Fall has Falling Leaves and Falling Shows

Helen Burdier, Entertainment Editor

The start of the fall season brings with it the start of school, pumpkin spice flavored drinks and, most importantly, new shows and the return of others.

Among the shows returning are Fox’s The Mindy Project and New Girl, along with Golden Globe winning sophomore comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Last season of both The Mindy Project and New Girl saw the leading ladies dealing with the start of a new relationship and the consequences of a relationship that ended, respectively. Mindy Lahiri, played by Mindy Kaling, spent much of last season testing out the dating pool after her failed romance with fellow gynecologist and main adversary, Danny Castellano, but the finale had Castellano ‘‘cat-fishing’’ her and pretending to be a man looking for her in the personal ad’s after seeing her on the bus, causing her to end her current romance with a gruff police officer, and the two meeting- or rather their lips meeting- on top of the Empire State Building.

New Girl had loft mates Jess and Nick taking the rest of their posse on a cruise they booked when they were still together, which of course leads to tension, and eventually the rest of the group holds an intervention for the ex-couple which leads to the group getting locked in the room before being rescued three days later. The Andy Samberg driven Brooklyn Nine-Nine had its first season ending with Samberg’s Detective Peralta getting fired from the NYPD but secretly getting an assignment to work undercover to infiltrate an organized crime family.

While Fox has their aforementioned comedies returning, the network also has new shows they’re premiering. One of their new shows, Red Band Society, follows the adventures-or misadventures- of kids battling illnesses in a Los Angeles hospital run by a no-nonsense nurse played by Octavia Spencer. The show, which deals with illnesses such as anorexia and cancer, seems very Glee meets The Breakfast Club with maybe a splash of The Fault in Our Stars. Fox’s other new show, Gotham, chronicles the origins of Batmans ally Commissioner James Gordon, along with the beginnings of villains such as Penguin, The Riddler, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and The Joker.

The creator of Scandal is gifting viewers with another sure to be addictive show with How to Get Away with Murder. The show will be a legal drama series and will have Viola Davis, from The Help, starring as a law professor who gets involved in a murder plot with her students.

Even MTV is premiering a new show, called Happyland, a dramedy centered on the behind-the-scenes action at a theme park with some accidental incest between the daughter of the parks princess and the son of the parks new owner. The once music video themed channel is also bringing back Awkward after a season finale of revelations- a shady past was discovered, a relationship ended, and a pregnancy was announced.

On the reality TV front, NBC’s The Voice is returning for its seven season with Gwen Stefani and Pharrell taking a seat in the spinning red chairs. The singing competition show is also adding Taylor Swift as an advisor while the bromance between Blake Shelton and Adam Levine will continue for the seventh season. ABC’s Dancing with the Stars will also return with a Pretty Little Liars star Janel Parrish, Mean Girls’ heartthrob Jonathan Bennett, designer Betsey Johnson, and Youtuber Bethany Mota.

The premieres and returns of the shows for the fall season start next week.