Am I growing cynical or are upfronts rolling round faster and with less actually interesting television happening in between? Oh well, here we are again!
First up are Fox. They only had two new shows out of seven that were renewed one comedy and one actually pretty critically acclaimed drama. With another three shows cancelled that means almost a full half of their shows have gone and frankly the remaining ones aren’t really setting the world alight. With American Idol going into its final season as well, it doesn’t look good over at Fox.

Finished or Cancelled
I used to absolutely adore Glee, it was stupid but it made me happy. Gradually the happiness just got drowned out by the stupid and I gave up in the middle of season 4. The show committed my cardinal sin, it sacrificed coherent characters to drive short term plots. I also just never fell in love with the new characters as much as the original cast. Ratings dwindled, critical response plummeted and it was given a sixth and final season to wind things up.

I was watching The Following, but frankly I lost enthusiasm somewhere in the middle of season 2 and it’s been on a death spiral for me for a while. I’ve watched the first few episodes of season 3 and it just wasn’t doing anything for me. It was still brutal but the relentlessness of that just disconnected me from any emotional level and hence there didn’t really seem much of a reason to watch.
New series Gracepoint made it through the whole season, but the American remake of Broadchurch seemed pretty pointless from the get go, particularly with David Tennant re-doing his performance.
Also cancelled: Utopia, Backstrom, Mulaney, Weird Loners, Red Band Society (all new shows).

Returning Series
I apparently don’t watch any of the series on Fox! I used to watch Bones which will return for season 11, I gave up on it at a couple of years ago because I was frustrated with Brennan’s groundhog day character and just bored by the plots. I enjoyed the episodes of Sleepy Hollow that I saw, but didn’t really get into it enough to stick with it but it’s renewed for a 3rd season.
I have Empire sat on my Sky box to try, so that might make the cut. I tried Gotham but found it cliché, forced and disappointing.
Also returning: Comedies Brooklyn Nine-Nine (3), The New Girl (4); new series The Last Man on Earth (2) and animations The Simpsons (renewed for seasons 27 AND 28), Family Guy (13) and Bob’s Burgers (7)
Wayward Pines (the M Night Shyamalan series) has only just stated so no word on whether it will be renewed.
Breaking news – just had to move The Mindy Project out of the cancelled list as it’s been renewed at Hulu.

New this Autumn

Minority Report:Based on the film, or at least on the idea of pre-crime and whizzy computer interfaces. I rather liked the trailer, with younger characters and less creepy military overtones it had a more energetic feel to it.

Grandfathered

A restaurant owner who is desperate to deny he’s aging finds that not only does he have a son he never knew about, but there’s a granddaughter as well. There were a couple of laughs in the trailer (largely thanks to the supporting cast), but it all looks pretty predictable.

The Grinder: After 8 years playing a lawyer on television a popular actor decides to ‘go straight’ and join the family law firm. His brother is less than thrilled. Nice idea, but even Rob Lowe and Fred Savage couldn’t make the characters anything other than irritating.

Rosewood: A “private medical examiner” (private? What?) who runs and looks good with his shirt off works with a new, young, female detective who is trying to prove herself. He’s cocky, but has a medical condition that could kill him at any time; she kicks ass and is resistant to his charms… sort of. Yeesh. It’s like someone set out to write a parody and accidentally took themselves seriously.

Scream Queens: An exclusive sorority is forced to open its doors to all comers, then people start dying. It’s billed as a horror/comedy and I think it’s probably the second half of that combo which stopped it from being just another season of American Horror Story as it’s done by the same team. I loved Scream so this might be a lot of fun, or it might show that it’s not an idea that’s sustainable over multiple hours.

Coming January

Lucifer: The devil has quit and moved to Los Angeles where he uses his powers of manipulation to charm women and have a good time. Then he seems to decide he wants to fight crime. And some of his old colleagues come looking for him. The character’s charm carries through to the trailer and I rather enjoyed it, although suspect the novelty might ware off very quickly leaving you with something that feels a lot like several failed series before it. It’s based on Neil Gaiman’s work though, so it might have enough to keep it going.

The Guide to Surviving Life: Group of guys, share a flat, screw up in various ways. Explain what they’ve learnt to the audience. Blah blah blah.

The Frankenstein Code: Rogue scientists take a 75 year old murdered guy and turn him into a much younger, stronger, faster, smarter guy who’s pretty peeved about being murdered and not that thrilled about being brought back it seems. Frankly the trailer looked rubbish.

The X-Files: Thirteen years later, Mulder and Scully are back for 6 episodes. I have no earthly idea how the series ended as I only made it through the first few seasons getting fed up of the ever more complicated conspiracies. Hopefully it won’t require too much background, and I’ll certainly give it a try for nostalgia’s sake.

Bordertown: Animation set in a town on the US/Mexico border taking a “satirical look at cultural shifts taking place in America”. This could go badly wrong.