The fall TV season has finally died. I don’t mean there’s nothing new or good to watch, but just that the traditional period when TV networks would bring out new and returning shows has lost the last of its significance. This year, I barely noticed when the networks kicked-off new shows (a few weeks/months ago?) — I definitely didn’t watch any of them. On the other hand, I was keenly expecting some shows to stream this week, including the return of Star Trek: Discovery, the live-action version of anime classic Cowboy Bebop (starring John Cho), and a show that I have been waiting years to finally see: bestselling and beloved fantasy epic, The Wheel of Time. Fall TV is dead. Long live Fall TV!

Star Trek: Discovery

Last season, Discovery started slowly but really grew on me by the end. I was excited to find the crew in the far future, with the Federation barely in operation, and changes to the aliens and cultures that we had become familiar with on Trek. It was also nice to see Michael Burnham finally promoted to captain. The premiere episode of this new season was pretty exciting. It felt very much like one of the recent Star Trek movies, starting out with an action-packed prologue scene where Burnham and boyfriend Book bring some dilithium (as a welcome-to-the-Federation gift) to a race of zombie-looking, butterfly-winged people. It doesn’t go super-smoothly, but that only leaves more room for swash-buckling hijinks that kick things off in a fun way. The rest of the episode follows the somewhat classic plot of having the Disco crew respond to a distress call from a space station in imminent danger of destruction. I liked how this problem was more manageable, less save-the-universe-sized, and we could wrap things up in the span of an episode. The drawn out story arcs are great, but they tend to make it more difficult to get to know the characters. Hopefully we will get better acquainted with even more of the crew this season. One obvious thing is that there is more of the spotlight being shone on newer characters like Adira (who had a meatier role on this episode as the away team scientist). While they seem nice, I don’t think we yet know them well enough, so some more attention is not a bad thing. Also, a theme of this episode was the newbie-friendly idea of proving oneself — along with Adira, Burnham was being observed the whole mission by the Federation president. Clearly, Burnham is going to be put to many tests this season and will need to prove herself as a captain. And, in case you’d forgotten him, we also got a pretty cool glimpse of Saru, back on Kaminar with his people. Amazingly he was given a kind of top-tier place among their governing council even after only a few months. However, it was pretty clearly implied that he is going to be returning to Disco very soon. I love Star Trek, and I’m excited for us to keep going on new adventures.

The Wheel of Time

Based on the bestselling (extremely long) book series of the same name, The Wheel of Time finally brings to screen characters that I have been waiting to see for a long time. Many people want to think of this fantasy series as the next Game of Thrones, but it’s actually very different. There is a lot more questing and adventure to this series, and GOT was much more realistic and depicted good and evil more as qualities within people. The Wheel of Time is classic fantasy, where the battle of good vs. evil is waged full-force and out in the open against monsters of pure darkness (along with the ultimate evil, actually called “The Dark One”). The best thing about these novels was the incredible world that was imagined by the author, Robert Jordan. He created a world where time repeats in circles, and where in every cycle certain key figures are reborn, including the Dragon — a powerful person capable of breaking or saving the world. The Dragon wields the powerful magic at the heart of the world, known as the One Power, and so do many women — particularly a society of female magic-wielders known as Aes Sedai. There had been years of rumours of adaptation for these books, and it never really made it beyond a terrible ten-minute film of a prologue scene that was aired in the middle of the night. Now, finally Amazon has brought this incredible world to life, and I couldn’t be more excited. (Though, actually….) The only thing better would be if they didn’t have to make so many changes from the books. (I know this is a tired complaint from fanboys, so I’ll keep the rant brief.) As much as I expected to see some necessary deviation to bring a very long story, with tons of main and side characters (every bar maid’s back story was apparently of critical importance to Jordan), but some of the changes were bad choices. The story focuses on five young men and women from a small town called Emond’s Field. On a fateful night, Moiraine (an Aes Sedai), and Lan (her warder/bodyguard/companion) come to town to find the next embodiment of the Dragon (who could be any of these five), but monsters also come and destroy the village, so they flee with Moiraine in order to draw the creatures away and save their families. After having watched the three episodes released by Amazon so far, I’ve definitely come to terms with the changes and I’m really starting to enjoy the show (keeping my expectations safely managed). The series has a lot of potential, and though it’s not the next GOT by any stretch, the longer it can keep going to tell as much of Jordan’s story as possible, the better it will shape up to be.

Cowboy Bebop

On Netflix, a different kind of highly-anticipated adaptation debuted: the live-action version of anime classic, Cowboy Bebop. John Cho stars as the suave bounty-hunter with a past, Spike Spiegel. I didn’t watch the original show, so I didn’t go into this series with any real expectations, but I knew that style was going to be an important element. The series is set in a future (which reminds me a lot of the ‘verse from Firefly) where bounty hunters go from planet to planet making ends meet by catching the bad guys and turning them in for credits. Spiegel, and his partner Jet Black are just trying to get the cash to keep their ship in working order (and Jet wants to buy a birthday gift for his daughter), but they get mixed up in a few complicated jobs and get in trouble with the Syndicate, as well as some other people from Spike’s past, who have a bone to pick with him. The show has a Western-Noir flavour, with some Tarantino and Guy Ritchie thrown into the mix. I enjoy the show (maybe because I watched without expectations) except for the one big problem: the fight scenes are a bit stiff. Cho looks like he’s concentrating very hard on getting the fight choreography right and it’s almost like he’s tracking the moves in his head. As a result the movements don’t flow naturally or smoothly like you’d expect. Between the combatants, a fight feels more like a quick and violent game of patty-cake. I haven’t finished all the episodes of the first season (since Netflix likes to release the whole bingeable set at once) but I’m intrigued to find out what happens when the Syndicate catches up with Spike, and whether Jet ever gets that doll for his girl.

Doctor Who

First, of all the modern seasons of the show (i.e. everything after the reboot starring Christopher Eccleston) I have enjoyed the most recent version of the show, with Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor, the least. I haven’t found the storylines or characters interesting, and I have not loved her slightly frantic way of acting and talking. She always seems to just pop in, or pop up, in some random time or place and messes things up. This final season with her (and showrunner Chris Chibnall) has suffered from pandemic constraints, so we’re only getting a short season (with a more obviously connected story arc). Subtitled “Flux”, it features all kinds of new characters across space-time, a planet-destroying force that is flowing through space, and a bunch of beginning-of-time type beings — good and bad. Because it’s a continuous story arc, they must have felt that it was fine to introduce characters without making connections to the main story (plenty of time for that later, I guess). They did this for a couple of episodes, but I confess that I’m still having a hard time following the story after a couple of episodes later. It feels like a poorly stitched story that only serves to provide cameos of classic enemies (Cybermen, Daleks, Sontarans), and even features everyone’s faves: the Weeping Angels. There are also a couple of super-powerful villains who just seem mischievous (and they look really gross with faces that look like their skin has melted a bit on their skulls). Sadly, I’ve lost most of my interest in this season already, and my confusion is dissolving all my motivation to keep watching. Hopefully things will pick up as more of the new side characters join the Doctor’s team. Otherwise, I’m just going to hold my breath until next season when the amazing Russell T. Davies returns as showrunner in 2023 (though that is a long wait!).

So while the fall TV season on network TV is pretty much extinct, in my book, thankfully the shows being made for streaming are still flowing out at a steady pace. Gone are the days of watching a dozen new shows in a week, but now we get the ups and downs of new series every month or so. The Fall TV season is still with us “in spirit”, spread throughout the year. Cheers!