Rueben's Ramblings

The following is the proposed The CW line-up for the new fall 2017-2018 TV season:

Monday:

8 PM – Supergirl
9 PM – Valor [NEW]

Valor – In this new drama, an elite unit of U.S. Army helicopter pilots called the Shadow Raiders are sent on a top secret mission to Somalia, a mission that goes terribly awry. Only two members of the team return safely: Warrant Officer Nora Madani (Christina Ochoa from Animal Kingdom), one of the unit’s first female helicopter pilots, and her commanding officer, Captain Leland Gallo (Matt Barr from Sleepy Hollow), while the whereabouts of their comrades Jimmy Kam (W. Tre Davis from Shades of Blue) and Crank Hendrix (Mac Brandt from Colony) are unknown. Now back in the U.S., Madani and Gallo are the only ones who know the truth about what really went wrong in Somalia.

The cast includes Charlie Barnett (Chicago Fire), Corbin Reid (How to Get Away with Murder), Nigel Thatch (Selma) and Melissa Roxburgh (Star Trek Beyond).

TRAILER:

Tuesday:

8 PM – The Flash
9 PM – DC’s Legends of Tomorrow

Wednesday:

8 PM – Riverdale (New Night and Time)
9 PM – Dynasty [NEW]

Dynasty – Fallon Carrington (Elizabeth Gillies from Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll) is charismatic, cunning, and poised to become the new COO of her father’s global energy empire – or so she thinks. When her father, Blake Carrington, (Grant Show from the original Melrose Place) summons Fallon and her brother, Steven, (James Mackay from The Leftovers) home to the family compound in Atlanta, Fallon is horrified to learn that the reunion isn’t to announce her promotion – but rather to make the acquaintance of their stepmother-to-be, Cristal (Nathalie Kelley from The Vampire Diaries). Cristal is stunning – and almost as young as Fallon, as Fallon is quick to point out – but she isn’t just some flimsy gold-digger to be scared off. Cristal is driven, principled, a savvy publicity maven at Carrington Atlantic, and she truly loves Blake. However, the wealth and privilege of the Carringtons’ world proves challenging to her, as she clashes with the staff, including Blake’s butler Anders (Alan Dale from Lost), as well as Fallon, who all make it very clear Cristal doesn’t belong. Family dynasties flow through blood, and Fallon would sooner draw blood than call Cristal “Mom.” Fallon asks Culhane (Robert Christopher Riley from Hit the Floor), the family’s chauffeur – and Fallon’s secret lover – to help expose Cristal for the fraud Fallon thinks she is. But when that backfires, and Blake chooses Cristal over his own daughter, Fallon sidles up to Blake’s biggest rival, Jeff Colby (Sam Adegoke from Murder in the First), mixing business and pleasure to seek her revenge… leaving a jealous Culhane to watch from the sidelines. While the Carringtons’ rocky relationships prove the theory that family sticks together no matter what, Cristal is reminded of exactly that when her nephew, Sammy Jo (Rafael de la Fuente from Empire), arrives with a suitcase full of secrets from Cristal’s past. Now Cristal’s carefully concealed history could bring her future crashing down – and who knows who else she might take down with her.

TRAILER:

NOTE: Good grief! Did anyone else just grimace at every single cliché in the book that is featured in this trailer? And how about Nick Wechsler from Roswell and Revenge sneaking in there too. Not even he can safe this show for me.

Thursday:

8 PM – Supernatural
9 PM – Arrow (New Night and Time)

Friday:

8 PM – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (New Time)
9 PM – Jane the Virgin (New Night)

NOTE: The dramas The 100, The Originals and iZombie will be held for later in the season. It should also be noted that the next four-way crossover between the comic-book related shows will be in November 2017.

The new dramas that will debut later in the season are:

Black Lightning – Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams from Veronica Mars and Hart of Dixie) is a man wrestling with a secret. As the father of two daughters and principal of a charter high school that also serves as a safe haven for young people in a New Orleans neighborhood overrun by gang violence, he is a hero to his community. Nine years ago, Pierce was a hero of a different sort. Gifted with the superhuman power to harness and control electricity, he used those powers to keep his hometown streets safe as the masked vigilante Black Lightning. However, after too many nights with his life on the line, and seeing the effects of the damage and loss that his alter ego was inflicting on his family, he left his Super Hero days behind and settled into being a principal and a dad. Choosing to help his city without using his superpowers, he watched his daughters Anissa (Nafessa Williams from One Life to Live and Code Black) and Jennifer (China Anne McClain from A.N.T. Farm and House of Payne) grow into strong young women, even though his marriage to their mother, Lynn (Christine Adams from Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), suffered. Almost a decade later, Pierce’s crime-fighting days are long behind him…or so he thought. But with crime and corruption spreading like wildfire, and those he cares about in the crosshairs of the menacing local gang The One Hundred, Black Lightning returns — to save not only his family, but also the soul of his community.

TRAILER:

LIFE SENTENCE – This dramedy follows Stella (Lucy Hale from Pretty Little Liars), a girl who has spent the last eight years living like she was dying (because she was). Just like the “manic pixie dream girl” heroines in her favorite sappy cancer movies, Stella traveled the world, faced her darkest fears and found true love on a whirlwind trip to Paris. But when Stella finds out that her cancer has been cured, she is suddenly forced to face the long-term consequences of the “live in the moment” decisions she made, including marrying a total stranger. And if that’s not enough, she also finds out that her “perfect family” isn’t so perfect after all. Turns out, because she was dying, everyone in her life hid their problems from her. But, now that she’s well, all bets are off. Stella is shocked to learn that her parents, Peter (Dylan Walsh from Nip/Tuck) and Ida (Gillian Vigman from Suburgatory and New Girl), have fallen out of love, partly because Peter spent their retirement helping Stella make the most of her final days, and partly because Ida has fallen in love with her best friend (Stella’s godmother), Poppy. Also, it turns out Stella may be responsible for the fact that her sister, Elizabeth (Brooke Lyons from 2 Broke Girls and iZombie), gave up her own dreams to take care of Stella and start a family with her husband Diego (Carlos PenaVega from Big Time Rush), just to give her parents something positive to focus on. Then there’s Stella’s often overlooked brother, Aiden (Jayson Blair from The New Normal), who’s pushing 30 and still lives above the garage, sells Adderall to soccer moms and uses Stella’s cancer to guilt them into sleeping with him. And, of course, there’s her husband Wes (Elliot Knight from Once Upon a Time and American Gothic), a handsome Londoner who she agreed to spend the rest of her life with, thinking that would only be six to eight months, tops. Now that their forever just got a whole lot longer than they were expecting, Wes begins to worry that he can’t continue to pretend to be her perfect husband for the rest of his life. With a real future suddenly in front of her, Stella’s cinematic life snaps into reality, and instead of living like she’s dying, she will have to learn to live like she’s living, and help her family and friends do the same. This multi-generational, coming-of-age story proves that we all end up living somewhere between our dreams and reality… and maybe that’s okay.

TRAILER: