This post is free for everyone to read.
We're approaching a year since I left Rolling Stone and turned this site into my primary business. I'm extremely grateful for everyone who has had the means and interest to become a paid subscriber. I literally can't do this without you all. I wanted to give all of you — along with anyone who's thinking of signing up for a paid subscription — an idea of what you might expect from me, and from TV, as a relatively quiet TV summer segues into what looks to be a very busy TV fall. f
Let's start with the three ways to subscribe:
Free subscribers: You'll get the weekly Friday Check-Ins, occasional other free articles like this one (or anything related to my books, my podcast(*), etc.), and previews of everything else I do.
(*) Because I make it in partnership with Kathryn VanArendonk, the TV Is Good podcast is its own separate venture. The main feed episodes are free to all, and you can subscribe to the podcast Patreon here if you want.
What's Alan Writing? tier subscribers: You get access to virtually everything I write for the site, including all my recaps and reviews, awards analysis (the Emmys are on September 14), tributes to notable TV people when they pass away, etc.
What Else Is Alan Watching? bonus tier subscribers: You get access to everything I write for the site, which includes 2-3 bonus posts every month, with at least one Ask Alan mailbag(*) and at least one other deeply nerdy bit of TV (or TV criticism) lore or speculation. (I'm already working on the latest installment of my "If they swapped roles" series, and I have many more stories about the weirdness of life on the TV criticism beat.) You also get access to the What's Alan Watching? Discord, where you can hang out and chat with your fellow TV obsessives.
(*) As a reminder, send questions to alan@whatsalanwatching.com. In addition to the regular mailbags, I want to do one about Rod Serling, since I have a book about him coming out in mid-October. Would love some questions re: Twilight Zone, Planet of the Apes, whatever.
Among the things I have planned:
TRIBUTES
The next few months feature a lot of notable TV anniversaries. Star Trek turns 60. Friday Night Lights turns 20. It will be 20 years since the curious case of two different shows set backstage at a fake SNL (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and 30 Rock) debuting within weeks of each other — on the same network! Classic spy dramas Alias and 24 both turn 25. Spin City and Everybody Loves Raymond turn 30. (Both are from the first year I covered this beat professionally.) It's 10 years since the American debut of Fleabag (its English debut was last month, but I missed it because I'm a jingoistic American).
I can't promise tributes to all of these milestones and others, but I definitely want to sprinkle some essays on classic television in with the present-day stuff.
RECAPS
I'm still only partially through the latest seasons of Ted Lasso (which has highs and lows) and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (which unfortunately has been mostly lows, though I can preview this week's recap to say it will be a very positive one), and I'll also be covering the rest of Lanterns Season One.
Recapping decisions for the fall will depend in part on what I like, and/or what provides enough fodder for weekly coverage. Apple's Slow Horses is back on September 16, and I'll again be recapping that. Ditto for one of last year's best shows, FX's The Lowdown, which returns on October 14. In terms of new shows, I won't know until I've dug into screeners.
REVIEWS
Obviously, plans will shift based on my actual interest level once I see things, plus timing in a given week, the real world, etc. But here are some of the things I'm excited to take a look at (besides the aforementioned Slow Horses and The Lowdown). This isn't meant to be a comprehensive list, just shows that caught my eye in looking at the fall calendar. In rough chronological order:
The Paper (September 9, Peacock)
I had mixed feelings on this Office quasi-spinoff, developing affection for several characters by the end, but constantly pulled out of the show by my dislike of Sabrina Impacciatore's character. Greg Daniels shows are often, but not always, great at recalibrating annoying characters in the transition from a first season to a second (see Michael Scott and Leslie Knope), so maybe this will be one of those year two leaps. Or maybe it's like Daniels' Space Force, and The Paper is what it is. We'll see.
Colin From Accounts (September 10, Paramount+)
The super-charming anti-romcom about two messy people who bond over an injured dog is coming back for its third and final season. Will it stick the landing? Does a low-key show like this even need to?
Agatha Christie's Tommy & Tuppence (September 15, BritBox)
BritBox is billing this as "the first contemporary English language Agatha Christie series adaptation," with Josh Dylan and Antonia Thomas in the title roles as sleuthing lovers from multiple Christie stories, and the great Imelda Staunton as Tommy's aunt.
Neagley (September 16, Prime)
Alan Sepinwall
Reacher has become such a key piece of Amazon's collection of Dad TV dramas that it's getting something the Lee Child books never have: a spinoff. Maria Sten steps to the forefront as Reacher's former Army colleague Frances Neagley, now working as a private eye in Chicago. Alan Ritchson cameos, but will the same kind of over-the-top adventuring play as well without his massive size and strength at the center of everything?
American Hostage (September 20, MGM+)
I haven't often written about shows on MGM+ (or, as it was known previously, Epix). But I feel like I have to check out this period drama about a radio reporter who has to interview a hostage taker, since it was co-created by Shawn Ryan, stars Jon Hamm, and has a supporting cast that includes Giovanni Ribisi, William Jackson Harper, Mireille Enos, and Jonathan Tucker.
Brothers (September 23, Apple TV)
Here's one that feels like it will either be brilliant or awful: Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey play fictionalized versions of themselves, who discover (as the real versions claim to have done) that they might be brothers. Whatever the truth is, these guys have been buddies forever, have great onscreen chemistry, and we don't get nearly enough of either of them doing comedy these days.
A Different World (September 24, Netflix)
The original Different World, a Cosby Show spinoff set at a historically Black college, isn't the oldest show to get a legasequel over the last decade-plus. (Punky Brewster — remember the Punky Brewster reivval? — and Night Court were several years older, and Full House debuted a week before Different World.) Still, it's up there. It's also among the more culturally resonant sitcoms to return decades later. The revival brings back most of the original cast, but will focus on Dwayne and Whitley's youngest child starting her freshman year at Hillman.
Scrubs (September 30, ABC)
Alan Sepinwall
We've got another 25th anniversary this fall, but this one's for a show that's making new episodes again: Scrubs, whose first revival season was among the precious few that actually made sense to return to years later, and that didn't tarnish memories of the original run. I wrote about that season only periodically last spring, but I might consider weekly coverage this time around, depending on scheduling, how I feel about the new episodes, etc. Regardless, expect something related to J.D., Turk, and Elliot in late September.
War (October 1, HBO)
George Kay, the creator of Lupin and Hijack, leaves the thriller space for his latest series, a legal drama whose first season will focus on two top firms battling it out in the divorce between a tech mogul (Dominic West) and his movie star wife (Sienna Miller).
East of Eden (October 1, Netflix)
Like father, like daughter: in 1955, Elia Kazan directed a movie adaptation of John Steinbeck's epic multi-generational family saga East of Eden. Now it's daughter Zoe Kazan's turn to tackle the novel, writing a miniseries that will star Florence Pugh, Christoper Abbott, and Mike Faist.
Tip Toe (October 2, Starz)
Russell T. Davies' return to the helm of Doctor Who was a mess — maybe not the main reason the show is on an extended hiatus, but certainly a reason — but he's done much better in recent years focusing on more human stories, like his 1980s AIDS crisis miniseries It's a Sin. He continues to be down-to-earth with this new miniseries, focusing on a feud between two Manchester neighbors (Alan Cumming and David Morrissey), one of whom owns a local gay bar at a moment of rising anti-queer sentiment in the UK.
Carrie (October 7, Prime) & Crystal Lake (October 15, Peacock)
I'm noting these more for your potential viewing schedule than for my reviewing plans. While I'm not totally horror-averse, it's not my preferred genre. I watched the Sissy Spacek Carrie a million years ago and remember little of it, and I've never seen a Friday the 13th Movie. I may sample (and write about) Mike Flanagan's new miniseries take on the former, mainly because I've liked most of Flanagan's TV work (like The Haunting of Hill House). But Crystal Lake, a prequel series starring Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees, is likely not for me.
Cupertino (October 8, CBS)
Elsbeth is fun when I watch it, but it's been a while since we had a new show from Robert and Michelle King that felt as weird and wonky as the kind of stuff they've done on The Good Wife, The Good Fight, and Evil. Hopefully this new legal drama, starring Good Wife alum Mike Colter, gives us that uncut King feeling.
Avatar: Seven Heavens (October 9, Paramount+)
Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the creators of the original Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series, had a very public split with the people working on Netflix's live-action adaptation. I'm not the only one who lost interest in the Netflix show's second season, but I'm excited to see DiMartino and Konietzko back for an animated sequel to Avatar and The Legend of Korra, focusing on the next Avatar in the cycle.
VisionQuest (October 14, Disney+)
With the un-renewal of Wonder Man, we're down to two live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe shows: the upcoming third season of Daredevil: Born Again, and what's turned out to be the concluding chapter of a trilogy that began with WandaVision and continued with Agatha All Along. The former is still the best of all the MCU shows, and Agatha was way up there. So hopefully, Paul Bettany, James Spader, and friends can close out the story on a high note — whether or not Marvel's latest TV era continues much past it.
The Diplomat (October 15, Netflix)
Keri Russell and friends are back for the fourth season of the addictive blend of screwball comedy and political thriller. Of recent binge-release shows, it's pretty high on my list of ones I wish came out weekly so I could recap. Nonetheless, expect some kind of coverage from me.
The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins (November 2, NBC)
Alan Sepinwall
I enjoyed the Tracy Morgan-led comedy when it debuted earlier this year, but it's one that I've come to think even more fondly of in the months since, as various jokes — “Fools run errands all the time. That's why Wawa sells sushi.” — have firmly lodged themselves into my head. Excited to see what they've got in store for Season Two.
The Good Daughter (November 12, Peacock)
Where Reggie Dinkins has stuck with me, most Peacock miniseries adapted from best-selling novels seem designed for the viewer to forget them even as they're watching. But this one, based on a Karin Slaughter book about sisters who share a tragic past, happens to star both Meghann Fahy (whom I always enjoy, even in shows I mostly don't, like Sirens) and Rose Byrne (on a real heater of late, highlighted by her first Oscar nomination).
Yellowjackets (November 20, Paramount+)
The creative trajectory of Yellowjackets is a familiar one: addictive hit in its first season, followed by a struggle to keep the story going in its middle years. Can it pull things off for what everyone knew going in would be the final season?
Dig (November 23, Peacock)
Amy Poehler starring a comedy series created by Michael Schur? The last time that happened, it resulted in one of our best sitcoms ever. Expecting another Parks and Recreation seems unfair, but the idea of Schur and Poehler reteaming for a show about archaeologists — and bringing along Hugh Laurie and Geraldine Viswanathan along for the ride — is at minimum very, very promising.
That's some of what's to come. What is everyone excited about watching and talking about this fall?
