To quote Matthew McConaughey's drawl in Dazed and Confused, "Awright, awright, awright!" Let's get this party started.
No. 1 -- The Emmys air tonight on Fox. Check out my overview in today's TV Week insert.
No. 2 -- The new fall season begins Monday. Check my preview on the front page of this Style section.
No. 3 -- Finally, here's a closer look at the three new shows making their debut Monday. Each is vying for your attention against hefty veteran competition (see below).
• Life in Pieces, 7:30 p.m., CBS. This is one of my seven must-see new fall shows and certainly worth your time to check out.
It's a unique family comedy in that each half-hour episode will present four short stories "of often hilarious and ultimately beautiful milestone moments," one each from the perspectives of the different generations.
Short stories? Do the math. A 30-minute series is, in reality, only about 22 minutes once you remove the commercials, so to say this will be fast-paced isn't an exaggeration.
The parents are loving matriarch Joan (Dianne Wiest) and colorful (eccentric, daffy?) patriarch John (James Brolin), who's turning 70 and searching for ways to ease that blow.
Their three children are the oldest, Heather (Betsy Brandt) and her husband, Tim (Dan Bakkedahl), who are dreading their looming empty nest; middle child Matt (Thomas Sadoski), who may have finally found true love with co-worker Colleen (Angelique Cabral); and pampered youngest Greg (Colin Hanks) and his wife Jen (Zoe Lister-Jones), who are overwhelmed by the arrival of their firstborn. The four stories each week are life's little pieces that stay with you forever, because life is made up of little moments strung together.
Competition: Gotham (Fox), The Voice (NBC) and The Big Bang Theory (CBS) all return at 7 p.m. Monday.
• Minority Report, 8 p.m., Fox. Hopefully, you saw the Tom Cruise sci-fi blockbuster of the same name. If not, here's what you need to know about this series based on the 2002 film.
The story is set in 2065 (15 years after the events in the film) and deals with "the unlikely partnership between a man haunted by the future and a cop haunted by her past."
The action takes place in Washington a decade after the demise of Precrime, an agency formed to identify and eliminate criminals. The twist: Precrime did it before the crimes were committed.
It was able to do that by using the abilities of three "precognitives" or "precogs." They had the ability to see the future. Now, crime solving has reverted to technology over precog instinct.
Our hero is precog Dash (Stark Sands), who has returned in secret to help police detective Lara Vega (Meagan Good) try to thwart the murders that he predicts.
Playing Dash's manipulative twin, Arthur, is Nick Zano. Arthur uses his precog ability to further his own interests.
Vega's new boss, Blake, is played by Wilmer Valderrama, and Laura Regan portrays Dash and Arthur's reclusive foster sister, Agatha.
Fox has spread out a drama of crime and conspiracy, but hopes to tap into the timeless tale of "two lost souls who find friendship, purpose and redemption in each other."
Will the series connect with viewers? That depends on the chemistry between Dash and Vega. We'll see.
Competition: Scorpion (CBS) returns at 8 p.m. Monday.
• Blindspot, 9 p.m., NBC. Speaking of conspiracies, NBC has one with this thriller where the clues are found in the mysterious, intricate tattoos covering a young woman who wakes up naked in a bag in the middle of Times Square.
Yeah, that's one fairly dramatic way to begin a series.
Jaimie Alexander (Thor: The Dark World) plays "Jane Doe," our beautiful tattooed lady. She wakes up with no memories of her past -- no idea where the tattoos came from or what they mean.
Alexander, by the way, steals the show.
Being naked in Times Square is one thing, but the FBI gets involved when they notice the name of FBI agent Kurt Weller (hunky 300: Rise of an Empire and Strike Back star Sullivan Stapleton) emblazoned across "Jane's" back.
It's up high, so we avoid the "tramp stamp" position.
The FBI quickly figures out that each tattoo is a clue to a crime about to happen and another piece in the puzzle of a far-reaching international plot.
The cast also includes Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Broadchurch), Rob Brown (Treme), Audrey Esparza (Black Box), Ukweli Roach (The Royals) and Ashley Johnson (Much Ado About Nothing).
Blindspot may be too dark and stylized for some, but if you enjoy NBC's The Blacklist, you'll probably enjoy this. The series gets the prime debut slot immediately following the premiere of The Voice.
Competition: Castle (ABC) and NCIS: LA (CBS) return at 9 p.m. Monday.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 09/20/2015