Fall preview

This year’s crop of new shows is better than in other years, with a spate of outstanding new comedies that take a fresh look at contemporary life. Mindy Kaling on “The Mindy Project” might be the breakout star of the season; Ryan Murphy’s “The New Normal,” a sitcom about a male gay couple and the surrogate mother they hire, looks like like a watercooler hit. The networks also have some intriguing dramas you won’t want to miss. ABC’s “Nashville” is a music-based drama about the rivalry between an established country singer (Connie Britton) and her more popular and younger rival (Hayden Panettiere). “Elementary” puts Sherlock Holmes in contemporary New York City under the watchful eye of a female Dr. Watson (Lucy Liu).

The children of “Lost” continue to pop up. This year, it’s “Revolution,” the NBC drama about a future world without electricity and ABC’s “Last Resort,” about a rogue submarine that invades an island that looks a lot like. . . .Hawaii.

Here are our picks for the best new shows and their premiere dates. Set your DVRs.

Click here for the 2012 Fall Season TV Schedule!

NASHVILLE

Wednesday, Oct. 10, 10 p.m., ABC

Fans of Connie Britton (“Friday Night Lights”) will rejoice during the first episode of ABC’s “Nashville.” She has the role of her career as Rayna James, a country music legend facing a sales slump who is asked by her record label to tour with Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere of “Heroes” fame), a sexy, much younger rival who can’t get through a recording session without Auto-Tune. Created by Oscar-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri (“Thelma & Louise”), “Nashville” has the kind of dialogue you can quote immediately. When Britton is asked for her decision about opening for bitchy Juliette, she says, “You can kiss my decision as it’s walking out the door.” Nice.

Britton, 45, says she’s working to get up to speed as a singer (“Nashville” will feature original music). “I have sung my whole life but not professionally. As an actor, it’s great to be able to stretch my muscles in this way.”

“Music reflects who you are as a person,” says Panettiere, 23, who flirted with a music career in her teens, but today says she would only return to music if it were country. “To do both of the things I love in one show is a dream come true.”

“Nashville” has a vibrant gallery of songwriters, managers, spouses and even a mean old politician — Rayna’s dad, Lamar Wyatt — played by veteran scene-stealer Powers Boothe. It’s the most anticipated new drama of the season.

Our rating: 4 STARS

666 PARK AVENUE

Sunday, Sept. 30, 10 p.m., ABC

A young couple moves into a legendary New York apartment house and mysterious things start to happen. Sounds like “Rosemary’s Baby,” right? Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse had the Bramford (really the Dakota on Central Park West), but Jane Van Veen (Rachael Taylor) and Henry Martin (Dave Annable) have the Drake (the Ansonia on Broadway). Unlike Rosemary, Jane is a big snoop, which intrigues the sinister building manager Gavin Doran (Terry O’Quinn) and his wife, Olivia (Vanessa Williams).

The premiere of “666 Park Avenue” is timely, in the wake of the hit horror shows on cable, such as AMC’s “Walking Dead.” Says executive producer David Wilcox, “We were influenced by psychologically driven horror movies like ‘The Shining’ and ‘The Omen.’ That was kind of the juice that we were trying to put into making a twisted, fun, dark show.”

Our rating: 2 1/2 STARS

ELEMENTARY

Thursday, Sept. 27, 10 p.m., CBS

The funniest guy on a fall series may be Jonny Lee Miller on “Elementary.” His modern-day Sherlock Holmes, who winds up in New York consulting for the NYPD, has a mischievous wit. He tells a sleazeball who arranges assignations for Wall Street executives, apropos of nothing, “I play ‘In-a-Gadda-da-Vida’ on the violin.” He then threatens to call the press, dialing his cellphone and asking, “Is this The Post?”

Miller is prepared for the critics who will balk at this show’s Watson, Lucy Liu, who acts as Sherlock’s “sober companion” following his stint in rehab. Switching genders is bound to drive some purists over the edge.

“The Holmes-Watson relationship is sacred in a way. You don’t want anything to get in the way of that,” Miller says. “When Lucy was mentioned, that really made sense to me. It should be irrelevant that she’s a female; it doesn’t really come up. It’s still this great friendship, but with a bit of a twist.”

Our rating: 3 STARS

VEGAS

Tuesday, Sept. 25, 10 p.m., CBS

Looking to revive its slate of procedurals, CBS has set another one in Las Vegas. Unlike “CSI,” “Vegas” is set in the 1960s, and covers the gambling capital’s desert expansion through the crime-fighting eyes of rancher/sheriff Ralph Lamb, a real-life law enforcement figure of the era played by movie star Dennis Quaid in his first regular series role since “Baretta” in the ’70s. (His frequent adversary, mobster/casino head Vincent Savino, is played by “Shield” star Michael Chiklis.)

“This is really when Vegas became Vegas as we know it,” Quaid recently told television critics at their summer press tour. “Ralph had a lot to do with that, and he was also part of the landscape before all this happened.” The tension created by outside forces intent on shaping the city as an entertainment hot spot will create much of the drama, Quaid said. “Ralph and the locals really kind of want to keep as much control as they can over their own town.”

Our rating: 3 STARS

THE MINDY PROJECT

Tuesday, Sept. 25, 9:30 p.m., Fox

Mindy Kaling mostly stayed behind the scenes in NBC’s “The Office,” on which she acted, wrote and produced. In “The Mindy Project,” she’s front and center — but she’s still writing and executive producing.

Kaling stars as Dr. Mindy Lahiri, an OB/GYN doctor (which, incidentally, is Kaling’s mother’s profession). Lahiri may be a competent doctor, but she’s pretty much flailing in other areas of her life, from dating to dressing to giving wedding toasts. She spends way too much time watching romantic comedies and when her life doesn’t pan out as it does for Katherine Heigl, she gets anxious and hooks up with a doctor (Bill Hader) from the hospital. When she goes on an actual date she fantasizes that the guy will have “the wealth of Michael Bloomberg and the penis of Michael Fassbender.” One of the best lines of the new season.

“I think a big, funny part of the series is the characters’ expectations of how things should work out and then how they actually work out in real life,” says Kaling, who herself is an unrepentant romantic. “Most people who grew up as nerds, as I was, surprisingly love romance.”

Our rating: 4 STARS

REVOLUTION

Monday, Sept. 17, 10 p.m., NBC

Set in the future, after all of the Earth’s power has been permanently cut off and the government is a dictatorship, “Revolution” is this season’s biggest risk. The drama, from movie producers Jon Favreau and J.J. Abrams, is either going to become the next “Lost” or a flop like “Terra Nova” on Fox.

Billy Burke stars as Miles, a former Marine recruited to help his niece, Charlie Matheson (Tracy Spiridakos), rescue her brother Danny (Graham Rogers) from a militia led by the ruthless Captain Tom Neville (Giancarlo Esposito).

While “Revolution” does have a sci-fi vibe, executive producer Eric Kripke (“Supernatural”) says it won’t be a story in constant search of answers to endless questions.

“I’m not a fan of endless mystery in storytelling,” says Kripke. “I like solid, red blooded storytelling. I like to get there in an exciting, fast-paced way. I mean, not so fast that we give away the whole farm on Episode 2, but enough that there’s a really clear, aggressive direction as to where it’s going.”

Our rating: 3 STARS

BEN AND KATE

Tuesday, Sept. 25, 8:30 p.m., Fox

Fox may have a sleeper on its hands in “Ben & Kate,” a new comedy that will join “Raising Hope,” “New Girl” and “The Mindy Project” in a Tuesday night block of sweetly irreverent series. Ben (Nat Faxon) is an itinerant dreamer with follow-through problems who moves in with his sister Kate (Dakota Johnson), a single mom with a 5-year-old daughter, Maddie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones). Though the brother/sister dynamic fuels the humor, don’t expect the kid to be precocious. Jones, 8, will be recognizably childlike — it’s the adults around her who act as if Maddie’s much older. “It’s not usually the way kids are handled,” says Faxon, whose character enlists his niece in his ridiculous schemes. “We have a pal-like relationship, like, ‘Hey, dude, we have stuff to do, get on board.’ And I love that.”

Our rating: 3 STARS

THE NEW NORMAL

Tuesday, Sept. 11, 9:30 p.m., NBC

Ever since the success of “Modern Family” on ABC, the competition has been keen to find a comedy with a gay storyline. NBC has come up with a winner, “The New Normal,” an amusing half-hour about a male couple in search of a surrogate for their first child.

Created by Ryan Murphy, the series was helped along the way by executive producer Ali Adler. She sidesteps the series’ political implications, saying, “ ‘The New Normal’ is not a political show; it’s about people and feelings. Taking away any adjectives about sexual identity — this is just about a family who loves each other.”

Yeah, yeah. But the two main characters are gay. Bryan (Andrew Rannells from Broadway’s “Book of Mormon”) is a big queen who shops for clothes that will make him look more like Mary Tyler Moore. His better half, David (Justin Bartha, “The Hangover”), warns him that babies aren’t accessories. “You know you can’t return a baby to Barneys.”

Rounding out this “family” is a great supporting cast. Georgia King is Goldie, the surrogate. Bebe Wood is Shania, a TV tot who defriends her Nana (Ellen Barkin) after she makes an anti-gay remark. Barkin is Archie Bunker in an Ann Taylor Loft suit. She calls Bryan and David “salami smokers” and tells her son-in-law to “put that gherkin away” when she catches him committing adultery.

Our rating: 3 1/2 STARS