ABC has Modern Family and Scandal. That’s pretty much all you need to know. They don’t have a ton of failures like NBC, but they also don’t have a ton of hits. They’re still dependent on the aging Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelor, and they could really use some new hits on their schedule. Let’s see what they’ve got in store.
How To Get Away With Murder
I’m not a big Shonda Rhimes person, which means Thursday nights on ABC won’t necessarily be the place for me. That said, I really liked this trailer. I’m not sure what the show will be like, but this trailer does the job of making me want to learn more. Plus, it’s got the Shonda staple of a ball-busting black chick. It’s scheduled for Thursday night at 10, which means its going against Parenthood, which will be in its last season. I see no reason for this not to be a success, as everything Shonda touches for ABC turns to gold.
Cristela
I’ve never heard of comedienne Cristela Alonzo, but this show brings diversity to the network. It’s going to be paired with Last Man Standing on Friday nights, so it might do OK with the audience looking for that kind of thing. I completely forget that Last Man Standing exists, so I suspect the same fate will befall Cristela. Plus, this trailer did absolutely nothing for me. I thought the show was about the dude, as the woman says nothing. Turns out the woman’s Cristela. You learn something new every day…
Manhattan Love Story
More like Canceled After One Season Story. Nothing about this feels fresh or unique.
Selfie
It’s certainly timely, but I’m not sure Karen Gillan’s character is likable enough to make this appointment television. Plus, the role is such a departure from what folks are used to from her that I doubt she’ll be bringing her Whovian fanbase with her. It seems too cutesy, which is the kind of show ABC picks up every season and drops (see: Don’t Trust The B and Super Fun Night). ABC loves to give these shows a shot, but they never keep them because they don’t have long-term potential. Still, having John Cho in a lead role does help to diversify their lineup a bit. Anyway, it and Manhattan Love Story will have to face off against Utopia and The Voice next season, which won’t be an easy task.
Black-ish
This is probably the show I’m most looking forward to on ABC’s schedule. It not only brings diversity to primetime, but it also deals with the whole notion of whether someone is “black enough”. I can really relate to the subject matter of the show, and it looks pretty funny. I like the cast, with Tracee Ellis Ross and Laurence Fishburne as the grandfather. Anthony Anderson is kinda sitcom Kryptonite, but I’m willing to give him a chance here. It shows that ABC has faith in the show, as it’s been given the post-Modern Family timeslot, which is valuable real estate. I really hope folks give this one a shot.
Galavant
I hadn’t even heard of this show until I was going through ABC’s upfronts trailers. This show’s got it all! Adventure, music, Lassie from Psych. Typically, this wouldn’t be my cup of tea, but I can’t wait to watch this show. It’s not on ABC’s schedule yet, so it’s probably a midseason replacement. Now, excuse me while I watch this trailer 1,000 more times!
Fresh Off the Boat
I’m conflicted about this one. On the one hand, I’ve heard a lot of buzz about it from the Asian community, as they lobbied hard for ABC to pick up the pilot. That said, it’s kinda racist. Like when they’re about to go into the grocery store, and the mom tells him to go with a white family, as he’ll be safe there. Or when she asks him why all of his shirts have black men on them. I’m sure this is probably a common theme in Asian households, so it might just seem funny or relatable to them, but there were certain jokes that sort of stung. Maybe I’m being too sensitive, and I’ll probably give the show a chance once it has a timeslot.
The Whispers
This looks freaky. I was ready to give it a chance until the scope widened. When it looked like it was just a small-town show about imaginary friends, I was intrigued. Then, when the president got involved and it became a worldwide phenomenon, I kinda lost interest. This is the kind of show that’ll be canceled before they answer any of the important questions.
Forever
I like Ioan Gruffudd, as I didn’t hate the Fantastic Four movies as much as others. He’ll always be Reed Richards to me. I also like Judd Hirsch. I’m curious about this show, as it’s an intriguing premise. Basically, the trick is to see how long they can keep killing him before they have to explain why he can’t die. Again, I don’t know if the show will last that long. Right now, it’s scheduled to go against Chicago Fire, so there’s not a ton of competition there. I just hope the audience is ready to go on this particular ride because it seems like the sort of show where answers will be few and far between.
Secrets and Lies
This feels like Fox’s Gracepoint, but with the pacing of a box office thriller. If it’s a one and done series, I might check it out. I’m certainly curious. Been a long time since we’ve seen Ryan Phillippe! No timeslot as of yet, so it must be a midseason replacement.
American Crime
This looks really good, but it feels more like a movie than a TV show. If this is an exploration on race, I wonder if it’ll start discussions the same way that Crash did. There’s no timeslot yet, so this is probably slated for midseason. I’ll have to check this out when it hits.
Man, there’s a LOT of good looking TV coming from ABC this Fall. It’s been a long time since I’ve been an ABC man, but things may be about to change. What looks good to you guys?
Will be checking out Black-ish and Galavant. Those are the only trailers I watched (off your kind words for both). I wonder if Black-ish will be popular enough to spark the ever constant twitter discussion while its on.
And I can definitely see twitter being all over How to Get Away With Murder like it does with Scandal. Is Scandal still Thursday nights and they just moved its timeslot?
Interesting stuff on the ABC lineup which is surprising.
Three shows caught my attention. Black-ish looks like a winner, the casting seems great so I am excited for that. The Whispers HAD my attention and then just like you lost me on the whole government involvement, such a bummer. Should have kept it in a family/community. The last one I think has promise is American Crime, they wrapped a lot emotion in a short 2 minute trailer so I am hoping for good things.
@Tim – Scandal will stay on Thursday, but will be shifted an hour earlier. Shonda Rhimes will actually control all of Thursday, as the whole lineup will be comprised of Grey’s, Scandal, and How To Get Away With Murder.
@Cody – I, too, was surprised by how strong ABC’s offerings look. I really hope Black-ish does well, but expectations will be high since it will be expected to retain most of Modern Family’s lead-in ratings. American Crime looked SO good! I’m also really curious about Secrets and Lies, but I don’t know if I can watch it AND Fox’s Gracepoint at the same time. They seem too similar.
Galavant sold it.
I will watch Karen Gillian in just about anything. Hopefully Cho can get her to lose the Valley Girl accent. It’s adorable for a few seconds but I really don’t want to have to watch it with the CC on.
I will be pleasantly shocked if Galavant finishes out the season.
@Lamar – LOVE Galavant, but I hope it survives
@Dex – yeah, Galavant’s gonna have an uphill battle, but I’m hoping it’ll appeal to that Once Upon At Time audience. After all, I’m surprised that’s still on the air. I hope Selfie gets better, as the footage we’ve seen is probably just the pilot, and those tend to be rough. At this point, though, I’d say Galavant has a better shot at a second season than Selfie.
Galavant for sure, but I doubt it will last. But if I watch it from the beginning then I can get mad at everyone who didn’t watch it, if it gets cancelled.
Black-ish looks great. Love Fishburne but not always a big AA fan but there’s something about him in that trailer that seems to work. It’s miles ahead of his recent TV projects.
I’ve no interest in Blackish. None. While the show appears chock-full of acting talent I’d usually love to watch, I just can’t support a family comedy organized under the idea that proximity to White suburbanites leads young Black children to forsake their culture. That concept is completely foreign to me. Further, it reeks of an easygoing cultural appropriation from young people that only meets opposition from older authority figures; in essence, people who never had to struggle to maintain their identities tell those who have that discarding their birthrights to fit in to a comfortable White mainstream is positive.
No.
Still, the king of inappropriate cultural appropriation here must be Fresh Off the Boat. Look – as someone who admits to watching All-American Girl in the 90’s, this is a complete step back. Here, the cultural appropriation comes from a little Asian boy so confused, he’s wearing a Wu Tang t-shirt in one scene.
That’s right – a Chinese American child wears a t-shirt from a rap collective staffed by ten Black men from Staten Island who themselves appropriated stage names, album titles, song themes, and album intros from Hong Kong action cinema and martial arts philosophy. If that wasn’t enough, half the jokes in this trailer require the tired, outside of one’s element immigrant narrative to spark humor – a narrative that easily devolves into racist parody with the finest comedy writers. You’ll see this often with the show’s mother character (the scene in the supermarket was probably the single most racist take on an ethnic grocery I’ve ever seen).
So no – it’s hard to share this excitement toward ABC’s new shows. I’m not a Black woman, so Shondra Rhimes has nothing for me (that brother should watch himself -he KNOWS a Black man must be publicly sacrificed with every Rhimes hit show), and these comedic diversity nods scream “person of color humor that doesn’t upset White people”.
This is why I stick with AMC and BBC America. No one’s really trying to diversify and make me laugh over there. They just offer compelling drama, and if we’re lucky, Aldis Hodge shows up by episode six.