The best and worst of the new TV season

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:01:00 +0000

New TV shows usually suck. Take it from someone who watches every single one of them, every single year. Slogging through a herd of untested pilots can feel like speed dating for speed freaks: Twitchy people tell you their life stories in three seconds flat -- they laugh, they cry, they knock over their drinks, stuff blows up, ambulances arrive, roll credits. You're lucky if you escape without a migraine, let alone a venereal disease.

But this year was different. Watching this fall's new shows was like wandering through a magical bar filled with charismatic, funny people and delicious, icy-cold cocktails. Great music was playing, the mood was spirited, and everyone had a charming or poignant or funny anecdote to tell. As long as you stayed away from the ones wearing scrubs and surgical masks -- oh yeah, and the bony, Botoxed cougars -- you were sure to have a great time.

The life of the party this fall is ABC's "Modern Family." In a sea of attractive and witty guests, spewing quips and tossing back drinks, "Modern Family" (9 p.m. Wednesdays on ABC) is that unnervingly funny guy in the corner whose jokes keep making your mojito blast out of your nose. I've been waiting for this show to falter or underwhelm for weeks now, and each episode has been better than the last. Ty Burrell is consistently hysterical as hapless, pandering dad Phil. Here he is in one of my favorite scenes from the pilot:

Best new fall TV: “Flash Forward”

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:17:00 +0000

"I'd like to buy the world a roofie, and keep it company." ABC network executives must be humming this tune to themselves as their anticipation builds around the premiere of "Flash Forward" (8 p.m. Thursday. Sept. 24), a dark new drama series in which the entire population of planet Earth passes out for two minutes and 17 seconds. Afterward, the populace wakes up to a world in chaos: Cars are wrecked all over the roads, helicopters and planes have fallen from the skies, and citizens are wandering the streets, stunned and bleeding. As the entire planet grapples with a hangover of epic proportions, they discover that, while unconscious, each person had a vision of what he or she would be doing six months in the future.

Just as Coke's '70s-era jingle reflected a sweet, hopeful rainbow of earthlings prone to singing idealistic tunes with little provocation, "Flash Forward" leans into these gloomy times with an undeniable relish. This is the island from "Lost" on a global scale, with a little "Jericho" and "Fringe" thrown in for good measure: Something big and mysterious has occurred, the end may be near, and we can only guess that terrorists, corrupt corporations and high-level conspiracies are involved.

Salon.com > Flash Forward

The best and worst of the new TV season

Best new fall TV: “Flash Forward”