Fall TV Monday

The fall television schedule has got some winners. And some real losers. Sort out the ones to see - and the ones to flee.

By Eric Deggans, Times TV / Media Critic
Published September 23, 2007

Chuck

8 p.m., NBC, debuts Monday (9/24).

Showbiz shorthand: Revenge of the Nerds meets Get Smart.

My take: Dweeby Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi), a girl-averse nerd from a Geek Squad-style computer repair service, becomes TV's latest Unlikely Hero when a super-secret intelligence database is downloaded into his head. The twist: the bombshell blond CIA agent and nail-tough NSA operative who discover his secret can't decide whether to kill him or protect him.

TiVo or Ti-No? The cast is sharp, especially Levi, a charming clone of Scrubs star Zach Braff. And any show featuring a dweeb getting the cool blond just before geek magnet Heroes is well-positioned, indeed. A grudging Ti-Vo.

The Big Bang Theory

8:30 p.m., CBS, debuts Monday (9/24).

Showbiz shorthand: Revenge of the Nerds meets Two and a Half Men.

My take: If you can enjoy a half-hour comedy based on a single joke - really smart nerds often have problems relating to really beautiful women - has CBS got a show for you! If only Roseanne alum Johnny Galecki had been smart enough to avoid this one.

TiVo or Ti-No? The comedy bar is notoriously low on CBS Mondays, and it can't hurt that co-creator Chuck Lorre also developed the network's biggest comedy hit, Two and a Half Men. Still, I'm gonna Ti-No.

Aliens in America

8:30 p.m., The CW, Oct. 1.

Showbiz shorthand: Kumar ditches Harold at the White Castle to hang with Malcolm in the Middle.

My take: It's hard to tell if this setup - a dysfunctional middle-class family tries offloading an international exchange student when they realize he's a Pakistani Muslim - is insensitive or just unfunny. This being network TV, the family soon welcomes young Raja into their family; unfortunately, he and the viewers might have been better off if they hadn't.

TiVo or Ti-No? As Raja bonds with dweeby son Justin, the show hooks into that buddy nerd comedy vibe tapped on every other new series this fall. But Ti-Vo only if you've seen Superbad more than once.

K-Ville

9 p.m., Fox, debuted Monday (9/17).

Showbiz shorthand: Starsky and Hutch work the Big Easy in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

My take: I so wanted to like this pilot. Star Anthony Anderson nearly makes us forget his turn in Kangaroo Jack with a powerful performance as staunch New Orleans cop Marlin Boulet. Unfortunately, Cole Hauser appears as a new partner with a secret so preposterous it destroys whatever goodwill Anderson's fine acting earns.

TiVo or Ti-No? The Crescent City's daily news reports are filled with fuel for TV's first cop drama set in the nation's worst disaster zone. So why did Fox invent some convoluted cartoon crime plot for the pilot episode? A hearty Ti-No.

Samantha Who?

9:30 p.m. ABC, debuts Oct. 15.

Showbiz shorthand: What if Star Jones got amnesia and forgot she was a heartless, materialistic jerk?

My take: I may be the only TV critic in the nation who thinks Married With Children alum Christina Applegate is an underrated comic actor. Still, with a premise that's obvious five minutes in - Applegate wakes from an eight-day coma with amnesia only to slowly discover she was a materialistic, cheating, superficial so-and-so before her memory loss - the pilot strains to hold our interest and keep up the funny.

TiVo or Ti-No? Because of my perverse refusal to give up on Applegate, I'm gonna TiVo. But I won't blame you for making a different choice.

Journeyman

10 p.m., NBC, debuts Monday (9/24).

Showbiz shorthand: Quantum Leap meets The Front Page.

My take: This story about a San Francisco newspaperman who inexplicably begins time traveling to solve problems seems to echo Audrey Niffenegger's inventive 2004 novel the Time Traveler's Wife (the creator has denied any intentional similarity). But it turns out the series, which threatens to strand magnetic Rome alum Kevin McKidd in a confusing story about a guy yanked into the past for murky and unknown reasons, could probably benefit from Niffenegger's sense of the unexpected and sentimental.

TiVo or Ti-No? Watching Scottish hunk McKidd play Yank is enough to earn a TiVo. Barely.

[Last modified September 21, 2007, 11:05:20]