Before cable TV introduced original programming, we were forced to endure reruns during the summer months. Obviously, this time should be spent enjoying summer fun in the summer sun and all those other things the Beach Boys so happily sang about, but realistically, there was a gaping hole felt from May to September.
With the fall season almost here our excitement level is high. New things, old things! Soon-to-be cancelled shows, should-have-been-cancelled years ago shows! All of them lighting up our screens and filling our DVRs!
We’ve compiled a list of our top nine (yes, nine) picks of returning and new shows set to start this season. The news shows we’re hoping make it to mid-season and beyond, and if there were bets being placed on them, we’d do that too.
Top Nine NEW Show Picks in No Particular Order
New Girl – comedy on Fox
Person of Interest – drama/thriller on CBS
Ringer – drama/mystery on The CW
Alcatraz –drama on Fox
Homeland –psych thriller on Showtime
Terra Nova – sci-fi drama on Fox
Grimm – fantasy/mystery/cop show on NBC
Two Broke Girls – comedy on CBS
Once Upon a Time – drama/fantasy on ABC (the fairy-tale similarities between this and Grimm have not went unnoticed)
Nicole’s Top Pick: Buffy the Vampire Slayer was integral to my formative years and hands-down one of my favorite shows ever, which was largely due to the acting talents of Sarah Michelle Gellar. Her new show, Ringer, sounds exciting (twins, murder, double-lives, adultery, spying, low-lighting, strobe-lighting, etc.) and I think somewhere along the way my brain was wired to watch every CW show at least once. I am also a fan of the quirky, awkward acting style of Zooey Deshanel, but I’m rooting for Gellar the most.
Will’s Top Pick: Sooooo you’re telling me that I get to see Zooey Deschanel on a weekly basis? With those beautiful doe eyes? With that adorable smile? (She could be a smile model!!!) And that classic “Ridiculously hot and awesome girl next door vibe”?! I’m sold! But if I have to actually pick an entire show, I go with Homeland. I love a deep digging and thought provoking thriller every now and again and this one has the ingredients to satisfy. After the abrupt collapse of AMC’s Rubicon – that show was amazing until the last two eppies went all nonsensical – Homeland should be able to step in and capitalize in a genre that is, seemingly, difficult to maintain.
Top Nine RETURNING Show Picks in No Particular Order
Boardwalk Empire – HBO
Glee – Fox
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – FX
Fringe – Fox
Community – NBC
The Walking Dead – AMC
Parenthood – NBC
Dexter – Showtime
How to Make it in America – HBO
Will’s Top Pick: This season I’m going to be following Fringe the closest. Even though my inner/outer “Gleek” is concerned with the impending changing of the guard, the stories and characters that J.J. Abrams and crew can create sucks me in every single time. As many times as I try to predict the future in that show I end up looking more and more like Ms. Cleo (racism not included).
Nicole’s Top Pick: I’m looking forward to all of these for completely different reasons (Community’s Joel McHale and Donald Glover are reason enough and Dexter is doing a “time-jump” that is supposedly going to result in a season one feel for the show’s main character), but I’d have to say I’m most excited for How to Make it in America. I can relate to the “twentysomething, screw corporate America and build something of your own, similar to Entourage but more realistic” feel of this show and I can’t wait to see how they’ve developed the characters (and if Kid Cudi will have a larger role this season).
tvdinner&amovie 
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Seriously? Terra Nova? I can’t. The earth is becoming uninhabitable so we go back to the time of dinosaurs?!?!? That’s not a epicly stupid idea. 1. There are dinosaurs. If that’s not dangerous enough for you there’s 2. WE KNOW THAT GLOBAL CATASTROPHE WIPES THEM OUT. How is this not THE dumbest idea ever there was? Then there’s an Ice Age coming. Come on, fam. I want to beat the creators of this show. They could’ve found ways to make a human survival/dinosaur tale work. (New planet, new dimension, uncharted island on earth, pick up where 2012 left off) But no. #weaksauce
Call it a dark horse? It wasn’t MY pick but I think I’ll watch it. But I can agree that given the natural disasters that await Earth in that period it does seem a bit far fecthed but I’m hoping that there is a plot twist that better explains the situation. But, if it that doesn’t happen then I might…just…ignore…it…
It was MY pick. Why? Because I like dinosaurs.
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The only three shows im concerned with contains a former vampire slayer, a zombie apocalypse, and former contestants of a way too long running modelling show…
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