon, as a character named Katie Otto, is upset to learn that her neighbor across the way, known as “Fat Pam,” is moving, which will leave Katie with the distinction of being “the second fattest woman in Westport,” the one the yoga-toned moms all pay the same compliment: “You’re so real.”

Luckily, the shtick shifts. “American Housewife” is at its best during scenes of Katie’s daily life with her nerdy husband, Greg (Diedrich Bader), who happens to adore her plus-size figure, and her three children, who prove once more that ABC (with its Disneyfied intuition about such things) has a remarkable knack for casting snarky sitcom kids: a daughter, Taylor (Meg Donnelly), is on the verge of converting into a Stepford teen; a son, Oliver (Daniel DiMaggio), has political views that land to the right of Alex P. Keaton; and an adorable daughter, Anna Kat (Julia Butters), exhibits an obsessive-compulsive disorder of the delightful David Sedaris variety.

The show benefits from the current cultural backlash against flawless families and Pinterest perfection. There’s also a sharply written scene when Katie confronts the budding Ayn Rand fan in her midst, forcing Oliver to donate to food drives and help the homeless, even as he logically points out that being conservative is his true identity: “If I said I was a girl inside, you’d let me go to school in a dress!” Good point, but it nevertheless gives Katie sweet satisfaction to make him suffer.

Grade: B

“Designated Survivor”

ABC at 9 p.m. Wednesday, premieries Sept. 21

This is the fall show everyone in Washington keeps asking about, with visions dancing in their heads of Jack Bauer kicking butt in the White House. One episode into “Designated Survivor” may not convince these “24” fans that their beloved Kiefer Sutherland is now a deskbound, rookie POTUS. But once you’re over that hump, the show certainly makes a compelling case for its premise.

Sutherland stars as Tom Kirkman, a smart but ineffectual HUD secretary who, on the morning of the president’s State of the Union address, is asked to tender his resignation, with one final indignity: He must watch the address from a bunker as the “designated survivor,” the Cabinet secretary who stays safely behind while everyone else attends the speech, just in case.

As viewers doubtless know by now, a massive explosion destroys the Capitol, and minutes later, Kirkman (still wearing his Cornell hoodie) is sworn in as president with his wife, Alex (”Californication’s” Natascha McElhone), at his side and a West Wing and Pentagon full of doubters. That includes Kal Penn as a dubious junior speechwriter who gets an hour to write Kirkman’s first and most important live address.

Sutherland clearly relishes the chance to play an urban-policy wonk who has to dig deep to find the courage to lead a nation in crisis. It would take another two episodes at least (not available for this review) to determine where creator David Guggenheim and his writers will take things from here: Is it a Sorkin-esque policy drama heavy on code-red threat levels? A family drama? (The Kirkmans, of course, come with a disobedient Trouble Teen.) An action thriller? All of the above? The dust may take time to settle, but dammit, Chloe, we don’t have much time!

Grade: B

“The Exorcist”

Fox at 8 p.m. Friday, premieres Sept. 23

No one’s outdone William Friedkin’s 1973 masterful movie adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s novel about the pernicious demon who sent a man of the cloth tumbling down the Georgetown steps. Fox’s new series based on the movie isn’t intent on outdoing the classic so much as borrowing its frigid style, which it gets essentially correct in the first episode.

In the show, set in the bleakest, most dead-leaf-strewn portrayal of Chicago ever, Alfonso Herrera (”Sense8”) stars as Father Toms What-a-Waste, the handsome pastor of a parish that’s losing congregants and crumbling apart. Geena Davis co-stars as Angela Rance, a wealthy CEO who attends the church with her two daughters (Brianne Howey and Hannah Kasulka) and a husband (Alan Ruck) who suffers from early-onset dementia. Angela is convinced a presence has moved into their home (no surprise that the devil still loves a multistory townhouse) and asks Father Toms to check it out.

Certain visions and spooky feelings lead Toms to Father Marcus Keane (”Flesh and Bone’s” Ben Daniels) at some kind of dormitory for wayward priests. Marcus, having suffered defeat during his last exorcism (cue the flashbacks and twisty-neck effects), brusquely declines and scoffs at the younger priest’s innocence, which of course means he’ll soon dust off his stole and bring the holy water to join Toms. Can green vomit and levitation be far behind?

Perhaps not. The producers seem deadly serious about delivering something that both honors and deviates from the franchise; they say the show won’t necessarily become a procedural possession-o’-the-week series. Whatever’s going on in the Rance house is apparently a harbinger of a larger conflict between good and evil. The dogs howl; the crows gather. “The Exorcist” is back in business.

Grade: B

“The Great Indoors”

CBS at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, premieres Oct. 27

The most intense generational tussle of our era is thought to exist between baby boomers and their millennial offspring, while the usually overlooked Generation X gets to enjoy the fray from the sidelines. But that’s not necessarily so, as this clever sitcom demonstrates. Joel McHale (”Community,” “The Soup”) is spot on as Jack, a seasoned travel/adventure journalist for Outdoor Limits magazine, who is called back to Chicago headquarters by his boss, Roland (Stephen Fry), who has decided to solve declining circulation woes by shuttering the print edition and focusing on the digital audience.

Jack’s long-form nonfiction days are behind him as he is put in charge of a hyperwired millennial staff of content providers (including “Superbad’s” Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who curate listicles and slide shows and interview one another for their daily podcasts. Digs at millennial stereotypes abound here (everyone gets a trophy; bursting into tears at the slightest hint of criticism; a comfort dog brought to the office every day). But a few zingers are hurled Jack’s way, too, making it clear that 45 is the new Methuselah. It all rings just true enough to be fairly funny; the pilot episode comes across as a way to poke harmless fun across the divide.

Or so I thought: At a press preview in August, the producers and writers of “The Great Indoors” came in for some sharp words from millennial TV critics, who didn’t appreciate the parts of the show that made fun of millennials for getting easily upset or offended. Yes, that’s right: They’re offended at the notion that they’re easily offended. Don’t you love it? I say the writers should double down and make these ninnies cry every week. It’s good medicine to learn how to be mocked.

Grade: B

“Pitch”

Fox at 8 p.m. Thursday, premieres Sept. 22

Like a 90-minute inspirational sports movie squished down to a 43-minute TV pilot, “Pitch” is in a big hurry to run with our emotions and soar, opening its tale on the day that Ginny Baker (”Under the Dome’s” Kylie Bunbury) becomes the first female major league baseball player when she’s called up to pitch for the San Diego Padres. Executive producers Dan Fogelman and Rick Singer have done an admirable job of showing us what this moment in history would feel like; comparisons to Jackie Robinson abound as little girls flood the ballpark to cheer on their hero.

All eyes are on Ginny, especially the hot glare of the media. Though the Padres’ front-office is over the moon about ticket sales (Mark Consuelos plays the general manager, and Bob Balaban plays the billionaire owner), the clubhouse greets Ginny with predictably sexist scorn, perhaps best personified in the dismissiveness of Mike Lawson (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), the team’s catcher and longtime star, who senses a threat to his own celebrity status.

Adhering to the sports-story narrative, Ginny must suffer the lows before she experiences a high. When her first game is a disaster, the team manager (Dan Lauria) is ready to send her back down. Perseverance kicks in, as do flashbacks to the one man Ginny can never please - the father (Michael Beach) who has been riding her to do better since she was a child. All the tropes are present and accounted for, but they’re beautifully played out. In fact, “Pitch” tells its story in such a full way that it leaves only one obvious question unanswered: What could the second episode possibly be about?

Grade: B

“Speechless”

ABC at 7:30 pm. Wednesday, premieres Sept. 21

What a sweet thing “Speechless” is, a comedy starring Minnie Driver as Maya DiMeo, a mother of three who keeps moving her family around town until she finds a suitable school district that will meet the needs of her eldest son, JJ (Micah Fowler), who has cerebral palsy and communicates by moving his head to direct a light at a display board attached to his motorized wheelchair.

Yes, this is a show with Good Intentions and Something Important to Say about people who are different, which may well get in the way of its primary goal - to be very funny. But the writers and producers of “Speechless” wisely decided to give the DiMeo family an array of eccentricities and an honest policy of saying whatever is on their minds. Driver brings the right energy and sets the overall mood as a mother who won’t take no for an answer when it comes to JJ’s rights; John Ross Bowie, as her husband, Jimmy, offers a nice counterbalance as a casual, laid-back dad. The DiMeos’ two younger children, Ray (Mason Cook), who is tired of changing schools, and Dylan (Kyla Kennedy), an energetic daughter who longs to break records on the track team, remind their parents that they have their own needs.

A viewer can tell from the pilot episode that the cast and producers of “Speechless” are focused on getting this right; they don’t want to cut corners when it comes to JJ’s abilities, nor should they underestimate the ability of Fowler, who actually has cerebral palsy, to play the role with range and nuance. That all seems to take care of itself in the pilot; the trick now is to really take chances in further episodes with the sharper and potentially shocking comedy.

Grade: B

“Frequency”

CW at 8 p.m. Wednesday, premieres Oct. 5

This ghost-in-the-machine crime drama, inspired by the 2000 movie, is about a New York homicide detective, Raimy Sullivan (Peyton List), who starts hearing the voice of her father, Frank (Riley Smith), via his old ham radio in the garage. That’s a surprise, seeing as how Frank was murdered in October 1996 while working as an undercover cop. Raimy, who was 8 when her father died, is skeptical at first, but it eventually occurs to both of them that they are communicating across some sort of wrinkle in time.

Using their spooky link, Raimy tries to change her father’s fate, which we all know is a bad idea, especially those of us who watched the premiere of NBC’s “Timeless” a couple of weeks before “Frequency’s” premiere. (Tell us, readers of the near future: Has “Timeless” already been canceled? I hope not.) Long story short, it all becomes a big tangle of time spaghetti, unleashing a serial killer who had been dormant for two decades. I suppose Raimy Then and Raimy Now have a lot of work cut out for themselves, with the help of Dead Dad and Not-Dead Dad.

“Frequency’s” concept was mildly intriguing in theaters, and it’s mildly intriguing now, even with an extra layer or two of mushy TV-style goop on top of the story’s basic hokeyness. List and the other cast members give convincing enough performances, and creator Jeremy Carver (whose work includes writing for “Supernatural” and co-creating Syfy’s “Being Human”) is well attuned to the CW audience’s fondness for a perfectly average, cleanly comprehensible TV show. It’s no one’s idea of provocative television, but I’ll bet it quickly becomes someone’s favorite show.

Grade: B-minus

“Falling Water”

USA at 9 p.m. Thursday, premieres Oct. 13

Something tells me that a Venn diagram of the people who like to talk about their dreams and the people who love a long, loopy, conspiratorial TV drama would make for a lot of common shade. USA’s “Falling Water” (alas, it’s not a Frank Lloyd Wright miniseries) is probably just the sort of thing for people who like a show that always (and stylishly) keeps them permanently perplexed. Not in the “Mr. Robot” way - more in the “Sense8” or “Heroes” way, in which a group of unrelated people eventually figure out their eerie common denominator, piecing together a larger narrative.

So it is that three New Yorkers (Lizzie Brochere, David Ajala and Will Yun Lee) are all having scraps of the same disturbing dreams, even though they seemingly have no connection - one is a highly sought fashion trendspotter; one is a homicide detective; one is the security expert at a Wall Street firm. Their dreams involve phantom birth, maternal detachment, runaway buses and the word “Topeka”; subliminal notions that may be rooted in shocking facts and could unlock some useful power. When it comes to dreams, don’t forget the long, dark hallway, which, in this show, tends to be even longer and darker.

To its credit, “Falling Water” is meticulously visualized, with a story that works extra hard to set a mood between lucid dreaming and wakefulness, and a script that is appropriately lean. The only thing that’s crystal clear is that this won’t be a short trip, so it’s up to a viewer to decide if the show is languorously absorbing or just painfully slow. Two episodes in, my vote goes to painfully slow, while certain others may be tantalized by “Falling Water’s” many secrets.

Grade: C-plus

“Graves”

Epix at 9 p.m. Sunday, premieres Oct. 16

Held to the political comedy standards of, say, HBO’s brutally funny “Veep,” Epix’s new 10-episode dramedy “Graves” can’t stand up. But if we lower the bar a bit and think of some of those cutesy political fantasy movies of the 1990s (”Dave,” for example, and parts of “The American President”) that still strike a chord with viewers in a broadly populist sense ... well then, this just might work.

Part of “Graves’” problem is that it reads too bluntly as a lefty dream come true, in which a former two-term Republican president (Nick Nolte as Richard Graves) gets a wild idea (and reads a Slate article that calls him the worst president in history) and realizes that his staunchly conservative policies made life hell for ordinary Americans.

From his retirement ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Graves sets off to make eccentric amends, much to the chagrin of his popular wife, Margaret (Sela Ward), who is considering a run for Senate, and the exasperation of his fawning assistant, Isaiah Miller (Skylar Astin). The former president goes on the cable news show of Laura Wolf (Nora Dunn), who’s made her career lambasting him, and apologizes for his anti-immigration tirades. At a charity speech to cancer survivors, he admits that he cut funds that should have gone to research.

It’s an interesting spree - strewn with cameos from Jake Tapper, Rudy Giuliani, Bill Richardson and more - and Nolte seems to make more of the role than the scripts offer. But “Graves” is also somewhat leaden and obvious in its first two episodes, replete with a rebellious former first daughter (Helene Yorke) and a first son (Chris Lowell) who never felt loved. It’s another First Family comedy where the funny parts feel overexerted.

Grade: C-plus

“Lethal Weapon”

Fox at 7 p.m. Wednesday, premieres Sept. 21

Another week, another retro reboot - this time of the Mel Gibson-Danny Glover movie franchise that began in 1987, about a wildly unconventional cop who is mismatched with a by-the-book partner. From there, a thousand cop-buddy movies would flow.

The basics in Fox’s new version are still intact, but series creator Matt Miller and his team also seem to see potential in adding to “Lethal Weapon’s” strings section, particularly when it comes to the heartache of the Gibson character, Martin Riggs (now played by “Rectify’s” Clayne Crawford), an ex-Navy SEAL and El Paso narcotics detective who is grieving the sudden death of his pregnant wife in a car accident. With nothing left to lose, Riggs moves to Los Angeles, where a connection gets him paired with career LAPD detective Roger Murtaugh (Damon Wayans), husband of a powerful defense attorney (Keesha Sharp) and father to three, including a baby daughter.

Riggs and Murtaugh meet at a hostage situation, where Murtaugh gets his first clue that his partner has a death wish. “Charlie’s Angels” rebooter McG directs the pilot and serves as an executive producer, which gives “Lethal Weapon” a colorful (if nonsensical) sense of stunt-centric razzmatazz and other violations of the laws of physics - at one point a car chase ends up in the middle of a downtown Grand Prix race. Ridiculous, yes, but it’s a show that is honest about itself, with a surprisingly endearing performance from Crawford. The question, of course, is: Did the world really need another “Lethal Weapon”? One was probably coming anyhow, either to the multiplex or a network lineup, whether audiences wanted it or not. I promise you, we could have done a lot worse.

Grade: C-plus

“MacGyver”

CBS at 7 p.m. Friday, premieres Sept. 23

Yes, it’s that “MacGyver,” reimagined here as a millennial version of Angus “Mac” MacGyver (Lucas Till of the recent “X-Men” movies), an MIT grad who defused bombs during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and now works in the clandestine “Department of External Services” for the U.S. government. He and his team (George Eads, Tristin Mays) are assigned to do whatever it takes to save the world, over and over.

In typical “MacGyver” fashion, producers waited until the last minute to share the first episode with critics - and it’s a doozy, complete with MacGyver’s cheesy new Hillary Clinton hairstyle (the original MacGyver’s ’80s mullet would have been preferable) and remedial voice-over narration as he puts the full range of his resourcefully improvisational hacking skills to the test, preventing terrorists (one of them his ex-girlfriend) from deploying a stolen bioweapon. After motorboat chases, shootouts and a moment where MacGyver clings to the landing gear on a private jet, it all naturally comes down to a few remaining seconds on a timer wired to a bomb. MacGyver, as we all know, does his best work at 00:00:05 or less.

Some of us won’t be able to watch “MacGyver” without feeling like we’re getting a lobotomy with an unwound paper clip; others will be delighted by this energetic, easygoing update. It’s scheduled to air before the season premiere of “Hawaii Five-O,” a reboot that was also initially greeted with scoffs and is now going on seven years. So you might want to get used to this new Mac.

Grade: C-plus

“The Good Place”

NBC at 9 p.m. Monday, premiering Sept. 19

Michael Schur’s credits as a producer, writer and co-creator include “The Office,””Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “Parks and Recreation.” Not bad. His latest creation, however, an afterlife comedy called “The Good Place,” needs some work - at least judging from the first few episodes.

Kristen Bell (”House of Lies,””Veronica Mars”) stars as a coldhearted snake named Eleanor Shellstrop, who dies suddenly and finds herself transported to the Good Place, a euphemistic term for a heaven-like arrangement, fastidiously overseen by Michael (Ted Danson), the cheerful architect of the cookie-cutter Pleasantville where Eleanor has been assigned. What’s more, she gets to spend eternity with her actual soul mate, Chidi (William Jackson Harper), and bask in the eternal sunshine earned by those who lived virtuous lives. Clearly a mistake has been made, and Eleanor needs to straighten up her act (and her attitude) before Michael finds out and sends her to the Bad Place.

If there’s a purgatory for mediocre comedies that are built on wobbly premises, then that’s where this should go. A viewer will spend too much time grappling with the show’s intent (what might it be saying about the various ideas and beliefs people have about the afterlife?) and not enough time laughing. I’ll save you some time: There is no message and very few laughs, either. Bell’s character immediately comes off as a grating presence, and Danson seems miscast as the easily flustered angelic goody-goody. Still, Schur and company may turn this dud into a rainbow. Remember that hardly anyone thought “Parks and Rec” would rise to greatness after its first episode; a little faith may eventually bring reward. (Moves to Thursdays at 8:30 on Sept. 22.)

Grade: C

“Conviction”

ABC at 9 p.m. Monday, premieres Oct. 3

Hayley Atwell (”Marvel’s Agent Carter”) stars in this formulaic legal drama as Hayes Morrison, a talented lawyer who did time in the White House as the first daughter. Tabloid attention still hounds her as she lives up to (or down to, as the case may be) her party-girl image. In the pilot episode, she starts her morning in a Manhattan jail cell on a cocaine possession charge and ends it with a new job, courtesy of New York’s politically ambitious D.A., Conner Wallace (Eddie Cahill), who offers her a deal: Take over as head of his wrongful-convictions division or face the drug charges.

Unable to refuse, Hayes takes the job. Bossing around a deeply resentful staff of underlings, she digs in on cases where the person who went to jail may be innocent. “This isn’t about justice,” Hayes replies when the D.A. touts the nobility of the task. “This is about selling yourself as caring, passionate, electable.” (She forgot Google-able, so let me save you the trouble: Cahill had a recurring role on “Friends” - yes, omg, it’s Tag!)

The premise might work better in the hands of writers determined to weave together procedural crime stories and high-powered characters with a light, intelligent touch, “Good Wife”-style, gracefully volleying between court cases and political maneuverings. “Conviction,” co-created by Liz Friedman and Liz Friedlander, prefers the blunt approach, in strict accordance with ABC’s predictably melodramatic house style for one-hour dramas. The edits from scene to scene can feel more like amputations than quick cuts.

“Conviction” also assumes that viewers are ready to break our own personal land-speed records for following along with a new show; we might as well be watching it on fast-forward. Why the sprint? The only thing waiting at the finish line for a show this average is cancellation.

Grade: C-minus

“No Tomorrow”

CW at 8 p.m. Tuesday, premieries Oct. 4

This unspeakably cutesy romantic drama (based on a Brazilian series from 2012) is about a woman named Evie (Tori Anderson) who has a boring job and a boring boyfriend and a boring family who nags her for not being married yet. She has a chance run-in with an angelically attractive neighborhood hipster, Xavier (”Galavant’s” Joshua Sasse), who tells her he’s calculated that an asteroid the size of Mount Everest will collide with Earth in eight months and 12 days. Unable to convince the world of his discovery, Xavier is dedicated to spending his remaining days crossing items off his YOLO list, and that most certainly does not include working. Evie can’t help but be tempted to quit her own job and join him.

Not to sound like the world’s biggest fuddy-duddy, but the first episode of “No Tomorrow” plays too easily as millennial claptrap. It can sometimes seem as if they all want to quit their jobs and climb Machu Picchu (Xavier has already crossed that off his list). They’re too good for everyday existence - and they’ve got the Instagram pictures to prove it. While Evie succumbs to Xavier’s charms and leaps into dune buggies and up on stage to karaoke some Whitesnake, a less impressionable viewer begins to wonder why Xavier gave up so quickly on trying to alert the world of its doom. Is he a fraud? (I don’t trust him - he wears too many turquoise rings, for starters.) Is he wrong about the asteroid? Is he even real?

Now there’s a thought: There would be more to love about “No Tomorrow” if we slowly got the idea that Evie is imagining this whole thing from a place of heavy medication, in a padded room somewhere.

Grade: C-minus

“Bull”

CBS at 8 p.m. Tuesday, premieres Sept. 20

This drama is based on the applied uses of courtroom psychology, in which high-dollar experts and consultants advise attorneys (defense attorneys, mostly) on how to select and manipulate juries. That doesn’t necessarily mean “Bull” is to be believed - a lot of it is a crock, in just the way audiences have come to expect from a CBS procedural.

Michael Weatherly, seeking refuge from 13 seasons on “NCIS,” is weirdly miscast here as the confident Dr. Jason Bull, a psychologist who gets remarkable results. Sporting chunky horn-rimmed glasses and delivering most of his lines in a low monotone as if he’s been cast as a suave Batman, Weatherly lacks just the sort of animal magnetism he’s been told to project. Or maybe it’s the deeply cynical, unctuous nature of the work his character does: “’Innocent until proven guilty’ is ‘Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame-seed bun,’” Bull tells the attorney of a rich-kid murder defendant in the pilot episode. “It’s the old jingle.”

Whatever. There’s probably an interesting show to be made about this line of work, but “Bull” quickly lapses into the standard prime-time bull. And talk about an old jingle: Whether a CBS drama grants special talents to a detective or a computer hacker, you can be sure that character will be briefly, ritually flustered or surprised (usually at the 31-minute mark) but never outwitted or emotionally stricken or ... well, fill in any sort of pain or reckoning that would carry over to the next episode.

“Bull” is ostensibly based on the early work of Dr. Phil McGraw, the syndicated daytime talk-show host, who used to help attorneys read juries and serves as an adviser to this show. No wonder it’s got a whiff of malarkey.

Grade: D-plus

“Kevin Can Wait”

CBS at 7:30 p.m. Monday, premieres Sept. 19

“Kevin Can Wait” kicks off the official first week of the fall TV season and simultaneously takes the biggest possible step backward, looking like a sitcom that belongs in the fall 1997 lineup. Its star, Kevin James, is sitcom royalty at CBS, after nine hit seasons of “The King of Queens,” so naturally the network is thrilled to have him back. It really doesn’t matter what sort of sitcom this is, so long as it’s the CBS-iest sitcom possible.

This time James plays newly retired police officer Kevin Gable, looking forward to spending more time with his wife, Donna (Erinn Hayes), kids and his other retired-cop buddies. Kevin is thrown a curve (if you could call it that) when the garage apartment he was hoping to earn extra income on will instead be occupied, rent-free, by his 20-year-old daughter, Kendra (Taylor Spreitler), and her surprise fiance, an app-designing techie named Chale (Ryan Cartwright). That means Kevin is now hunting for a new job. If it was another kind of show, I’d be eager to hear Kevin kvetch, Archie Bunker-style, about the Black Lives Matter movement and other police-related topics; based on the pilot shown to critics this summer, that doesn’t seem to be in store.

I’m not opposed to “Kevin Can Wait” on any particular principle (not even the pernicious fat husband/petite wife trope that used to get other critics so worked up), nor am I immune to James’ appeal. But I am let down that CBS reserves so much of its schedule for serving rice pudding laced with a sedative. Rise up, citizens of nursing homes and waiting rooms! Rise up and demand funnier shows! Or rise up and at least change the channel.

Grade: D

“Son of Zorn”

Fox at 7 p.m. Sundays, premiered Sept. 11

This excruciatingly one-note animation/live-action hybrid comedy is filled with jokes that seem more automated than written, at least in the pilot episode. Jason Sudeikis turns in a bare-minimum performance as the voice of Zorn, an 8-foot-tall ’80s cartoon warrior from the island of Zephyria, who catches a plane to the human world of Orange County, California, in an attempt to reconnect with his 17-year-old son, Alangulon (Johnny Pemberton), a nerdy high school senior who prefers to be called Alan.

Cheryl Hines co-stars as Zorn’s ex-wife, Edie, who has put her barbarian days way behind her. “Did you get bangs?” she asks Zorn when he rings her doorbell.

“Remember the time we had that fivesome with the mountain trolls?” Zorn asks her, perhaps hoping to rekindle a spark.

“That was the old me,” she sighs, and introduces him to her fiance, Craig (Tim Meadows), but Zorn still thinks he has a chance to woo her. (”Don’t act like you’ve never ridden a death hawk, Edie,” Zorn reminds her. “I was 19,” she replies. “I was coked out of my mind.”) The rapport is sometimes witty (the laughs are merely smirks), and the mixing of animation and live-action surprisingly hasn’t come all that far since the Roger Rabbit days. The humans involved still look like they’re trying to figure out the dynamics of acting with a co-star who isn’t really there.

Zorn decides to stay (for as long as Fox will air him, I suppose), finding an apartment and getting a cubicle job where, he says, his superior (Artemis Pebdani) “dresses exactly like a woman.” That’s because she is a woman. It’s just one more way “Son of Zorn” ceaselessly hammers home its protagonist’s vain disregard for our eco-conscious, tech-driven, diverse culture. It gets old the minute it starts.

Grade: D

“Berlin Station”

Epix at 8 p.m. Sunday, premieres Oct. 16

With plenty of “Homeland” envy and almost none of its momentum or appeal, this 10-episode attempt by cable movie channel Epix to get back into the original drama game is an espionage thriller that immediately runs long on trench coats and short on thrills. It’s about a CIA agent, Daniel Miller (Richard Armitage), who accepts a clandestine assignment from his superiors: Take a job in the Berlin office to see if an inside source is responsible for leaking classified secrets via an online whistleblower who goes by the name “Thomas Shaw.”

There’s a fine line between telling your viewers too much and, respecting their intelligence, telling them just enough to figure it out. This is a show that wants to be complex but winds up being convoluted instead. There are moments in the first two episodes where even the dutiful cast members (including “True Blood’s” Michelle Forbes and “Olive Kitteridge’s” Richard Jenkins) read their lines professionally but have a look on their faces like they don’t understand what the hell any of it means. (Many of the plot threads resemble “Homeland’s” season in Berlin last year, a fact that doesn’t seem like plagiarism so much as lack of imagination.)

One of the reasons it’s difficult to keep up is that “Berlin Station” is boring, as is its central character. As the spy we’re supposed to be rooting for, Armitage might as well be a cardboard cutout. If you want cable viewers to find you on a busy Sunday night and stick with you, you’re going to have to do better than this.

Grade: D-minus

“Notorious”

ABC at 8 p.m. Thursday, premieres Sept. 22

Honestly, instead of watching this, why not just remove your brain, put it in a jar and admire it from the couch? That’s one way of trying to dissuade you from watching this ill-spirited and possibly corrosive drama - but of course now I’ve piqued your interest, haven’t I?

Ostensibly based on the real-life back-scratching between high-profile L.A. lawyer Mark Geragos and longtime “Larry King Live” executive producer Wendy Walker, “Notorious” skids right off the cliff with the concept. Here, lawyer Jake Gregorian (Daniel Sunjata) and Julia George (Piper Perabo), the producer of a news show called “Louise Herrick Live,” manipulate and exploit the travails of his celebrity clients for mutual benefit: She gets big exclusives and ratings, and he gets to plant reasonable doubts and perform damage control on behalf of his clients. Between them they’ve got zero ethics (legal or journalistic); the show quite happily pretends such principles never existed. It’s depressing to think about how many viewers will agree.

It’s amazing how many different scenes creators/writers Josh Berman and Allie Hagan packed into the pilot episode - with Julia having a fling with a federal judge and Jake rushing around to defend a high-tech billionaire accused of killing a teenager in a hit-and-run, while also advising a city councilman on how to contain old fraternity photos that feature a Confederate flag - and still found time for all the humpin’ around and other setups and subplots.

It’s an exhausting hour, and if it was a plate-spinning act, I’d give it a rave. But it’s a prime-time drama that leans too heavily on flash and trash without having the common decency to be ironic. Just a wink from the actors to let us know that they realize it’s junk - it’s all I ask.

Grade: F

“Good Girls Revolt”

Amazon streaming, premieres Oct. 28

Amazon likes to audition the pilot episodes of its potential series for its subscribers, so many viewers have already seen (and approved) the proposed launch of this dramatic adaptation of Lynn Povich’s 2012 memoir, “The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace.”

Creator Dana Calvo’s series, “Good Girls Revolt,” looks at first like a livelier (and more outrage-inducing) riff on “Mad Men,” but instead of just slowing down to rubberneck the suffering of women in a 1960s workplace, it’s about effecting change. The story opens in December 1969 in the clickity-clackity chaos of a busy magazine called News of the Week. When violence shuts down the Altamont music festival in California, the editors set their arrogant male reporters on the late-breaking story - which, naturally, means that the dutiful all-female team of researchers who sit in “the pit” are the ones tasked with working the phones to nail down the details.

The almost spectral cameo appearance of Nora Ephron (Grace Gummer), who lasts exactly long enough to write circles around her male superior and then quits when her copy is sent to a man for a rewrite, verges on leftover feminist ham. Nevertheless, the message is loud and clear: These women are ready to confront sexism and demand fair treatment.

The episode bears the telltale clumsiness of most pilots, especially in dialogue, which means I’d want to see a few more episodes to be able to tell if “Good Girls Revolt” fulfills the task it’s set for itself. The elements are there for a fine show that not only satisfies a desire to keep rehashing a host of midcentury matters (as well as the fashions and furnishings), but also has the potential to ignite serious conversations in 2016. (Fox News, anyone?)

Grade: Pending

“Man With a Plan”

CBS at 7:30 p.m. Monday, premieres Oct. 24

If you accidentally find yourself watching “Man With a Plan,” which stars Matt LeBlanc (forever Joey) as Adam, a contractor who takes on added parenting and household duties when his wife returns to work, I would recommend supplying your own layer of alternate reality: Imagine that this particleboard sitcom is in fact part of a lost season of Showtime’s “Episodes,” in which “Matt LeBlanc” (played by LeBlanc, in a nicely meta turn) winds up landing yet another sitcom that exists mainly to employ actors, writers and producers - and thus consciously squanders all the critical goodwill he gained by playing a version of himself on an ironic premium cable comedy.

Like “Kevin Can Wait,” “Man With a Plan” is not terrible so much as it is utterly, depressingly calculated to bring a minimum return to a network guided by business projections. What the show needs most is a supporting character who will continually call B.S. on all the outdated jokes about gender roles, particularly when it comes to a man “helping” to raise his own children. The pilot shown to critics wasn’t ready for review, mostly because it had “The Office’s” Jenna Fischer playing the role of Andi, Adam’s wife. I can only hope that an army on horseback, led by Dwight Schrute, rode in and rescued her - which is how Liza Snyder (”Yes, Dear”) wound up in the part instead.

Further episodes might get funnier, but from all appearances, “Man With a Plan” is one of those shows that, when you reach to shut it off, the person on the other side of the hospital curtain divider will feebly groan, “Hey, I was watching that.”

Grade: Pending

“Pure Genius”

CBS at 9 p.m. Thursday, premieres Oct. 27

A rare and probably untreatable case of a premise that comes off far more creepy than it intends, “Pure Genius” (created by “Parenthood’s” Jason Katims) is about a Bay Area research hospital built by a wealthy tech titan, James Bell (Augustus Prew), to eliminate the red tape that stands between traditional medicine and cutting-edge techniques. At Bunker Hill, terminally ill patients are admitted free and treatments are experimental.

A newly hired surgeon, Walter Wallace (Dermot Mulroney), is a little skeeved out by Bell’s renegade approach, where patients are promised miracles and the staff relies heavily on TV’s infamous “whatever technology” - the floor-to-ceiling transparent touch screens and other gizmos that seem about 20 years ahead of their time and run on the same never-crashing OS seen in iterations of “CSI” and “24.” It doesn’t take long for Dr. Wallace to investigate the source of Bell’s exuberant involvement in the daily caseload: the billionaire’s secret hope that his top-notch recruits will find a cure for his own rare condition, which will rob him of all motor skills if untreated.

“Pure Genius” contains a message that still needs to be smoothed out. (One is reminded of stories of how Steve Jobs shunned traditional medicine as cancer consumed him.) “Pure Genius” hints at the conflict between Silicon Valley triumphalism and medical ethics, full of promises that can’t be kept (in one scene a mother communicates with a daughter in a vegetative coma using nifty new telepathy helmets), but stopping just short of sinister. In fact, the version of the pilot episode shown to critics this summer. would have been more interesting if Dr. Wallace discovered he was being kept in the hospital beyond his will. Alas, “Pure Genius” is a show that means to inspire, not frighten.

Grade: Pending

“Westworld”

HBO at 8 p.m. Sunday, premiering Oct. 2

HBO’s “Westworld” is the fall season’s big head-scratcher, a lavish science-fiction drama already dogged by production delays and reshoots. Critics saw two episodes in late July, and the initial response, besides wondering why yet another big cable drama must begin with an act of sexual violence against a woman, was the same kind of silence that greeted “Vinyl” and “The Leftovers.” Both of those shows found fans, but neither fulfilled the impossible dream of becoming HBO’s next big hit.

“Westworld” still might. I’d like to see more of it before I judge its artistic intent, and I don’t mind that the network sent it back a few times to get it right. Because, of course, it can’t simply be a dystopian, violent tale of a futuristic playground where tourists pay big money to pretend to time-travel to a Wild West replica of the 19th-century United States, where robot cowboys and saloon gals serve their every whim? (Can it?) What we do know is megaproducer J.J. Abrams has for two decades longed to remake Michael Crichton’s 1973 film, which starred Yul Brynner as a gunslinging android in a state of artificially intelligent rebellion. Showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have delivered something that is certainly a beguiling departure from the original.

The show’s impressive cast includes Ed Harris (in the Brynner role), Anthony Hopkins (as Westworld’s grand architect) and Evan Rachel Wood (in the aforementioned role of the raped robot). Also: Jeffrey Wright, Thandie Newton and James Marsden.

Is “Westworld” for people who like bloody Westerns? Philosophical sci-fi? Or is it for those of us who just like to watch HBO burn money? Yes to all that, but for now a big shrug.

Grade: Pending

This story was originally published September 16, 2016 at 2:01 PM with the headline "Fall TV schedule has something for everyone."