Wow! The new fall network TV season must have bought some new sneakers, because it just came out of nowhere! Each year I’ve been saying how the streaming TV revolution has been changing the way we view “fall TV season”, but this year I almost didn’t remember that new shows and new episodes were coming. Some years they’ve been spread out, but this year, a bunch of them released together. During the past week, I’ve watched the premieres of over a dozen shows. Let me make a rundown and give you my takes.

The Good Place

In case you had lost track of this metaphysical sitcom (I know I had), the main four characters who’d literally gone through Hell to get to Heaven are now faced with a new cosmic experiment to prove that humanity is worthy of the titular “Good Place”. This time they are playing the role of architect, trying to make sure that the four new test subjects get the chance to improve themselves. I think this is a fun twist on a series that has been a masterclass on reinventing its premise with each season. While last season was a bit confusing, I look forward to being back in the Neighborhood again and revisiting the backdrop of the first season. All the actors are so great at inhabiting these characters that we have gotten to know under truly unconventional circumstances and I’m expecting that they will develop their friendships and bonds even more. Of course, we’re all interested to find out how odd couple Eleanor (Kristen Bell) and Chidi (William Jackson Harper) find their way back to each other after his memories have been erased (again) — how many shows have that in the plot line?!

Black-ish

The show kicks off season 6 with Pops (played by Laurence Fishburne) getting engaged and the family (especially main character Dre) react in various ways to his fiancee — who is nothing like they’d expected. While this storyline comes kind of out of left field (which seems true about most of the storylines that come from someone in the extended family), it’s a great kick off to potentially more changes to come in the family (they mentioned in voiceover that the twins, Jack and Diane, no longer need to wear uniforms to school — yay!). Over the last few seasons, I’ve been finding the episodes of this show having a lot of ups and downs. Some are impressive both in character drama and how they work their messages, but others seem a bit less sophisticated and kind of obnoxious. I’m hoping that we’ll get more of the powerfully humourous ones this season.

Modern Family

This series feels very long-in-the-tooth and like it’s worn its central premise to threadbare. Doubling down on the “introduce babies into a series to keep it fresh” premise, last season ended with the birth of Haley and Dylan’s twins. Now this season, the whole Dunphy family has to cope with living with two babies (except for Alex, who is doing a project in Antarctica — so random! The Big Bang Theory already did it better; and since when are there so many polar expeditions that any smart character can just join on a whim?). I do love how Haley’s reading a parenting book called “Your Parents Did Everything Wrong” — O those madcap millennials! As much as I’d loved Manny’s old-soul character in the early seasons, now his nerdy relationship woes are such a stereotype that I expect him to pledge Animal House any episode now. I feel like the characters on this show should have grown so much by now — and the kids have definitely grown up physically — so let’s end this series with a strong season, eh?

Young Sheldon

I continue to love this show and how it has been developing not only its title character, but all the rest of the family as well over the last two seasons. Sister Missy is one of my favourite characters on TV (she’s like a pint-sized, pre-pubescent, Texan version of Downton Abbey‘s dowager countess Violet), but in the season premiere, it was brother Georgie who pulled focus. At first I didn’t like his character at all, but seeing him turn a hair-brained scheme to re-sell Texas snow-globes into a success was a hoot! It is also impressive that the show not only regularly connects the dots from young Sheldon to the adult we knew on The Big Bang Theory (and also drew a line between younger and older versions of his mother Mary), but now we can see how young Georgie will one day grow up to be the successful tire salesman that we know he becomes. I’m just enjoying spending time with the Cooper family and I’m glad they’re back and available for weekly visits.

This Is Us

It was pretty daring of this popular character-driven series to start the latest season featuring all new characters (hence the episode titled “Strangers”), and not bringing back any of the main characters (except a pretty good flashback to the early relationship for Jack and Rebecca) until near the end of the episode. Jennifer Morrison (from Once Upon A Time) plays a war veteran who comes back from assignment in the Middle East with great difficulty handling civilian life again. Newcomer Asante Blackk (Is that not the coolest name?!) plays a young teenager trying to cope with having a baby daughter of his own, even with the help of his own parents. Thirdly, Blake Stadnik plays a visually-impaired rock musician as he copes with a day when he meets his wife (a waitress who works in a diner). This show does a phenomenal job of diving into characters’ lives and getting us to care about them almost instantly. This season premiere episode seems like a flexing of those dramatic muscles. All along we know that they must be somehow related to the extended Pearson clan, but if you’re like me, you’ll feel invested in these characters even before you find out how.

Next, the new shows …