TV pilots 2018: All the new shows you need to know about (and avoid)

After an action-packed summer of blockbusters and sequels, fall is the time to put your feet up and catch up on all the bingeworthy shows coming your way. It’s pilot season, and that means networks will be throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. From new action dramas to sitcoms and spinoffs, the details on many of these shows are shady, but one of them might just become our new favorite obsession. Networks have just released what they’ll be picking up for broadcast later this year, so let’s have a look and see if anything takes our fancy.

Untitled Damon Wayans

Let’s wait for a title for this one until we start passing judgement, but the synopsis of Damon Wayans’s new comedy vehicle – in which a couple reconnect with their younger selves when a hip new popstar moves in next door – is loaded with cringe potential.

The Goldbergs 1990-Something

AJ Michalka (Super 8) is set to reprise her recurring role as Barry Goldberg’s girlfriend in a spinoff from the popular biographic sitcom, this time taking the comedy to the 90s. Expect questionable fashion choices, flip phones, and angsty pop rock.

Take Two

The creator of Castle’s new series unsurprisingly sounds just like Castle, though the absence of Nathan Fillion (Firefly) is sorely noted. Andrew W. Marlowe’s new show follows a former TV actress and a private investigator teaming up to solve crimes.

A Million Little Things

Comedy writer David J. Nash’s first drama about a group of friends from Boston who bond after one of them dies unexpectedly sounds like the heartwarming series we’ll all need to heat us up for the upcoming winter season.

Murphy Brown

Revivals are all the rage now. In line with this trend, Murphy Brown will now follow in Roseanne’s footsteps for a thirteen-episode reboot.

The Rookie

It’s hard having to describe Nathan Fillion’s character as “the LAPD’s oldest rookie”, but at 47 he’s the perfect choice to take on the real life role of John Nolan, who joined the Police Department at the age of forty. He’s still looking good for a man pushing fifty and we’re hoping for a lot of stunts, chases, and punch outs to prove that Fillion’s still got it.

F.B.I.

More police procedural nonsense from the mind of Dick Wolf (Law & Order), this time following the exploits of the FBI in New York. Probably one to skip, but the addition of Connie Nielsen (The Following) is admittedly a little intriguing.

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Cedric the Entertainer (Barbershop) joins this new comedy in the role he was surely born to play, as the nicest guy in town who moves his family to a rough new neighborhood.

The Cool Kids

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is still going strong, and the involvement of writing and acting trio Charlie Day (Pacific Rim: Uprising), Rob McElhenney, and Glenn Howerton (Fargo) is enough to make this one of our most hotly anticipated new sitcoms. The retirement home setting should tone down their dark humor somewhat, but we’re sure they’ll find a way to make it one of the most controversial shows on the new schedule.

Proven Innocent

A lawyer makes it her mission to exonerate those who have been wrongfully convicted after she nearly suffered the same fate in her troubled past. Imagine a fictional Making a Murderer and you’re probably on the right track.

Abby’s

Filmed in front of a live audience, but outside? What will they think of next? Abby’s stars Natalie Morales (Santa Clarita Diet) as Abby – the bartender of a quirky bar in San Diego – and follows its customs, rules, and regulars. The addition of Neil Flynn (Scrubs) could take this irreverent comedy to the next level.

The Village

Don’t worry, NBC aren’t making us sit through an extended adaptation of M. Night Shyamalan’s twisty, trashy thriller. Instead, the new series captures the lives of the residents of a Brooklyn apartment block who have all developed a strong bond despite their differences. Could be genius, but could very likely be saccharine mush.

The Enemy Within

If Ken Woodruff’s work on the batshit crazy Gotham isn’t enough to convince you to tune in with morbid fascination, the synopsis for this pilot certainly will. Erica Wolfe, an ex-CIA agent and traitor to the United States, is described as “the most hated woman in America”, yet is brought out of confinement to assist the FBI’s efforts to counter dangerous espionage threatening the country. Could be a new guilty pleasure.

The Passage

Based on Justin Cronin’s bestselling trilogy of science fiction thrillers, Fox’s new series has all the scope of a gigantic epic but set in the modern day. It follows a hidden government lab, experimenting with a deadly virus that has the potential to cure all human disease or wipe out the entire species.

The Gilded Age

For those of you who prefer your Westerns without the unwanted addition of homicidal robots, Julian Fellowes’s (Downton Abbey) new period drama could be the show for you. Announced all the way back in 2012, it’s finally heading to our screens and could be a masterpiece.

New Amsterdam

This new show has every chance to replace the hole for a great hospital drama left by House. Inspired by Bellevue – the oldest public hospital in America – New Amsterdam stars Ryan Eggold (The Blacklist) as a new doctor determined to cut through the bullshit and deliver the best possible care for a wide variety of patients.