As the summer TV season draws to a close, we’re turning our eyes toward fall, that glorious time when new shows swim and new shows sink and our favorite shows make us feel like they never left us alone. This week we asked our writers to weigh in on which shows they’re most looking forward to this season.
The Linster: I’m simultaneously looking forward to and dreading Grey’s Anatomy. Arizona, please survive – I need my weekly Calzona!
Emily Donofrio: I need Regan and Ava back into my life on the regular, so I am really excited for the return of Up All Night on September 20th. Lady girl!!!
Lucy Hallowell: There’s not much I am excited about. Glee is now on past my bedtime (yeah, I’m that girl), so is Grey’s Anatomy. That leaves How I Met Your Mother which makes me laugh every week and New Girl which has the greatest group of wacky friends on a show. The guys on the show are so bizarre, Schmidt is absolutely priceless, and they make the show worth watching. The episode in which they played the indecipherable drinking game involving American history and standing on furniture was the show as its weird, wacky, and surprisingly funny best.
Erika Kimpel: Choosing between The Liz Lemon show and Brittana is hard so I’ll go with The New Normal. Mostly because Ryan Murphy and Ali Adler can do no wrong, but also because One Million Moms have already boycotted it which means I’ll love it.
Ali Davis: Am I looking forward to any fall TV?
Knope.
Even if b weren’t on for a guest spot in the coming season, I’d be geeking out waiting for the new season. It’s consistently hilarious, and there’s no better ode to earnest nerdiness on television.
Dorothy Snarker: That I’m excited about the return of Liz Lemon goes without saying. But this season I’m most anxiously anticipating the return of Leslie Knope and the beginning of what will no doubt be a tremendous and tremendously hilarious term on the City Council. But do they have to rename it Parks & Recreation & Council now?
Heather Hogan: Doctor Who. Season seven. September 1st.
Dinosaurs. On. A. Spaceship.
Dara Nai: I’ll be DVRing Ryan Murphy and Ali Adler‘s The New Normal, not because it’s about a gay couple who wants a baby, (snooze) but because of the inestimable Ellen freaking Barkin as an unapologetic racist slash homophobe grandmother whose awesome one-liners could go toe to toe with Sue Sylvester’s any day of the week.
Unlike Sue, Barkin’s character, Jane, has personal reason for hating on the gays – she caught her husband cheating on her in the back of their pet store with a man named Leon: “I never could stand going into that store. That Leon gave every hamster in the store some queer name from a Broadway musical. He was always like, ‘Rum Tum Tugger was chewing on Auntie Mame’s tail…'” If anger is depression turned outward, then Jane is hurt turned into hilarity.
Bonus actresses include a cute kid name Bebe Wood (TV’s answer to Little Miss Sunshine), Georgia King (a dead ringer for Reese Witherspoon), and NeNe Leakes (brought over from Glee), but the real draw is Barkin. I’ve seen the pilot and she sweetens every scene with her sourness.
Less interesting are the gay guys, (just imagine Finn and Kurt ended up together and you get the gist) and their baby quest, but whatev. The show premieres on September 11, but if you want to laugh your ass off now, watch this trailer from Barkin’s 1991 movie, Switch:
What TV shows are you most looking forward to this fall?
