Fall Shows: Sophomores ('Revolution', 'Arrow', 'The Americans', 'Hannibal')

Revolution premiered its second season this past Wednesday on NBC.

Eric Kripke and J.J. Abrams want this to be a great show. They took a four month hiatus at the midpoint of its debut season just to beef up the story and ensure security. This season has our characters in much different places since the power was restored and used to nuke Philly and Atlanta. Rachel is depressed, Miles is captured, Charlie wants Monroe dead, Monroe is fight clubbing, Aaron is alive(?) and Tom Neville looks to be the usual wild card as the United States government is now in the mix. With some new cast members (Nicole Ari Parker, Stephen Collins) and plenty of new contexts, the sophomore season for Revolution could be break out bound. Here's the promo for next week's episode.

                                              

Arrow premieres on October 9th at 8PM EST on The CW.

It was a shot in the dark starting this show. I feel the need to support super hero shows, even if they air on the same network as Beauty and the Beast. I'm not blown away by the writing or Oliver Queen's mirky monologues, but Julie Plec and others from The CW are still good for their sappy, yet suspenseful story twists. The sophomore season for Arrow will undoubtedly address the aftermath of Tommy Merlyn's fatal attack on "The Glades", and is said to even be bringing other heroes into the mold for the sophomore season (The Flash). More power to them for keeping this series going. Here's the trailer for the upcoming season.

                       

The Americans is set to return in January on FX.

One of the best new shows on TV last fall came from Falling Skies' writer and former CIA agent Joe Weisberg. The most fascinating aspect of this 1980's spy drama is that our protagonists (Michael Rhys, Keri Russell) are Russian KGB operatives in opposition to the United States. What makes them protagonists is how the first season resonated us with their characters, who desperately balance their lives as spies with their fully developed covers as a normal American family. The end of last season showed the daughter, Paige, discovering perhaps her first clue of suspicion pertaining to her parents' activities. The FBI neighbor, Philip's fake relationship with Martha, and other loose ends are waiting to be tied for next season. Here's a three-minute replay from Week 1 of The Americans debut season.

                       

Hannibal will return to NBC in January.

Bryan Fuller brought a disturbingly ravishing rendition of the classic serial killer, based on the original Red Dragon novel series by Thomas Harris. Mads Mikkelsen portrays a refreshingly original Dr. Lecter, whose relationship with patient and FBI criminal profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) was the focus of the debut 13-episode season. This is one of the darker, discomfiting series on television, much credit to the rebirth of Hannibal and some brutally graphic crime scenes. Check out a brief clip from Hannibal, showing a brief encounter between Hannibal and Will, which only shows a portion of the psychological puzzle.