TV: Promising series of the new season

Who knows what evil lurks in the fall TV schedule? Maybe the Shadow, but not me, nor any other TV critics.

Saying it didn't want to spoil "curiosity and anticipation," the CW wouldn't show its remake of 90210 to anyone in advance, which speaks volumes about its failings. But ABC and NBC have kept all their shows under wraps, too, using the Hollywood writers' strike as an excuse, even if it did end seven months ago. Usually, the critics get pilots of fall shows in May.

And CBS and Fox aren't exactly knocking off socks with the shows they have provided.

Cable will jump into the breach, with two promising entries, but the best broadcast series anybody's seen is CBS's silly Worst Week. So this preview will be heavy on conjecture.

Two things are certain. Some dynamite shows are returning, two of them for what promise to be rousing finales, and fantasy and weird science are the hot topics in the skimpy lineup of new series.

Time will tell if Christian Slater, playing split personalities, can carry his new NBC series, or if Harvey Keitel and Michael Imperioli bring their A-games to ABC's reinterpretation of a British show about a cop who time-travels to the '70s.

Sons of Anarchy FX. Wednesdays, 10 p.m. Premiered Sept. 3. Continuing a remarkable dramatic run, cable's FX has come up with another scintillating show about a family on the fringes, this one focused on a motorcycle gang. Ron Perlman (Hellboy) is the gang leader, but Britisher Charlie Hunnam — half the actors on TV these days are from the United Kingdom, though you wouldn't know it, the way they Americanize their accents — plays the central character, a young man on the way up, or down, depending on your perspective. Married…With Children's Katey Sagal is a revelation as his misguided mama, ably following in the footsteps of The Sopranos' Nancy Marchand, and Sopranos favorite Drea de Matteo gets herself in trouble once again, with a recurring role as the drug-addled ex-wife of Hunnam's character.

True Blood HBO. Sundays, 9 p.m. Premieres tonight. Waking from their nap of grief after CBS canceled Moonlight, vampire lovers everywhere are in a lather over the newest TV take on their fanged friends. This one comes from Six Feet Under's Alan Ball and flows from the Sookie Stackhouse novel series, about a Loo-zee-ana barmaid (played by all-grown-up Anna Paquin) who can read minds. She hooks up with a band of vamps who no longer need to slink secretly through swamps because they buy newfangled synthetic blood, along with their beer, at the 7-Eleven in the bayou. Sounds weird. Is. In an intriguing way.

Worst Week CBS. Mondays, 9:30 p.m. Sept. 22. It's about a guy who gets weak-kneed and stupid around his prospective fiancee's parents. Who would have imagined it could be so delightful? Credit the guy who plays the guy, Kyle Bornheimer, an everyman who grabs your heart with his earnest, if misguided, efforts, and, from That '70s Show, Kurtwood Smith, the consummate exasperated curmudgeon father.

Life on Mars ABC. Thursdays, 10 p.m. Oct. 9. It's not just their actors we're borrowing. Like Worst Week, this show about a 2008 cop who is suddenly, and permanently, whisked back to the '70s is based on a British show. The lead this time, Jason O'Mara, is Irish. The original is pretty darn good, which has people excited, as has the prospect of Harvey Keitel and Michael Imperioli as the hard-bitten, old-time gumshoes with whom O'Mara's character must make his way.

Fringe Fox. Tuesdays, 9 p.m. Premieres Tuesday. Case in point for keeping your new shows under wraps: Coming from Lost's J.J. Abrams and bringing back Joshua Jackson (yes, Dawson's Creek fans, he's still adorable), Fringe features strange doings, a psycho genius, really bad corporate behavior, and lots of blood and guts. Observers were agog with anticipation. There were whispers this could be the next X-Files. Alas, the opening episode seems just the teensiest bit overwrought, as confusion outweighs any elements of action or the macabre.

My Own Worst Enemy NBC. Mondays, 10 p.m. Oct. 13. Christian Slater a regular on TV? That's enough to incite anticipation. He plays Henry and Edward. Henry's an average Joe. Edward's an Action-Jackson secret spy who might wind up getting Henry killed. Edward knows all about Henry, but doesn't care, even if Henry is married to the fetching Madchen Amick. Henry's just beginning to learn about Edward, and he cares a lot.

Crusoe NBC. Fridays, 8 p.m. Oct. 17. If an update on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde isn't classic enough for you, how about a remake of the story of the original Lost Boy, Robinson Crusoe, and his sidekick, Friday, aptly scheduled on TV on Fridays? No plane crashes (it's set in the 17th century, silly), polar bears or killer smoke in this show shot in South Africa and the Seychelles, but plenty of cannibals and lions and tigers and old-time marauders will make it complicated for Crusoe to get back to where he would like to be, with his darling wife, Susannah, and all those frilly bodices.

Crash Starz. Fridays, 10 p.m. Oct. 17. At the other end of the historical spectrum, the premium channel Starz uncorks the TV series version of the 2006 best-pic Oscar winner, about racism and car theft in contemporary Los Angeles. The clips look killer, and if AMC can concoct Mad Men, why can't Starz try to entice you to pay a little extra for top-quality original entertainment?

Two marvelous series start their journey to the showers this month, 13 episodes each. One promises elegant absurdity; the other, fireworks. And two favorites return.

The Shield FX. Tuesdays 10 p.m. Premiered Sept. 2. Michael Chiklis won the first major Emmy ever for a basic cable series for his portrayal of rogue cop Vic Mackey. We've gotten used to Mackey's fiendish intensity, but that doesn't make Chiklis' work any worse than it was when he started. The principals promise a definitive ending to Mackey's reign, whether it's death, jail, or a nice spread in the Bahamas. It's a sure bet that mayhem and moral ambiguity will accompany him on his journey.

Boston Legal ABC Mondays, 10 p.m. Sept. 22. Resurrected after a perfunctory ending in May, this delightfully lunatic legal series now gets to take its own sweet time going into that good night. Don't look for it to go gentle, though. Flaming elitist and misogynist Denny Crane (William Shatner) will surely offend various and sundry, as Alan Shore (James Spader) rails against the inconsistency and injustice that sprout so vigorously these days from American culture. At the end, it's likely that tears will replace the giggles and approbation that consistently spring from this show's small, but fanatic, audience.

Pushing Daisies ABC. Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Oct. 1. ABC's flooding the world with promos for all its returning shows, but it seems that it's shorting this colorful love story about a dead girl and the man who brought her back to life. Peopled by over-the-hill synchronized swimmers who are experts on cheese, a not-so-tough-guy private eye named Emerson Cod, and a tiny waitress who serves large portions of jealousy and fruit pies as voluptuous as she is, this yummy series is unlike anything that's ever been on TV. And better than 97 percent of it.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation CBS. Thursdays, 9 p.m. Oct. 9. Farewell, Gil Grissom, you cannot be replaced. But the producers will try in the ninth and 10th episodes, as star William Petersen sets sail for new adventures. Enter Laurence Fishburne, playing a former pathologist who understands criminal tendencies because he has a lot of them himself. Several characters have come and gone in CSI's eight years, but it will be fascinating to see if the best of the police-procedural series can pull off this change.