Sometimes it feels like there is just too much on TV to watch. We decided to make it easier for you. Follow our guide to the best dramas, dramatic duds, best new comedies and comedy casualties showing on UAE TV, summer 2015.
Five best new dramas
Better Call Saul
Yes, Jimmy McGill, as he evolves towards becoming Saul Goodman, has wit to burn. But this AMC spin-off from/prequel to Breaking Bad also grabs us by the heart as this struggling small-time attorney – so masterfully realised by star Bob Odenkirk – wields human spirit and grit with diamond toughness.
• Premieres 12am, August 8 on OSN First HD
Five best new dramas
Empire
Fox revived the prime-time soap with a knockout ratings punch and a pounding hip-hop plot that mixes glamour, danger and power with a killer beat. With stars such as Taraji P Henson and Terrence Howard, it’s hardly surprising that the ratings grew week after week to reach 23 million for the finale.
• First season has already aired in the UAE
Five best new dramas
True Detective
The pairing of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in this HBO detective thriller, was sensational. As they chased evil criminals, their own demons thwarted them as well, making for incendiary, can’t-look-away drama. It is the first of last year’s hits to start airing a season two, with a new story and cast, which has not been nearly so well received.
• Season two is airing at 11pm, Mondays on OSN First HD
Five best new dramas
Gotham
Bruce Wayne is still a kid in the Batman prequel, from the Fox network, but his city already has his rogues’ gallery beginning to make their mark. We met a few during season one but the most notable was Oswald Cobblepot, aka the Penguin, played with élan and lethal cheek by Robin Lord Taylor. He butts heads with the only honest cop in town, Jim Gordon, played by Ben McKenzie.
• No UAE air date available
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Five best new dramas
Fargo
"Minnesota nice" mixed with murder most foul charmed audiences in the 1996 Coen brothers film. The FX network recreated the dark magic with a television series set in the same fictional landscape, starring a dastardly Billy Bob Thornton along with Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks and The Hobbit's Martin Freeman. Must-see TV.
• No UAE air date available
Five best new comedies
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Co-created by 30 Rock's Tina Fey, and scoring 94 per cent positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, this side-splitting Netflix sitcom stars Ellie Kemper (The Office) as a woman adjusting to life in New York City following her rescue after 15 years as a brainwashed member of a doomsday cult.
• Available on Netflix
Five best new comedies
Jane The Virgin
Based on a wild Venezuelan telenovela, this CW show stars Gina Rodriguez as a religious young woman determined to stay virtuous until she marries – and then she is accidentally artificially inseminated at a medical clinic. In true soapy fashion, the laughs grow with her baby bump.
• No UAE air date available
Five best new comedies
Fresh Off The Boat
ABC’s juicy new sitcom about an Asian-American family’s move to Florida to open a cowboy-themed restaurant spins laughs from the immigrant experience as it walks the high wire between clichés and truth. It was inspired by the true story of foodie author Eddie Huang.
• First season has already aired on OSN First Comedy HD
Five best new comedies
Galavant
ABC needed to plug the gap when Once Upon a Time is on hiatus. So it boldly mounted an epic musical-comedy fairy tale, from the creative team behind Disney's Tangled, about the dashing hero Galavant (Joshua Sasse) as he embarks on a quest to reclaim his "happily ever after".
• A second season has been ordered. 7.30pm, Wednesdays on OSN First Comedy HD
Five best new comedies
The Last Man on Earth
Already renewed by Fox, this sitcom reminds us of our love for Saturday Night Live alumnus Will Forte, who plays a bushy-bearded former family man and banker who sets out across the US in an RV looking for survivors after a cataclysm strikes the Earth in 2022.
• Premieres August 9, 9pm, on OSN First Comedy HD
Five dramatic duds
Battle Creek
Even the mighty Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, can have a misfire. Set in small-town Michigan, this cop drama, starring Dean Winters and Josh Duhamel, never found an audience and was busted by CBS despite decent reviews.
• No UAE air date available
Five dramatic duds Stalker
Aware from first-hand experience what it’s like to be victimised, cop Beth Davis (Maggie Q) investigates voyeurism, cyber harassment, romantic fixation and stalking with fellow detective Jack Larsen (Dylan McDermott). Its sadistic violence, drug use, offensive sex and ugly storylines were the nails in Stalker’s coffin.
• No UAE air date available
Five dramatic duds
Allegiance
A true-blue CIA agent (Gavin Stenhouse) discovers that his Russian-born mother (Hope Davis) is a KGB "sleeper agent" spy. NBC moved the series online after low-rated episodes, but this spy series lacked suspense and played as limp as a wet noodle. Plus, it was suspiciously similar to the much better FX show The Americans, the fourth season of which will air next year.
• No UAE air date available
Five dramatic duds
Red Band Society
Octavia Spencer's Oscar for The Help couldn't help her save this dramedy, in which she played a fraught nurse working in the paediatric ward of an LA hospital, dealing with life-threatening illnesses. While much-admired, a light-hearted tone to balance the darker story elements didn't do it any favours and ratings flatlined.
• No UAE air date available
Five dramatic duds The Messengers
Murky, imitative storytelling spelt doom for this CW network lemon about five people who die and come back to life when a mysterious object plummets from the sky into the New Mexico desert. Will they cause the Rapture – or prevent it? Nobody cared.
• No UAE air date available
Five comedy casualties
Backstrom
From the mind of Bones' creator Hart Hanson, this crime procedural starring Rainn Wilson (The Office) presented a fat, grumpy, self-destructive detective who offended everybody. If only Hanson had watched Peter Falk on Columbo, he might have saved the day by tossing Backstrom a charm biscuit. 11pm,
• Wednesdays on OSN First HD
Five comedy casualties Manhattan Love Story
As a small-town girl (Analeigh Tipton) chases her Big Apple dreams with a native New Yorker (Jake McDorman), we get to share in their unfiltered inner thoughts as their romance blooms like toxic algae – along with clichés and foul, nasty humour. Cancelled after only four episodes.
• No UAE air date available
Five comedy casualties
Cristela
Stand-up comic Cristela Alonzo – the first Latina to create, produce, write and star in a prime-time sitcom – played a woman on the brink of becoming a lawyer, while her traditional Mexican-American family has other ideas. Despite good reviews, the numbers didn’t add up and she was thrown out of court.
• 10am, Wednesdays on OSN First Comedy HD
Five comedy casualties Mulaney
Former Saturday Night Live writer John Mulaney plays a fictionalised version of himself, a hungry stand-up comic hired by a narcissistic game-show host (played by movie star Martin Short). Critics slammed it as a dreadful Seinfeld rip-off – and the talented Short was certainly slumming it.
• 7pm, Sundays on OSN First Comedy HD
Five comedy casualties
Selfie
In this social-media-era take on My Fair Lady, internet celebrity Eliza Dooley (former Doctor Who star Karen Gillan) sought the help of a marketing guru (John Cho) to teach her how to make connections with real people. Viewers didn't buy the premise and swiftly logged out.
• No UAE air date available
