With a presidential election on the horizon, just about every screen will be dominated by campaign coverage. When you’re ready for a palate cleanser, the fall TV season has plenty on offer.
Here’s a snapshot of the coming weeks, presented in chronological order.
“How to Die Alone” (Sept. 13 on Hulu): Natasha Rothwell (“Insecure” and “The White Lotus”) stars in this comedy as a millennial stuck in a miserable existence: “I’m broke, my family thinks I’m a lost cause, my love life is a joke and the punchline is, I work at an airport.” A brush with death prompts her to start taking chances.
“Three Women” (Sept. 13 on Starz): The drama centers on the lives of three women including a suburban housewife who begins an extramarital affair, an entrepreneur navigating an open marriage and a student who accuses a teacher of an inappropriate relationship. All three tell their stories to a character played by Shailene Woodley.
“Agatha All Along” (Sept. 18 on Disney+): “WandaVision” was the first Marvel TV series to premiere on the streamer and it remains the best. It also featured a very funny performance from Kathryn Hahn, and her character’s long-gestating, witch-focused spinoff is finally here.
“The Penguin” (Sept. 19 on HBO): This eight-episode TV series from DC Studios puts Batman nemesis the Penguin front and center, played by Colin Farrell under 576 layers of prosthetics. (I’m exaggerating, but he’s as unrecognizable as he was in 2022’s “The Batman.”) The premise is very Batman-saga-meets-the-Italian mob.
“Matlock” (Sept. 22 on CBS): The original “Matlock” of the 1980s and ’90s was an Atlanta-set legal drama starring Andy Griffith. This new version has an actor just as beloved at its center — Kathy Bates — but the premise is slightly different. She plays Madeline Matlock, a folksy defense attorney who, thanks to her rotten finances, can’t retire just yet, so she seeks out an entry-level job at a slick corporate firm in New York. But the real story — her real motivation for working there — is more complicated.
“Midnight Family” (Sept. 24 on Apple TV+ ): The Spanish-language series follows a med student in Mexico City who moonlights as part of her family’s privately owned ambulance service. It’s adapted from the absorbing 2019 documentary of the same title, which is well worth seeking out whether you plan to watch the Apple series or not (it’s streaming free on Pluto).
“Disclaimer” (Oct. 11 on Apple TV+): Cate Blanchett stars in this limited series from Alfonso Cuarón playing a powerful and celebrated journalist whose personal secrets are revealed in a novel by an unknown author played by Kevin Kline, who is looking to humiliate the woman he believes is responsible for his own pains and losses. Sacha Baron Cohen plays her wealthy husband.
“Before” (Oct. 25 on Apple TV+): Billy Crystal stars in this 10-episode psychological thriller as a widower and child psychiatrist treating a young patient who has a haunting connection to his past. A rare dramatic role for Crystal.
“St. Denis Medical” (Nov. 12 on NBC): We haven’t had a hospital comedy on network TV since “Scrubs.” This one is a mockumentary from Justin Spitzer (“Superstore”), but another clear inspiration here is “The Office.” Among the cast are comedic ringers including David Alan Grier, “Superstore” alum Kaliko Kauahi, Wendi McLendon-Covey (now freed up from her long run on “The Goldbergs”) and Allison Tolman.
“Landman” (Nov. 17 on Paramount+): Starring Billy Bob Thornton, the series is set amid the oil boomtowns of Texas and is based on the podcast “Boomtown,” offering an “upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics.”
Tribune News Service
