Best New Fall 2009 TV Drama Shows

If you are a fan of 24 or Lost... well, you may want to get lost. My idea of a great TV drama show is more along the lines of a Lou Grant, St. Elsewhere, L.A. Law, Judging Amy or Mad Men. I enjoy TV drama shows that depict people both at work and at home, juggling and juxtaposing their public and private lives. The most action I want to see on my TV drama show is a judge slamming down her gavel or a newspaper reporter chasing an unwilling source. If the action is any more fast paced than that, I tend to lose track of the plot.

Ultimately, what really glues me to a TV drama show is the magic formula of complex characters; smart, crackling dialogue; and gripping plots. Is that asking too much?

Apparently so.

When I first decided to write an article on the best new TV drama shows of the 2009-10 season, my plan was to highlight three upcoming TV drama series that looked promising enough to check out this fall. After reviewing video trailers and reading reviews, I had to narrow my list down to an anemic two. On the plus side, if even one of these two TV drama shows is a winner, the 2009-10 TV drama season will surpass that of the clinically DOA 2008-09 season that premiered last fall.

Fall TV Must-See Drama Show #1:

The Good Wife (airs Tuesdays at 9 pm on CBS)

See The Good Wife premiere Tuesday, September 22, 2009

With pedigree actors such as Julianna Margulies and Chris Noth (think Nurse Hathaway meets Mr. Big), The Good Wife has the right underpinnings for a hit drama series. Add an ensemble cast of finely nuanced characters with whom the Julianna Margulies character can create drama--the office rival, the daughter, the mother-in-law, the professional nemesis--and only a chimpanzee could mess up this new TV drama show. The Good Wife appears to be the perfect combination of legal procedural, relationship drama, character study and mystery.

The Good Wife has Julianna Margulies playing the wife of a politician (Chris Noth) who gets embroiled in scandal and goes to prison. Up to her perfectly arched eyebrows in legal bills, the wife (who luckily is a former attorney and can go back to work after 13 years at home and still make six figures) faces ageism, sexism and all the other isms that come with the territory. Of course, that may not be so hard when you look like Julianna Margulies and have your lines written by professional writers, but sufficient dramatic conflict is present to make for a promising new TV drama.

If you've ever wondered about those political wives who stick with their husbands after a scandal or betrayal, The Good Wife could be your bucket of popcorn. Also stars Christine Baranski and Josh Charles if you care about such things.

Click here for The Good Wife trailer.

Fall TV Must-See Drama Show #2:

Mercy (airs Wednesdays at 8 pm on NBC)

See Mercy premiere Wednesday, September 23, 2009

As women continue to take over the world (you really thought it was Barack in charge at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.?) small wonder that yin nurses are overtaking yang male doctors on medical shows. Not that there haven't been plenty of female doctors on TV in recent years (along with a few male nurses), but Mercy plays to the stereotype of female nurse--with a twist, of course.

In the Mercy paradigm, nurses run the show and keep patients from dying, especially from doctors' mistakes. Yet even in nurse dominated Mercy, nurses remain the Rodney Dangerfield of medical professionals, disrespected by both crabby patients and rookie residents (the latter of whom don't seem to know a scalpel from a tongue depressor).

The success of Mercy will not rely on a stellar cast dripping with stars from old, cancelled TV shows, but rather on the dramatic blend of modern doctor-nurse and nurse-patient relationships interwoven with old-fashioned romance. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Mercy will transcend formulaic schmaltz and turn into the must-see new medical drama of the 2009-210 season.

See Mercy trailer here.