ABC on Tuesday unveiled its fall 2017 schedule, along with previews for its upcoming series, including Freddie Highmore’s post-Bates Motel vehicle The Good Doctor, as well as the Shondaland legal drama For the People.
Here at TVLine, we immediately jumped at the chance to screen each trailer — some of which are available here; others were only shown to members of the press at the ABC Upfront on Tuesday — and we’re ready to divulge our totally unfiltered, brutally honest snap judgments.
Below, Michael Ausiello, Matt Mitovich, Kimberly Roots, Andy Swift, Dave Nemetz, Vlada Gelman and Ryan Schwartz share their gut reactions to each new series based on the first footage released by the network, then turn it over to you to tell us whether you agree or disagree with our pithy reviews.
Now, keep in mind: The following trailers are just the very first glimpse we get of a series and are often not wholly indicative of quality. As such, don’t take the following analysis to mean the series below will necessarily be good or bad. Previews can be deceiving — and we’ve all been fooled before.
Keep scrolling to see how Team TVLine reacted to each respective preview…
ALEX, INC. (FKA START-UP) (Midseason) [WATCH TRAILER HERE]
MITOVICH | A show about a podcaster? Will it be like a single-camera Frasier, or…? I don’t “get” it.
ROOTS | Holy Garden State, this looks right up my alley.
SWIFT | I don’t mean to go all reverse Animal Farm on ABC, but podcasts are to be heard and not seen. I won’t be investing in Alex, Inc.
NEMETZ | An appealing cast — hi, Good Eleanor from The Good Place! — gets bogged down by wacky sitcom hi-jinks and a thin premise. (A man launches a podcast, and then…?)
SCHWARTZ | Looks charming enough, but I’m confused: Is this supposed to be a workplace sitcom? A family comedy with workplace elements? I’ll give Zach Braff & Co. a few episodes to figure it out.
THE CROSSING (Midseason) [WATCH TRAILER HERE]
AUSIELLO | Oh, I get it. j/k I have no clue what this show is. And I suspect I don’t care.
MITOVICH | I’m rooting for it, because the premise is pretty cool, and yet it feels like the hybrid baby of every one-and-done ABC midseason genre show.
ROOTS | [folds hands in prayer] Please have your mythology figured out so this cool-looking drama doesn’t falter in Season 2…
NEMETZ | The time-bending premise is undeniably cool, but we’ve seen ABC swing and miss with this kind of high-concept drama too many times before.
DECEPTION (Midseason) [WATCH TRAILER HERE]
MITOVICH | And this is related to Lucy Coe’s perfume line…how?
ROOTS | Just how big is the FBI “consultants” budget?!
SWIFT | If I never hear “You’re Cameron Black!” again, it will be too soon. Pass.
GELMAN | Looks like ABC is filling the Castle hole with Now You See Me: The Procedural.
FOR THE PEOPLE (Midseason) [WATCH TRAILER HERE]
ROOTS | What was that Shakespeare quote about lawyers again?
SWIFT | For which people, exactly? If there’s an interesting hook to this show, it was nowhere to be seen in the trailer.
GELMAN | Exactly what you would expect from a Shondaland show about lawyers. And with How to Get Away With Murder already on the air, do we need another legal show about young, sexy attorneys?
SCHWARTZ | So. Utterly. Generic.
THE GOOD DOCTOR (Monday at 10/9c) [WATCH TRAILER HERE]
AUSIELLO | Freddie Highmore is one of maybe six actors alive who could get me to watch yet another medical drama featuring an aberrant doctor.
MITOVICH | Helluva trailer. Terrific cast. Curious to see if the show holds its edge with some characters coming down hard on the autistic savant’s “deficit.”
NEMETZ | I can’t get excited about yet another “difficult savant flashes amazing skills” procedural, even with Freddie Highmore in the lead role.
SCHWARTZ | Is it possible for an actor to follow-up on a breakout role with another breakout role? Because if so, this seems to be the case for Bates Motel‘s Freddie Highmore.
THE GOSPEL OF KEVIN (Tuesday at 10/9c) [WATCH TRAILER HERE]
SWIFT |If it can balance the humor with the heart — the trailer features way too much of the latter — I’m down to check it out.
NEMETZ | Jason Ritter is crazy and funny (and crazy funny) here, but the silly comedy and uplifting spiritual drama don’t mix together very well.
GELMAN | Gave me a little bit of a Eli Stone-meets-Joan of Arcadia vibe, which is a good thing. Unrelated: Here’s hoping Jason Ritter and JoAnna Garcia Swisher don’t have inappropriate sibling chemistry.
MARVEL’S INHUMANS (Friday at 9/8c)
MITOVICH | The uninitiated shouldn’t come away from the trailer unclear on what the assorted Inhumans’ powers are.
ROOTS | Not a single woman kicking ass in that trailer? (A serious question: If I missed it, holler.)
GELMAN | For a show shot for IMAX, shouldn’t it be more visually striking? (Lockjaw was cool, though.)
THE MAYOR (Tuesday at 9:30/8:30c) [WATCH TRAILER HERE]
ROOTS | Much funnier than I expected it to be, mostly thanks to the winning Brandon Micheal Hall.
SWIFT | This feels more like a Kevin Hart movie than a long-running show, but I could see it being a sleeper hit.
NEMETZ | I’m not ready to laugh about an unprepared entertainer being thrust into a position of political power. Plus, why is Lea Michele signing on to be the third lead on a sitcom?
GELMAN | The rare case where a trailer pleasantly surprised me and increased my interest level from zero to “I’ll definitely check this out.”
ROSEANNE (Midseason) [WATCH TRAILER HERE]
AUSIELLO | The clip reel completely ignored Johnny Galecki’s David, but the eight-episode revival better not.
ROOTS | I’m putting on my chicken-and-egg shirt in celebration! Too bad it’s midseason — I would’ve loved one of their Halloween episodes.
SPLITTING UP TOGETHER (Midseason) [WATCH TRAILER HERE]
ROOTS | Blergh, does that last line of dialogue mean that they’ll be ok if she just stops being awesome at doing everything? Because if so, I’m out.
SWIFT | I liked this better the first time when it was called Happily Divorced.
NEMETZ | The jokes are too cutesy; the emotional stuff is too forced. Also, it’s hard to accept Jenna Fischer on TV with anyone but Jim Halpert.
GELMAN | I will always give a comedy from writer Emily Kapnek (Selfie, Suburgatory) a chance. And I’d like to thank her for making me temporarily forget about Oliver Hudson’s Nashville character, Jeff Fordham.
TEN DAYS IN THE VALLEY (Sunday at 10/9c) [WATCH TRAILER HERE]
MITOVICH | Kyra Sedgwick as a crime drama producer entangled in her own personal kidnapping crisis? As Brenda Leigh would say, “Thank yewwww!”
ROOTS | I feel like this is a cautionary tale for UnREAL‘s Rachel. Y’know, the Ghost of Producer Future?
NEMETZ | Combining a Hollywood cop show and a real-life kidnapping drama actually works, thanks to Kyra Sedgwick. Intense, and intriguing.
