FOXDoes Fox have the best line-up of new fall shows?!
It's looking likely, with Ryan Murphy's Scream Queens set to make quite the killer debut and John Stamos' highly anticipated return to TV in Grandfathered as TV's hottest GILF. (Sorry, Jay Pritchett on Modern Family!) Still, with the good comes the...not-as-good.
E! Online's TV Scoop Team already gave you their quick and dirty reviews of ABC's new shows and CBS' fall offerings, and today, it's Fox's turn in the hot seat. Ready for some brutal honesty?
Scream Queens
Premiere Date: Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 8 p.m., moves to 9 p.m. on Sept. 29
Time-Slot Competition: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC), NCIS: New Orleans (CBS), Supernatural (The CW), Heartbreaker (NBC)
Stars: Emma Roberts, Jamie Lee Curtis, Lea Michele, Keke Palmer, Skyler Samuels, Billie Lourd, Abigail Breslin, Glen Powell, Diego Boneta, Nasim Pedrad, Lucien Laviscount and Oliver Hudson
Kristin Dos Santos: Hands down my favorite new show of the season. Emma Roberts will make you feel like you can't breathe with her perfection because she SLAYS in this role—it is the role she was born to do, playing the worst, most bitchtastic sorority girl of all time, Chanel. And the entire cast, with Jamie Lee Curtis, Lea Michele, Niecy Nash, Keke Palmer and some breakout stars you soon will know well, are such ridiculous fun to watch, you'll find yourself craving more when each episode ends. Bitchy, insane, and full of jaw-dropping death scenes you will laugh-scream at (that's now a thing), Scream Queens is the best new show I've seen in a very long time.
Tierney Bricker: Listen up, idiot hookers (Can I call you that?), SQ is, hands down, the best new show of the fall. It's fun. It's scary. It's glamorous. And it's freakin' HILARIOUS. And Emma Roberts? Pretty sure she was born to SLAY Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's dialogue. The rest of the cast is aces too. I'd say set your DVRs now but this is a cancel-your-plans-stay-home-and-watch-live kind of show. And I guarantee it's more 96 percent more entertaining than the plans you would've had anyway.
Chris Harnick: Niecy Nash, I love you. She steals the show. I have been a fan of hers since Reno 911! and Clean House, now thanks to Getting On and Scream Queens I am even more a member of Niecy's fan club. And Jamie Lee Curtis is just flawless. There's no other word for her. I am into it.
Jean Bentley: Hands down my favorite pilot of the fall. It's fun, gorgeous, campy in all the right ways, and I cannot believe some of the dialogue they got away with! Plus, Lea Michele in a neck brace is basically my new religion.
Lauren Piester: I was just going to leave you with "yes, absolutely, x1000" because that's really all you need, but I also feel like I need to say more, because it's just so fun. The acting's great, the jokes are perfectly crafted, and the screams are truly artful. I'm in love.
The Grinder
Premiere Date: Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 9:30 p.m.
Time-Slot Competition: Fresh Off the Boat (ABC), NCIS (CBS), The Flash (The CW) and The Voice (NBC)
Stars: Rob Lowe, Fred Savage, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, William Devane and Natalie Morales
Kristin Dos Santos: In a move that makes the universe slightly less tragic after Chris Traeger LITERALLY shattered our hearts into a thousand pieces when he left Parks and Recreation, Rob Lowe is pure perfection as an ego-maniacal TV star who plays a lawyer on this gem of a show. I laughed out loud probably more than any other comedy pilot (save Scream Queens), and Fred Savage is equal parts lovable and hilarious.
Tierney Bricker: Welcome back, Fred Savage! Seriously, he and Rob Lowe are the best new pairing this season, thanks to their brotherly banter as a lawyer and an actor who played a lawyer on TV. So basically the same thing. Trust me, I'm not a doctor, but I've watched a lot of them on TV.
Chris Harnick: The Grinder grinded my nerves. Fred Savage does exasperated very well, but this pilot was annoying.
Jean Bentley: There are Grandfathered people, and there are Grinder people. I personally think this is the funnier of Fox's new comedies, thanks in large part to the pairing of Fred Savage and Rob Lowe. Ultimately, the choice is yours.
Lauren Piester: I'm a sucker for TV shows about fake TV shows, and for celebrities playing fake celebrities, and for Rob Lowe, so yeah, I loved the first episode and hope to love many more.
Grandfathered
Premiere Date: Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 8 p.m.
Time-Slot Competition: The Muppets (ABC), NCIS (CBS), The Flash (The CW) and The Voice (NBC)
Stars: John Stamos, Josh Peck, Paget Brewster, Christina Milian, Kelly Jenrette and Ravi Patel
Kristin Dos Santos: That vampire blood John Stamos clearly has been drinking (seriously, how is THAT FACE 51?!) also appears to have paid off when it comes to work ethic. Despite juggling his new role as an executive producer on Fuller House while starring in Grandfathered, he truly has knocked it out of the park with this Fox comedy performance: Playing a workaholic player who finds out he's not just a dad but a grandfather with charisma, warmth and charm. Grandfathered might seem like a dopey concept at first sight, but it's surprisingly well executed and full of both funny moments and a lot of heart.
Tierney Bricker: Science: John Stamos + babies = me turning into a pile of mush. Add in Josh Peck, who is so effortlessly charming it's ridiculous, and you've got my favorite new comedy of the fall, that isn't too cutesy but is still super-cute.
Chris Harnick: Not the worst, but not my favorite. However, Grandfathered has a strong cast and premise that could go the distance.
Jean Bentley: Stamos: Babe. Peck: Babe. Baby: Adorable. I'm not mad at this show. Not sure how it'll evolve, but I'll be watching.
Lauren Piester: John Stamos with a baby, Josh Peck with a baby, and—I repeat—John. Stamos. With. A. Baby. It's like two different parts of my childhood got together and grew up real nicely and I am very into it.
Minority Report
Premiere Date: Monday, Sept. 21 at 9 p.m.
Time-Slot Competition: Dancing With the Stars (ABC), Scorpion (CBS), Jane the Virgin (The CW) and The Voice (NBC)
Stars: Meagan Good, Stak Sands, Nick Zano, Laura Regan, Wilmer Valderrama, Daniel London and Li Jun Li
Kristin Dos Santos: Oof. I wanted so badly to love this show, but honestly couldn't get past the incredibly creepy childhood backstory (sorry! Mom comment!) of these poor characters. They were basically kept in a lab as children, hooked up to machines because they could see future deaths, screaming at everything they saw. (Thankfully, they toned down the child terror after the first cut I saw.) But more importantly: Minority Report just tries. Too. Hard. The series takes place 50 years in the future where everything is so HIGH TECH! and FANCY! and SLICK! And what that translates into is the main stars looking slightly ridiculous as they basically do extreme yoga/miming trying to operate "advanced technology" like hologram, wall-size iPad images. I mean, I would just stay in bed. Or, like, grab a pad of paper? I'll still watch more, though: The acting is good and the storylines are decent. I just really want them to chill the F out on the HIGH TECH!-ness of it all.
Tierney Bricker: Did I say Grandfathered was the best new comedy of the fall? Oops, I meant Minority Report. OK, not really, but I laugh a lot, though I'm not sure that was the intention? Still: LOLz. But in a kind of fun and totally over the top way? I just hope the show starts using the camp factor to its advantage FAST, like the really great Tinder mention in the pilot.
Chris Harnick: Wooden acting, cheesy writing and all sorts of leather jackets and henley shirts do not make for a good show. I laughed more watching (and unintentionally) than I did during a lot of this fall's new comedies. So far the only good thing about this show is the sweatshirt Fox sent to promote it.
Jean Bentley: Don't listen to the naysayers! This show is awesome. I mean, it's not good, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy every second of it. From the future fashion—two jackets layered on top of one another is THE look for 2065, apparently—to some truly ridiculous dialogue and wooden acting, this show is guilty pleasure bad movie-level fun. Plus, the special effects are really cool. If the show can lean into the camp, it will remain one of my favorite new shows of the season.
Lauren Piester: I loved it? It was terrible, and ridiculous, and cheesy, and yet, I found myself completely and totally enjoying the overwrought dialogue and goofy special effects. If this show can actually embrace the cheese, it could have a real dedicated fanbase that I could see myself being a part of.
Rosewood
Premiere Date: Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 8 p.m.
Time-Slot Competition: The Middle/The Goldbergs (ABC), Survivor (CBS), Arrow (The CW), The Mysteries of Laura (NBC)
Stars: Morris Chesnut, Jaina Lee Ortiz, Lorraine Toussaint, Gabrielle Dennis, Anna Konkle, Domenick Lombardozzi and Maggie Elizabeth Jones
Kristin Dos Santos: I like this cast, but, sorry, the show is just not special or memorable enough. Quite honestly feels like a bit of a million other shows you've already seen before. Not for me.
Tierney Bricker: It feels like a Bones-House mash-up? And I say this as someone who has never watched either show? But, um, at least Morris Chesnut is hella good? And sorry, Rosewood, but the best thing to come out of Miami is still Will Smith's iconic song.
Chris Harnick: No, thank you. It felt like a USA drama, but not entertaining and certainly not Mr. Robot. Wasn't sure if they could fit any more clichés into this.
Jean Bentley: You can tell this show is set in Miami because of the spicy Latin music they use in literally every scene!!! But that's the only thing that sets this Bones-meets-House wannabe apart from literally any other procedural. Morris Chestnut's charm (and, uh, his face) can't rescue Rosewood from feeling like you've seen it a thousand times before.
Lauren Piester: I automatically assume any show set in Miami is in the same Miami as Dexter, so I'm pretty sure this nonsense is what happened after Dexter turned lumberjack and the Miami police department got a whole lot less interesting.
Come back tomorrow for our rapid-fire reviews of NBC and The CW's new fall shows!