October's 4 New Comedy Series, From Small Prophets to Téa Leoni's Newlyweds
Four new shows arrived last month: an alchemist, a phony mother, a married couple and a vampire marriage nobody can get out of.
By the Heckle Desk · · 2 min read
October is when television tries out new comedies, and when the networks find out which ones to apologize for by Christmas. Four new series worth knowing about came out last month, on four different services, because the entertainment industry has decided that the way to save television is to make you pay for it in four places. It's the same thinking that gave us the airline meal.
You'll notice marriage runs through this list like a bad knee. Two of the four are about couples discovering what they signed, and one of them has the good sense to make the couple vampires, who at least have a medical reason for looking that tired. The other two are about a homunculus and an impostor, which are also things a person can find out about their spouse, if the marriage lasts.
- 01
Small Prophets (Apple TV, Oct. 7)
Mackenzie Crook wrote and directed this six-episode comedy, in which a grieving man turns to alchemy to create spirits that can predict the future. Michael Palin is in it, and TV Insider reports a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critics' score, which means either that it's very good or that the critics have also lost someone. New episodes run Wednesdays through Nov. 4, and a second series is already ordered.
- 02
Eternally Yours (CBS, Oct. 8)
From Ghosts creators Joe Port and Joe Wiseman: Ed Weeks and Allegra Edwards play Charles and Liz, a vampire couple whose once-passionate romance has gone pulseless. Variety called it a straightforward redux of Ghosts, and it took the slot Ghosts was moved out of, so CBS has replaced a sitcom about the dead with a sitcom about the dead. That's how a network shows courage.
- 03
Phony (Hulu, Oct. 20)
Sam Nivola plays a teenager convinced that his single mother, Connie Britton, has been swapped for an impostor after a car accident. RogerEbert.com called it witty and unsettling, and it runs weekly through a Dec. 1 finale. It's more mystery than sitcom, but any boy who has come home to find his mother suddenly interested in his day has lived the pilot.
- 04
Newlyweds (NBC, Oct. 23)
Téa Leoni and Tim Daly, married in real life, play a couple who rush into marriage and then have to combine their lives. Creator Gail Lerner left after six episodes over creative differences and Bruce Helford took over, so the production got through its own divorce before the premiere. Variety liked it anyway, calling it refreshing, and Jamie Lee Curtis turns up as a recurring guest.