Fall TV Preview

Fall TV preview: 8 new shows worth checking out for a Super Fun Night

Fall TV season kicked off last week, bringing with it a plethora of programs with which to fill your DVR. While some of TV’s latest offerings aren’t worth your time, others will bring back some of our favorite actors to the small screen. Here’s our guide to some of what's new this fall, so clear your DVR and get ready to spend a night on the couch. This TV ain’t gonna watch itself.

The Blacklist

Mondays, NBC, 9/8c

Eighties dirtbag James Spader returns to TV in this crime thriller that critics are hailing as “the best new show of the season.” For decades, ex-government agent Raymond "Red" Reddington (Spader) has been one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives. Now, he's mysteriously surrendered to the FBI with an explosive offer: Red will help catch terrorist Ranko Zamani under the condition that he speaks only to Elizabeth "Liz" Keen, an FBI profiler fresh out of Quantico.

Mom

Mondays, CBS, 9:30/8:30c

West Wing vet Allison Janney is trading in her power suits for a new role — motherhood. She joins the sometimes-funny Anna Faris in this new comedy from showrunner Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory). Faris is a newly sober single mom raising two children in a world full of temptations and pitfalls, with Janney starring as her critical, estranged mother. If you’re game for a laugh-track, tune in. But don’t expect Emmy-winning fare here.

Brooklyn 99

Tuesdays, FOX, 8:30/7:30c

Andy Samberg! The goofy Lonely Island-er raised eyebrows when he left his cushy Saturday Night Live gig for television, but I’m happy to report that his decision wasn’t in vain. He joins other such indie comedy names as Joe LoTruglio (Superbad) and Chelsea Perretti (Parks and Recreation, Louie) in this cop comedy, wherein Samberg stars as all-star Detective Jake Peralta, a success story who doesn’t want to follow the rules.

The Goldbergs

Tuesdays, ABC, 9/8c

Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions brings this '80s set comedy, which stars comedy all-stars Wendi McLendon-Covey (Bridesmaids) and Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm) matriarch and patriarch of the Goldberg family. The 1980s were the wonder years for geeky 11-year-old Adam (Sean Giambrone), and he faced them armed with a video camera to capture all the crazy. In the same vein as The Wonder Years and Freaks and Geeks, both of which captured audiences’ hearts, this nostalgic comedy could have legs. Maybe.

Trophy Wife

Wednesdays, ABC, 9:30/8:30c

Malin Ackerman stars as Kate, former party girl turned third wife to Pete, played Bradley Whitford (another West Wing alum). After a wild night at a karaoke bar, she falls into his arms, and a year later is begrudgingly welcomed into a new family, complete with two ex-wives and three stepchildren. The star quality of the show’s cast is enough to bring viewers, so this is worth a shot.

Back in the Game

Wednesdays, ABC, 8:30/7:30c

Maggie Lawson (Psych) stars as Terry, an all-star softball player who returns home after her marriage ends, moving in with her estranged father, played by James Caan. It’s a story we’ve heard before (think Clint Eastwood movie plot), but the cast’s chemistry is at least palpable.

Super Fun Night

Wednesdays, ABC, 9:30/8:30

After her hysterical turn in this year’s Pitch Perfect, it seems the world is eager to see more of Rebel Wilson. This comedy hasn’t been without its pitfalls — another network reportedly passed on the initial pilot — but those just looking for Wilson’s signature comedic style should not be disappointed. Wilson stars as Kimmie Boubier, who, with her two best friends, has a standing date every Friday night for the last 13 years. Trouble ensues when she meets a suitor (surprise, surprise) who causes Friday Night Fun Night to take a backseat. Think Never Been Kissed goes to New Zealand.

The Michael J. Fox Show

Thursdays, NBC 9/8c

Michael J. Fox makes his long-awaited return to TV with this semiautobiographical show, in which he stars as Mike Henry, one of New York's favorite news anchors, who has to put his career on hold in order to spend time with his family and focus on his Parkinson's disease diagnosis. The story picks up after his kids are grown and he's looking to get back to work. Fans of Fox are sure to be pleased, and Breaking Bad fans can take solace in the fact that Marie finally moves on from Hank (Betsy Brandt stars as Fox’s wife).

There you have it. Of course some of your old favorites will be back, some will soon be ending (RIP, Breaking Bad), and some we’ll have to wait for forever (Mad Men, ugh). But at least fall will bring some opportunities to find a new favorite.

James Spader stars in The Blacklist.

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Movie Review

True-story film Roofman stars Channing Tatum as a charming criminal

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Channing Tatum in Roofman.

Earlier in 2025 director Darren Aronofsky released the action thriller Caught Stealing, a film that — while successful — was at odds with the rest of his filmography. Writer/director Derek Cianfrance has made a similar whiplash pivot with his new film, Roofman, an effort that has little in common with his most well-known works, each of which were intense dramas with tragic elements.

This film tells the real-life story of Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum), who earns the nickname of “Roofman” after breaking into a series of fast food restaurants via their roofs in order to rob them. Those crimes send him to jail for a long sentence, but he soon breaks out using a simple-yet-ingenious method. Now on the run in Charlotte, North Carolina, he comes up with another smart way to stay hidden: In a rarely-checked display in the middle of a Toys “R” Us store.

His plan leaves him plenty of time to explore the store at night and get to know the habits of the employees during the day, including manager Mitch (Peter Dinklage) and Leigh Wainscott (Kirsten Dunst), a single mom struggling to make ends meet and get along with her kids. Boredom soon sends Jeffrey out of the store, where he makes friends with Leigh under the assumed name of John Zorn, a relationship that becomes bigger than anticipated and imperils his fugitive status.

With much of the early 2000s-set film taking place inside the Toys “R” Us, Cianfrance and co-writer Kirt Gunn keep most of the story whimsical and fun. It’s an interesting trick to make a person who has committed multiple crimes, traumatized one family, and started down the road toward traumatizing another into a lovable protagonist, but the filmmakers pull it off. Jeffrey/John is portrayed as a goofy guy who just makes a series of really bad decisions, with even his victims finding it hard to bad-mouth him.

As the manhunt for Manchester continues during the many months of his hideout, there’s little doubt that things will go poorly for him in the end. However, Cianfrance and his team manage to structure the film in a way where it’s almost easy to forget he’s on the run from the law. While the film elides his ability to come and go from the store at will, it sets up his character so well that it’s easy to just go with the flow and enjoy the ride while it lasts.

What’s curious about the film, though, is the stacked supporting cast it has assembled. It includes Emmy winner Dinklage as the store manager, Oscar nominee LaKeith Stanfield as an old war buddy of Jeffrey, Emmy winners Ben Mendelssohn and Uzo Aduba as the leaders of the church where Jeffrey woos Leigh, and Emmy nominee Juno Temple as the war buddy’s girlfriend. While it’s a pleasure to see each of them, none of them have what would be considered meaty roles, so their collective talents are mostly wasted.

Tatum has a natural charm to him that makes him perfect for this type of part. He believably embodies a guy who knows the difference between right and wrong, and yet continues to do wrong on a consistent basis. It’s nice to see Dunst in a less dramatic role after The Power of the Dog and Civil War, and she elevates a role that could’ve been forgettable in other hands.

Roofman is much different from most of the films Cianfrance has made, which makes it surprising that he is successful in pulling off its generally comic tone. The golden retriever vibe of Tatum helps out in a big way, as does the story that would be unbelievable if it weren’t true.

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Roofman opens in theaters on October 10.

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