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Why Watch That

Why did we think that we were ever going to get a break from TV? After this year’s aggressive summer television schedule, it’s hard to believe that the Fall has even more action. In this episode, the Critic and the Referee discuss the season premieres of some new and returning television shows.

Boardwalk Empire – (drama)

Created by Terence Winter
Premiered on HBO: September 19, 2010

Plot: A period drama focusing on Enoch “Nucky” Thompson (based on the historical Enoch L. Johnson), a political figure who rose to prominence and controlled Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition period of the 1920s and 1930s. He strives to maintain power by equally collaborating with both the law and gangsters.

Sons of Anarchy – (drama)

Created by Kurt Sutter
Premiered on FX: September 3, 2008

Plot: About the lives of a close-knit outlaw motorcycle cluboperating in Charming, a fictional town in California’s Central Valley. The show centers on protagonist Jackson “Jax” Teller (Charlie Hunnam), initially the vice president of the club, who begins questioning the club and himself.

Z Nation – (horror)

Created by Karl Schaefer and Craig Engler
Premiered on SyFy: September 12, 2014

Plot: Three years after a zombie virus devastated the United States, a group must transport the only known immune survivor three thousand miles from New York to California, where the last functioning viral lab waits for his blood. His antibodies are the world’s last best hope for a vaccine. However, he harbors a dark secret that threatens them all.

Deliverance Creek – (western)

Produced by Nicholas Sparks
Premiered on Lifetime: September 13, 2014

Plot: With her husband presumed dead from fighting in the Civil War, Belle Barlowe (Lauren Ambrose) deals with neighbors who want her ranch and her outlaw brother, while growing closer to sheriff Nate Cooper (Wes Ramsey) and raising her three children in Deliverance Creek, Missouri.

Outlander – (drama)

Developed by Ronald D. Moore 
Premiered on Starz: August 9, 2014

Plot: In 1945, married World War II nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall finds herself transported back to Scotland in 1743, where she encounters civil war and the dashing Highland warrior Jamie Fraser.

The Mysteries of Laura – (comedy-drama)

Developed by Jeff Rake with Carlos Vila and Javier Holgado
Premiered on NBC: September 24, 2014 (sneak preview on September 17, 2014)

Plot: The series follows the life of Laura Diamond, a homicide detective with the New York Police Department who balances her day job with her off-duty hours as a single mother to twin sons, while trying to get her soon-to-be-ex husband to sign the divorce papers.

Red Band Society – (comedy-drama)

Developed by Margaret Nagle
Premiered on Fox: September 17, 2014

Plot: Based upon the Catalan drama series Polseres vermelles, the series is a dramedy focused on a group of teenagers living together as patients in a hospital’s pediatric ward.

Madam Secretary – (drama)

Created by Barbara Hall
Premiered on CBS: September 21, 2014

Plot: About Elizabeth Faulkner McCord, a female Secretary of State. It looks at the personal and professional life of a Secretary of State as she tries to balance her work and family life.

The Good Wife – (drama)

Created by Robert King and Michelle King
Premiered on CBS: September 22, 2009

Plot: The series focuses on Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), whose husband Peter Florrick (Chris Noth), a former Cook County, Illinois, State’s Attorney, has been jailed following a notorious political corruption and sex scandal. 

The Big Bang Theory – (comedy)

Created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady
Premiered on CBS: September 24, 2007

Plot: The show is primarily centered on five characters living in Pasadena, California: roommates Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper, both physicists; Penny, a waitress and aspiring actress who lives across the hall; and Leonard and Sheldon’s equally geeky and socially awkward friends and co-workers, mechanical engineer Howard Wolowitz and astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali. The geekiness and intellect of the four guys is contrasted for comic effect with Penny’s social skills and common sense.