Are Any of These New Winter Network TV Shows Worth Watching?
Why Tommy, For Life, 9-1-1: Lone Star, Outmatched, and other new TV shows might actually be worth your time…
WINTER SPRINGS ETERNAL, FOOTBALL SEASON IS LONG GONE, and you desperately need something to watch on TV. Of course, there are 100+ new shows on television and streaming every month now, and that number is increasing by the day, and you already have a long list of fall TV shows to catch up on too.
The days of network television dominance are long gone, but network TV shows are still among the highest rated and most typically in the cultural conversation with the biggest budgets and best chance to succeed. Many of them will never work in 2020, but when they do work, they have an audience no streaming platform can match.
Of course, no one has time to sort through all these new shows and try them out, so I did the dirty work for you. All 10 shows below have already begun airing, but I trust you can find the backlogged episodes online or on demand and catch up as needed.
So were any of these new winter network TV shows worth watching? Let’s count them down from worst to best…
All times listed are Eastern.
TIER V — DISASTROUSLY AWFUL
10. Indebted
Thursdays on NBC, 9:30pm
The premise
Happy Endings Max and his wife are excited for a fresh start with their kids finally out of diapers when their broke parents Brian from Wings and The Nanny crash their house and ruin their lives. Hilarity ensues!!
The verdict
Hilarity most assuredly does not ensue. Remember how much you hated The Nanny’s annoyingly grating laugh? It’s back, and so is a terrible laugh track with a script chock full of cliched jokes. Indebted made me feel bad for Adam Pally. I couldn’t even make it through the pilot.
TIER IV —FINE BUT FORGETTABLE
9. Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector
Fridays on NBC, 8:00pm
The Premise
Former NYPD detective and former Grimm detective Lincoln Rhyme was disabled and sidelined by a notorious serial killer. Now the Bone Collector is back and Lincoln must team up with 90210 Vanessa to crack the case!!
The Verdict
It’s fine. Based on a best-selling book, Lincoln was crippled by the Bone Collector and now he’s out to get his revenge. Everything is a bit intense and over the top, but Arielle Kebbel is somewhat fascinating as Rhyme’s partner. Basically this is every buddy cop + serial killer show ever. It feels like an amalgamation of 10 other shows you’ve already watched before.
8. Party of Five
Wednesdays on Freeform, 9:00pm
The Premise
Remember Party of Five? In this version, instead of their parents dying in an accident, the Acosta kids learn that their parents have been deported to Mexico and they’re left to fend for themselves. It’s the story of a young family bound by adversity in a culturally relevant update!!
The Verdict
The acting wasn’t great, and the show failed to move me emotionally in ways that really worry me, since that’s sort of the point. It felt like a boring PG-version of Shameless, though I appreciate the largely Latinx cast. I’m a bit worried how the premise change will hold up past one season since the parents are still out there and why wouldn’t the family try to reunite?
Again, it’s fine. The online reviews are good, but this was never going to be for me, though I bet my sister Brianne would like it.
7. Deputy
Thursdays on FOX, 9:00pm
The Premise
The bad boy from True Detective Season 3 suddenly becomes L.A. county sheriff overnight thanks to a weird, outdated rule when the old sheriff dies. And this guy does this by his OWN rules. He’s OLD school!!
The Verdict
Can I interest you in big talk, big guns, and big shootouts with a bunch of L.A. lawmen that feel like they’re living in Texas? You miss Justified, right? How about a watered-down low-budget network Western?
Like the other two shows in this section, Deputy is fine. I could leave it on in the background while I’m working and not be too annoyed, but I’m also sure I’ll never miss not having it in the DVR rotations.
TIER III — DEFINITELY NOT GOOD BUT SURE, LET’S HAVE SOME FUN
6. Outmatched
Thursdays on FOX, 8:30pm
The Premise
American Pie and Jules from Psych are regular, old blue-collar parents who escape daily life by smoking pot downstairs while their supergenius children struggle to meld their book smart IQs with simple childhood social skills. It’s Kid Big Bang Theory!!
The Verdict
No seriously, Outmatched is trying really, really hard to fill your Big Bang Theory void. The cast is likable, but the punchlines rely on you understanding a lot of big words and smart, complicated language. At the very least, it’s way better than Young Sheldon because the kids are actually likable, though the parents are the stars. It’s not great, and the multi-cam laugh track is distracting, but… I kinda like it. I have no further defense.
5. Lego Masters
Wednesdays on FOX, 9:00pm
The Premise
You know reality shows? What about a Lego reality show!? They’ll build super cool stuff, and we’ll have Lego Batman GOB host and everything!!
The Verdict
Look, I’m a sucker for reality shows, and this just hits the spot. It’s absolutely goofy and feels like a classic cooking competition or something you’d watch on Bravo. Will Arnett is gleefully over the top as a host, and every pair of competitors is breathtakingly geeky and so much fun. I don’t know who had this idea, and I only want like 8 or 10 episodes, but I’m in.
By any measure, these two shows should really rank ahead of only Indebted, which should never have even gotten made. Outmatched and Lego Masters are clearly, definitively not good, and they’re not going to get a second season, but sometimes I just want to watch something unique and fun, so sue me.
HALFTIME BREAK
10 other returning shows to jump back into…
- America’s Got Talent: The Champions, Mondays on NBC, 8pm
- Better Call Saul, Monday on AMC, 10pm
- Desus & Mero, Mondays and Thursdays on Showtime, 11pm
- Survivor: Winners at War (All-Star season), Wednesdays on CBS, 8pm
- The Sinner, Thursdays on USA, 9pm
- Homeland (final season), Sundays on Showtime, 9pm
- Good Girls, Sundays on NBC, 10pm
- Kidding, Sundays on Showtime, 10pm
- Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sunday on HBO, 10:30pm
- Star Trek: Picard, streaming at CBS All Access
TIER II — IF THE FORMULA WORKS…
4. 9–1–1: Lone Star
Mondays on FOX, 8:00pm
The Premise
You like 9–1–1, right? It’s that, but with Texas and firefighters and Rob Lowe and Liv Tyler, and did we mention TEXAS!!
The Verdict
Rob Lowe plays himself (when does he not) as a former 9/11 fire chief with lung cancer that takes over an Austin, Texas, fire team after a disaster. He brings in an all-star cast of firefighters that actually seem fairly interesting, and they lean really, really hard into the Texas thing at every turn.
Basically, the regular 9–1–1 actors were getting expensive and they were low on goofy emergency ideas, so Ryan Murphy went all-in on a Texas firehouse spin-off. I’m not mad about it. Liv Tyler is a bit much and I prefer medical to firefighting, but there’s a lot of Texas to mine here, so sure, why not?
3. Tommy
Thursdays on CBS, 10:00pm
The Premise
Nurse Jackie is the first female police chief in Los Angeles, and she’s got a lot of work to do to get L.A. in order, much of it starting with the folks in her own office that don’t think she should be in charge!!
The Verdict
If I had to bet on any one of these shows still being on air three years from now, Tommy is a heavy favorite. Edie Falco is a certified star, and she’s perfectly cast in this role. Tommy is extremely procedural, if you’re into that sort of thing. It has slow and steady pacing with a mouthful of snippy dialogue that reminded me of Good Wife or Madam Secretary.
This one isn’t for me, but there are a lot of people this show will be for. The dialogue is good, and the show is modern and relevant. Tommy is gay, and that’s already a significant plot point, and there’s an early ICE plot too. In some alternate universe, this is an Aaron Sorkin show called The Precinct or The 213 or something. If you just need a nice police procedural to plug into your lineup, you found a winner.
TIER I — THE KEEPERS
2. Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
Sundays on NBC, 9:00pm
The Premise
Tessa from Suburgatory thinks she’s going crazy when she’s suddenly able to read people’s minds in the form of song-and-dance musical numbers. Now this new San Francisco coding manager has to figure out how to use her powers for good at home and work. Hijinks ensue!!
The Verdict
You’ll either turn Zoey off 15 minutes in or cry giant crocodile tears when it gets canceled this summer. Zoey is cute and quirky, and this is a fun and loaded cast featuring Jesse from Pitch Perfect, Unique from Glee, Lorelai from Gilmore Girls, Sandy from The O.C., and Gail from Last Man on Earth, all in the extremely capable hands of Paul Feig and the Tannenbaums.
The premise is a mouthful and the pilot throws a lot at you, but this is one of those just-go-with-it shows. Did you like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend or Glee? This is more of the former, with a typical romantic comedy spliced with three or four flash-mob Broadway songs each episode. If it sounds weird, it’s because it is, but it just feels like there’s something here that could work.
I’m a bit concerned about the song budget and hope the ratio between singing and show balances out a bit once the premise is established, but I think I’m in. There’s just nothing else like this on TV, and that’s hard to find these days.
1. For Life
Tuesdays on ABC, 10:00pm
The Premise
Based on a true story, Aaron Wallace is a wrongly imprisoned man who fights to become a licensed defense attorney, litigating cases for his fellow inmates while he fights for his own freedom and reclaim his old life!!
The Verdict
Really good. If this show were on Netflix, I would’ve just kept right on watching the next three or four episodes without any hesitation.
I don’t know Nicholas Pinnock, but he’s really good as the lead, and we get Ellaria Sand as the progressive prison warden and Parenthood’s Jasmine as Aaron’s wife in a really promising cast. Pinnock is, in a word, compelling. You can’t take your eyes off him — he’s believable.
Wallace is a Black man, so there are strong racial undertones to everything in play here, and that makes this a relevant and important when you consider the overinflated number of incarcerated Black men in America. Is Wallace really innocent? Is he truly helping his fellow prisoners or just out to help himself? Is the warden on his side or acting selfishly? The pilot sets up a lot of questions beautifully, and there’s a lot to build on here.
This feels a bit like network TV Power with a bit of law procedural mixed in, and that’s a good thing. It’s a formula that feels very workable, especially with the terrific acting and high production value.
For Life was the last of these 10 shows to air, and it was worth the wait. It’s the one can’t-miss new network television show this winter! ■
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