2018-19 preview: More on CBS series Magnum PI, FBI, Happy Together, and more
Dramas
FBI (Tuesdays at 9:00)
Cast – Missy Peregrym, Jeremy Sisto, Zeeko Zaki, Connie Nielsen, Ebonée Noel
Logline – Chronicles the inner workings of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Reaction – This is a straight-laced Dick Wolf crime series, but at the same time straight-laced Dick Wolf crime series have shown themselves to be enormously success over the years. We’ve got every reason in the world to believe that this one will also be.
Magnum PI (Mondays at 9:00)
Cast – Jay Hernandez, Perdita Weeks, Stephen Hill, Zachary Knighton
Logline – Upon returning home from Afghanistan, decorated ex-Navy SEAL Thomas Magnum repurposes his military skills to become a private investigator.
Reaction – This is a show from the Hawaii Five-0 super-team of Peter M. Lenkov and Eric Guggeheim and judging from the track record alone, it’s probably going to be a hit.
God Friended Me (Sundays at 8:00)
Cast – Brandon Micheal Hall, Violett Beane, Joe Morton, Suraj Sharma, Javicia Leslie
Logline – Exploring questions of faith, existence and science, it centers on an outspoken atheist whose life is turned upside down when he is “friended” by God on Facebook. Unwittingly, he becomes an agent of change in the lives and destinies of others around him.
Reaction – The name’s a little hokey and we worry based on this alone that the show could have some trouble — also, CBS is coming off of Living Biblically performing terribly. Now that we’ve said that, this is a great cast — Hall was amazing on The Mayor, Morton is best known as Rowan on Scandal, and Beane is coming off of big roles on The Flash and The Resident.
Red Line (midseason)
Cast – Emayatzy Corinealdi, Noel Fisher, Noah Wyle, Michael Patrick Thornton, Aliyah Royale, Vinny Chhibber, Howard Charles, Elizabeth Laidlaw
Logline – After a white cop in Chicago mistakenly shoots and kills a black doctor, we follow three different families that all have connections with the case as the story is told from each perspective.
Reaction – It’s a little more hot-button than the average CBS series. We’re interested to see where this ends up and how it plays out on the schedule.
The Code
Cast – Dave Annable, Anna Wood, Mira Sorvino, Phillipa Soo, Ato Essandoh, Raffi Barsoumian
Logline – The military’s brightest minds take on our country’s toughest challenges inside the courtroom and out, where each attorney is trained as a prosecutor, a defense lawyer, an investigator — and a Marine.
Reaction – Another good cast, though this entire series just seems to be JAG under a different name.)
Blood and Treasure (summer 19)
Cast – Katia Winter, Michael James Shaw, James Callis
Logline – A brilliant antiquities expert and a cunning art thief team up to catch a ruthless terrorist who funds his attacks through stolen treasure. As they crisscross the globe hunting their target, they unexpectedly find themselves at the center of a 2,000-year-old battle for the cradle of civilization.
Reaction – It won’t be on the air for a while, but for some reason we may be excited about this show more than many others that are out there.
Comedies
The Neighborhood (Mondays, 8:00)
Cast – Cedric the Entertainer, Josh Lawson, Sheaun McKinney, Tichina Arnold, Dreama Walker, Marcel Spears, Hank Greenspan
Logline – The nicest guy in the Midwest moves his family into a tough neighborhood in L.A. where not everyone appreciates his extreme neighborliness.
Reaction – It’s a tried-but-true formula that does often work — especially in terms of drawing laughs. Also, it’s worth noting that James Burrows, sitcom icon, directed the pilot.
Happy Together (Mondays, 8:30)
Cast – Damon Wayans, Jr., Amber Stevens West, Felix Mallard, Stephnie Weir, Chris Parnell
Logline – A 30-something couple, tired of their mundane life, start to reconnect with their younger, cooler selves when a young pop star who is drawn to their super-normal suburban life, moves in.
Reaction – Networks have been eager to have Damon Wayans, Jr. star on one of their shows for some time and this could be a pretty sizable hit for CBS. What it has going for it starts with his talent, though we’re not sure how the premise sustains over time.
Murphy Brown (Thursdays, 9:30)
Cast – Candice Bergen, Faith Ford, Joe Regalbuto, Grant Shaud, Jake McDorman, Tyne Daly, Nik Dodani
Logline – Murphy Brown, the famous investigative journalist and TV anchor at the FYI network, returns to a world of cable news, social media, fake news and a very different political and cultural climate.
Reaction – It’s hardly a new show, but it’s a new era.
Fam (midseason)
Cast – Nina Dobrev, Tone Bell, Odessa Adlon, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Sheryl Lee Ralph
Logline – A woman’s dreams of an upstanding life with her new fiancé and his upstanding family are dashed when her younger train-wreck half-sister comes to live with her to escape their train wreck of a father.
Reaction – This marks Dobrev’s first series since The Vampire Diaries and there are a lot of proven comedy names in the show. The fish-out-of-water premise is what could take some time to pay off.
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Photo: CBS