State of Affairs to debut on NBC on November 17 at 10 PM, taking over the time-slot from The Blacklist, which goes on hiatus.
Each day the President is faced with dozens of life and death decisions, and to prioritize the biggest international crises facing the country, one top CIA analyst – Charleston Tucker (Katherine Heigl from Grey’s Anatomy) – assembles the President’s Daily Briefing (PDB).
This list of the most vital security issues facing the nation brings with it moral and political judgment calls for Charleston and her trusted group of brilliant analysts at the agency. Aside from the political minefields she has to walk, Charlie has a close personal relationship with the President (Alfre Woodard) because she was once engaged to her son before a tragic terrorist attack took his life. Charlie survived that attack and is now determined to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The cast includes Leslie Odom, Jr. (Smash) and Adam Kaufman (Without a Trace).
On November 5, the new 6-part mini-series The Game will debut on BBC America at 10 PM.
In 1972 London, tensions are at a terrifying peak as the world’s super powers plot against their enemies. The threat: a dangerous and deadly Soviet plot, designed to bring Britain to its knees, dubbed Operation Glass. When an MI5 agent is contacted by a defecting KGB officer about the plan to destroy the British establishment, MI5 leader, Daddy (Brian Cox from The Bourne Supremacy), assembles a secret committee to investigate the threat in a frantic race against time. Their mission is to stop the plot, save Britain and in turn, the world.
The cast includes Tom Hughes (Dancing on the Edge), Marcel Lures (Foyle’s War), Paul Ritter (Quantum of Solace), Victoria Hamilton (Lark Rise to Candleford), Jonathan Aris (Sherlock) and Shaun Dooley (The White Queen).
The debut of the new thriller Constantine will air on NBC on October 24 at 10 PM.
The series will is based on the wildly popular comic book series “Hellblazer” from DC Comics about seasoned demon hunter and master of the occult John Constantine (Matt Ryan from Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior) is armed with a ferocious knowledge of the dark arts and a wickedly naughty wit. He fights the good fight – or at least he did.
With his soul already damned to hell, he’s decided to abandon his campaign against evil until a series of events thrusts him back into the fray, and he’ll do whatever it takes to protect the innocent. With the balance of good and evil on the line, Constantine will use his skills to travel the country, find the supernatural terrors that threaten our world and send them back where they belong. After that, who knows maybe there’s hope for him and his soul after all.
The cast includes Harold Perrineau (Lost), Charles Halford (True Detective) and Angelica Celaya (Dallas).
The new TNT series Transporter: The Series will debut on October 18 with two back-to-back episodes starting at 9 PM.
Based on the Luc Besson Transporter film franchise, the series stars Chris Vance (Prison Break, Burn Notice and Rizzoli & Isles) as professional transporter Frank Martin, who can always be counted on to get the job done discreetly.
The new CW drama Jane the Virgin will debut on October 13 at 9 PM.
Set in Miami, the series will detail the surprising and unforeseen events that take place in the life of Jane Villanueva (Gina Rodriguez), a hard-working, religious young Latina woman whose family tradition and a vow to save her virginity until her imminent marriage to a detective (Brett Dier from Ravenswood) is shattered when a doctor accidentally artificially inseminates her by mistake during a checkup. And to make matters worse, the biological donor is a married man (Justin Baldoni from Everwood), a former playboy and cancer survivor who is not only the new owner of the hotel where Jane works, but was also her former teenage crush.
The cast includes Ivonne Coll (Switched at Birth and Teen Wolf), Michael Rady (Intelligence and Emily Owens, MD) and Yael Grobglas (Reign).
On October 8, the 10-episode DirecTV drama Kingdom will debut at 9 PM.
The series is a gritty family drama set against the backdrop of the renegade subculture of Mixed Martial Arts, starring Frank Grillo (Captain America) as Alvey Kulina, an MMA legend and owner of a Venice, CA-based gym. Singer-turned-actor Nick Jonas (Smash) plays Nate, Alvey’s prize-fighter son and younger brother to Jay (Jonathan Tucker). Matt Lauria (Friday Night Lights), meanwhile, portrays a world-class athlete who had (and lost) it all.
Kiele Sanchez (The Glades) and Joanna Going round out the cast as Alvey’s current girlfriend and ex-wife, respectively.
The new CW series The Flash will debut on October 7 at 8 PM.
After witnessing his mother’s murder, and his father wrongly accused, Barry Allen (series lead Grant Gustin) is taken in by Detective West and his family. As Allen enters adulthood, he becomes a brilliant, yet socially awkward, forensic scientist for the Central City Police Department, whose obsession with his tragic past causes him to become an outcast among his peers.
Allen tries to uncover the truth about his mother’s murder and clear his father’s name, which leads him to Harrison Wells’ particle accelerator. When the accelerator causes an explosion, Allen is struck by lightning, and enters a coma for nine months. When he wakes up, he learns he has the ability to move at superhuman speeds, though he is not the only metahuman created in the wake of the explosion.
As the violence related to metahuman criminals escalates, though still keeping the promise of finding out why his mother murdered, Allen vows using his gift of speed to protect Central City with the help from a few close friends and associates who share his secrets.
The cast includes Candice Patton, Rick Cosnett, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Tom Cavanagh and Jesse L. Martin.
On October 1, the new thriller Stalker will debut on CBS at 10 PM.
Maggie Q (Nikita) and Dylan McDermott (Hostages and American Horror Story) star in this psychological thriller about detectives who investigate stalking incidents, including voyeurism, cyber harassment and romantic fixation for the Threat Assessment Unit of the LAPD.
Detective Jack Larsen (McDermott) is a recent transfer to the Unit from New York City’s homicide division, whose confidence, strong personality and questionable behavior has landed him in trouble before – but whose past behavior may also prove valuable in his new job.
His boss, Lt. Beth Davis (Maggie Q), is strong, focused and an expert in the field, driven by her traumatic personal experience as a victim.
With the rest of their team, young but eager Det. Ben Caldwell (Victor Rasuk from How to Make It in America) and deceptively smart Det. Janice Lawrence (Mariana Klaveno from True Blood and Devious Maids) , Larsen and Davis assess the threat level of cases and respond before the stalking and intimidation spirals out of control, all while trying to keep their personal obsessions at bay.
NOTE: This show has some very disturbing scenes. Parental discretion is advised.
The Starz series Outlander, based on the best-selling novel by Diana Gabaldon, debuted back on August 9 and over the course of the past 7 weeks has captured the hearts of TV viewers with its tale of Claire Beauchamp (series lead Caitriona Balfe), a World War II nurse in 1945, who – after touching the standing stones in Inverness in the Scottish Highlands – travels through time to 1743 where she encounters the clan McKenzie and meets young Jamie McTavish (Fraser) [series lead Sam Heughan].
Those seven episodes have found Claire adapt, as best she can, to her new surroundings – albeit forced upon her by the Laird and War Chief of the clan (series regulars Gary Lewis and Graham McTavish, respectively) – by becoming the Healer of Castle Leoch, the home of the clan.
She has become friends with Castle Leoch’s housekeeper Mrs. Fitz (recurring guest star Annette Badland) and local village woman and wife of the procurator fiscal (basically the village’s attorney/judge) Geillis Duncan (series regular Lotte Verbeek); and, to an extent, even young Laoghaire MacKenzie (recurring guest star Nell Hudson), a 16-year girl (and granddaughter of Mrs. Fitz), who has a crush on Jamie.
Unfortunately, she has several uncomfortable encounters with Captain Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall, a direct descendant of her husband Frank Randall (the dual role played by series regular Tobias Menzies), which leads Dougal to arranging a marriage between Claire and Jamie in order to save her life from the sadistic bastard, who was the cause behind the horrible wounds on Jamie’s back (two floggings within a week subjected on the young lad several years earlier).
This past Saturday’s episode, entitled “The Wedding“, was one of the most anticipated moments out of the small screen adaptation of the book and did not disappoint. And, with the mid-season finale, entitled “Both Sides Now“, only a few days away – set to air on Starz on Saturday, September 27, the anticipation for what will happen is great.
Fans can take heart that even though the series will be going on a break, it will not be for too long, as 8 more episodes of its debut season will air on Starz in early 2015, continuing on with the remainder of the story of Claire, Jamie and the clan McKenzie.
And, even better news is that Starz decided early on that the show will have a second season, following the second book in the Gabaldon “Outlander” series entitled “Dragonfly in Autumn“.
Don’t miss out on the mid-season finale this Saturday at 9 PM on Starz.
On September 25, the new Shonda Rhimes drama How to Get Away With Murder will debut at 10 PM on ABC.
The brilliant, charismatic and seductive Professor Annalise Keating (Viola Davis from The Help) gets entangled with four law students from her class, “How to Get Away with Murder”. Little do the students know that they will have to apply what they learned to real life.
The cast includes Aja Naomi King (Emily Owens, M.D.), Jack Falahee (Twisted), Katie Findlay (The Killing), Tom Verica (American Dream), Liza Weil (Gilmore Girls and Scandal), Charlie Weber (Buffy, the Vampire Slayer), Billy Brown (Hostages and Sons of Anarchy), Matt McGorry (Orange is the New Black), Latino star Karla Souza (Instructions Not Included) and Alfred Enoch (the Harry Potter franchise).
