It is that time of the year that Singapore fans of American TV get to fall in and out of love with a new slew of dramas and comedies.
Welcome to the American fall season, when an array of fresh series hits the screens in what amounts for the viewer to a session of speed-dating.
Watch them and then decide, after an episode or two, which ones you want to continue seeing and which ones you want to dump unceremoniously.
No common themes jump out immediately – fairy tales, for example, inspired the fantasy Once Upon A Time and crime drama Grimm last year – but there are a lot of familiar faces taking another shot at coming up with the Next Big Thing.
Matthew Perry, 43, from the sitcom Friends (1994-2004), is back with a new comedy, Go On. Of his two post-Friends series, the high-profile Aaron Sorkin drama Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip failed to find an audience despite generally good reviews.
Terry O’Quinn, 60, whose charismatic Lost character John Locke proved to be his breakout role, plays a mysterious building owner in supernatural thriller 666 Park Avenue. Sci-fi adventure Lost aired from 2004 to 2010.
And Mindy Kaling, 33, from The Office (2005 to present) comes into her own with The Mindy Project. On paper, this sounds blah – a single female doctor looking for romance. But the twist is that the comedy is headlined by an Asian-American – Kaling is of Indian descent – which is a rarity on American TV.
Margaret Cho’s single-season All American Girl (1994-1995) is the only example that comes readily to mind after all these years.
Still, there has been some headway made.
Lucy Liu, who made a splash in legal dramedy Ally McBeal (1997-2002), is now starring in Elementary as Dr Joan Watson to Jonny Lee Miller’s Sherlock Holmes. While there are no details now on when it will appear here, keep an eye out for this.
In the meanwhile, check out the new offerings including those from familiar faces, and weigh up if they have earned your commitment. Remember, relationships come and go but TV is forever.

THE NEIGHBORS
What: Aliens are already here and they are living in the suburban community of Hidden Hills. Extra- terrestrial neighbours are definitely more than what the Weavers bargained for when Marty (Lenny Venito) moves there with his family.
Status update: Alien-themed comedies have done well in the past from Alf, which stands for Alien Life Form, in the 1980s to 3rd Rock From The Sun, which ran from 1996 to 2001.
But the clash-of-cultures jokes in The Neighbors were only mildly amusing in the first episode. Maybe intergalactic humour does not travel well in this case.

PARTNERS
What: The creators of the long-running sitcom Will & Grace (1998-2006), Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, have tweaked their formula. Instead of a series about a gay guy and his best friend, a straight woman, Partners is about a gay guy (Ugly Betty’s Michael Urie) and his best friend, a straight man (Numb3rs’ David Krumholtz).
One-time hyped actor Brandon Routh (Superman Returns, 2006) is stuck in the role of the dim-witted boyfriend.
Status update: The laugh-free pilot was painful to sit through and this is one of the worst reviewed new shows, according to the website metacritic.com.
Signs are that this partnership will not last.

MALIBU COUNTRY
What: Reba Gallagher’s (Reba McEntire) world comes crashing down when she discovers her country music legend husband has cheated on her. She heads out to California to restart her own music career with her two children and her sharp-tongued mother (Lily Tomlin) in tow.
The plot sounds like it could have come from some country music tearjerker ballad.
Status update: The only reason this is not called Reba after its country music star McEntire is because she already did that show. The sitcom did well enough to run from 2001 to 2007. So head for Malibu Country if you are a fan of either Reba the show or Reba the singer.

GO ON
What: Matthew Perry stars as Ryan King, host of a sports radio show. He is in denial about losing his wife and is forced to attend grief counselling sessions before he is allowed to return to work. He reluctantly joins a support group and finds an assortment of oddball characters there dealing, or not, with grief.
Perry and show creator Scott Silveri had previously worked together on a little show called Friends (1994-2004).
Status update: Post-Friends, Perry starred in two short-lived series – sitcom Mr Sunshine (2011) and dramedy Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip (2006-2007).
Go On might not be third time lucky judging from the first episode, as it seems to be trying too hard. The biggest reason for going on with it is if you are a Perry fan.

THE MINDY PROJECT
What: Single doctor Mindy (Mindy Kaling) loves movie romances and is looking for Mr Right so that her own dream romance can come true. She might not be perfect herself but she is working on it. At work, she flirts with sexy Jeremy Reed (Ed Weeks) and squabbles with Danny Castellano (Chris Messina), who clearly has a thing for her. It is the first American TV series with a South Asian-American starring as the lead.
Status update: Can we see more of each other please? So what if there are shades of Bridget Jones? Kaling makes her flawed character likeable and someone you actually want to spend time with and get to know better. This could be the love of your life, at least for this TV season.

THE WEDDING BAND
What: Four young men have figured out that weddings are the hottest parties in town and they have a ticket to every single one as the wedding band.
Brian Austin Green from teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990-2000) and Harold Perrineau from sci-fi thriller Lost (2004-2010) star.
Status update: The movie Wedding Crashers (2005) was fun but the idea of it stretched out to an entire series is less appealing.
The show is offering a wedding band but commitment might not be forthcoming.

GUYS WITH KIDS
What: The no-effort title does not bode well. Neither does the premise of three 30-something dads who are barely grown up themselves.
The biggest name in the cast is Jesse Bradford, star of films such as erotic thriller Swimfan (2002) and a 2008 Hollywood remake (of the same name) of the hit Korean film My Sassy Girl (2001).
Status update: Enough with men who cannot grow up already. Can this be anything but juvenile?

ANIMAL PRACTICE
What: Dr George Coleman (Justin Kirk) is a top veterinarian who likes to do things his way, and that includes having a capuchin monkey assistant around. Not surprisingly, he clashes with the hospital’s new owner Dorothy Crane (Joanna Garcia-Swisher), who also happens to be his ex.
Status update: There is potential here for all kinds of monkey business so it would be great if the show could loosen up more. If we wanted a strait-laced medical drama, there are plenty of options out there.

ARROW
What: The DC Comics character Green Arrow gets reinvented for the goggle box. Billionaire Oliver Green (Stephen Amell) returns to civilisation after being marooned on an island for five years. Things happened to him there and he returns a changed man and one who now fights injustice in the guise of the Arrow.
Executive producer Greg Berlanti is best known for creating the sensitive cult drama Everwood (2002-2006), though he had made a previous foray into superhero territory with No Ordinary Family (2010-2011).
Status update: Given the underwhelming big-screen adaptations of The Green Hornet (2011) and Green Lantern (2011), dropping the Green from Green Arrow might well be a smart decision.
The hunky Amell could well hold attention for a few episodes but the back story will need to be interesting in order for this to be more than just a crime-fighting caper.

666 PARK AVENUE
What: The swanky apartment building at 666 Park Avenue is a place where dreams come true – but at a price. And owner Gavin Doran (Terry O’Quinn from Lost) is there to extract it. Ugly Betty’s Vanessa Williams plays his none-too-innocent wife.
The new co-managers of the building (Rachael Taylor and Dave Annable) can barely believe their luck in landing their dream jobs. Taylor soon stumbles upon the basement which hints at the building’s dark past.
Status update: If you did not already know, 666 is supposed to be the sign of the devil. Which means that this new show is not particularly subtle.
It seems to be cashing in on the success of American Horror Story’s haunted house premise, so tune in if you like your relationships dark and with a hint of danger.

REVOLUTION
What: A high-concept thriller from Supernatural’s Eric Kripke, produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions.
A mysterious blackout renders all technology obsolete and the world is thrust into a post-apocalyptic landscape of manual labour and competing warlords.
The series focuses on the Matheson family who are in possession of a device which could be the key to explaining the blackout – as well as reversing its effects.
Status update: Post-apocalyptic shows are a tough sell. Jericho, for one, struggled to find an audience during its run from 2006 to 2008.
For the moment, Revolution has an intriguing premise in its favour and several revelations at the end of the first episode suggest that the pacing could be snappy enough to keep audiences hooked.

HANNIBAL
What: The fascination with serial murderers translated into success for the books and films about psychiatrist-turned-man-eating-serial-killer Dr Hannibal Lecter, created by best-selling writer Thomas Harris.
The small-screen series zooms in on the relationship between Hannibal (Cannes 2012 Film Festival’s Best Actor Mads Mikkelsen) and FBI criminal profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) as they join forces to nab twisted villains.
This is a departure for creator Bryan Fuller, who is best known for whimsical series such as Wonderfalls (2004) and Pushing Daisies (2007-2009).
Status update: The cast is top-notch and the Hannibal Lecter character is a familiar one. This series could be a killer.

CHICAGO FIRE
What: The title pretty much sums it up as the series is set at a fire station in Chicago where macho men butt heads but stoically put aside their differences when it comes to heroically battling fires.
It is produced by Dick Wolf, best known for creating the evergreen Law & Order franchise.
Status update: Actor-model Taylor Kinney attempts to be known for being more than pop star Lady Gaga’s boyfriend but one gets the feeling that a reality series about their lives would be more entertaining than this by-the-numbers drama.
(ST)