It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
With new shows premiering and old favorites returning,
We’re all in good cheer!
There are dragons a roaring and Middle Earth elves a-roaming,
When streaming services come to call…
It’s the hap-happiest season of all!
There’ll be Emmy parties for hosting,
She-Hulk VFX for roasting,
There’ll be not-so- scary Ghosts stories,
And tales of the glories of
Network shows long, long ago…
It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
Even though much has changed about the TV landscape, for television lovers, the month of September is our holiday season. The second season of Abbott Elementary (September 21), the new Disney+ Star Wars series Andor (September 21) and Matthew Fox’s return to TV in Peacock’s Last Light (September 8) are among the absolute deluge of television we will be covering.
But with so much TV on the way, we don’t want you to miss a thing. Here are the five new, under-the-radar shows you can’t miss this month.
1. Epic Adventures with Bertie Gregory
Stars: Bertie Gregory
Premiere Date: All five episodes premiere September 8 on Disney+
September 8 is Disney+ day. (Did you forget to get me a card?) Amid the many new series and movies hitting the streaming platform that day is this new National Geographic series featuring Bertie Gregory, a 29-year-old wildlife cinematographer who travels from Antarctica to Africa to the Pacific Ocean to capture animals in their natural habitats. Included in his amazing shots, the feeding flurry of hundreds of fin whales in the Drake Passage off the tip of the Antarctica Peninsula. To get this remarkable footage, Gregory and his team spent six weeks in a 75-foot ice-strengthened sailboat.
2. Gutsy
Stars: Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton
Premiere Date: All eight episodes premiere September 9 on AppleTV+
As Hillary herself likes to say: “Holy moly!” Based on their 2019 book The Book of Gutsy Women, Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea travel the globe talking to women who inspire them. The women featured include Kim Kardashian, Megan Thee Stallion, Dr. Jane Goodall, Gloria Steinem, Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn, and Kate Hudson. The eight-episode series also provides insight into the mother daughter pair. The first episode looks at “the unexpected ways in which laughter can change the lives of women.” Chelsea Clinton confesses her relationship with comedy is strained because of her childhood. “I was made fun of so much as a child by people who were professional comics,” she says.
3. U.S. and the Holocaust
Stars: Peter Coyote, Liam Neeson, Matthew Rhys, Helena Zengel, Paul Giamatti, Meryl Streep, Werner Herzog, Joe Morton, Hope Davis, Bradley Whitford, Helena Zengel
Premiere Date: September 18 at 8 p.m. on PBS
Famed documentarian Ken Burns and his producing partners Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein are back with a three-part series about this dark and tragic time in our history. Narrated by Peter Coyote, the series looks at the Holocaust from the perspective of what was happening in the United States during World War II, including the race laws in the South and the eugenics movement across the country. “Exclusion of people and shutting them out has been as American as apple pie,” historian Peter Hayes says.
4. Best in Dough
Stars: Wells Adams, Chef Daniele Uditi, Chef Millie Peartree, Eunji Kim, Bryan Ford
Premiere Date: The first three episodes premiere September 19 on Hulu. Three episodes stream the following Monday. The final four episodes stream on October 3rd.
Former The Bachelorette contestant (and Sarah Hyland’s new husband) Wells Adams hosts this 10-episode pizza competition series. In each episode, three pizza experts compete in two challenges for a chance at a $10,000 prize. They are judged by head judge Daniele Uditi and a rotating panel of food experts. In the final round, they are also evaluated by a “pizza jury,” made up of pizza lovers, who opine about the joys of a perfect crust and the optimal topping-to-cheese ratio. First up, three Italian grandmas or “nonnas” who have very set and hilarious ways of going about making pizza. With Adams as the affable host, this show, from the creators of Is It Cake?, may be just the escape you need.
5. The Rookie: Feds
Stars: Niecy Nash-Betts, Frankie Faison and Felix Solis
Premiere Date: September 27 at 10 p.m. on ABC
Simone Clark (the always delightful Niecy Nash-Betts) was introduced in an episode of the hit ABC series The Rookie last season. Like The Rookie’s John Nolan (the equally delightful Nathan Fillion), Simone has made a later in life career change, forgoing her job as a high school guidance counselor to become an FBI agent. Keep an eye out for Frankie Faison as Simone’s father who is not too thrilled with his daughter’s new employment. Going into its fifth season The Rookie remains a solid, highly entertaining show that brings just the right balance of strife and humor to the crimes of the week. Nash-Betts is a stand out in any project she is a part of (see Claws, Reno 911 and When They See Us. As the lead of The Rookie: Feds, I expect the same level of joy and drama.
Amy Amatangelo, the TV Gal®, is a Boston-based freelance writer and a member of the Television Critics Association. She wasn’t allowed to watch much TV as a child and now her parents have to live with this as her career. You can follow her on Twitter (@AmyTVGal).
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