Fox: Mini Moves

Even though it's too late to prevent the irreparable damage it's done to popular music (Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood notwithstanding), the aging singing talent show "American Idol" is fading from public consciousness, even as "The Voice" keeps NBC afloat. Fox is resorting to the concepts of night and day in the form of two thriller miniseries as it prepares to go into the 2013-14 season. The schedule includes a miniseries sequel to the heralded series "24," called "24: Live Another Day," which will run at half its regular length. The twelve episodes will air in chronological order but will skip some hours to tighten up the storyline. And yes, Kiefer Sutherland is back as agent Jack Bauer. Night is M. Night Shyamalan, a filmmaker who, long, long ago, made a hit movie. He's the co-producer of "Wayward Pines," a miniseries starring Matt Dillon in a story of the search for missing federal agents in an Idaho town.  It'll be on in the middle of the season.

So what about regular shows? Well, Seth McFarlane is producing a sitcom called "Dads," about two best friends whose fathers become their roommates. Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi play the buddies; Martin Mull and Peter Riegert, two seasoned pros, play the dads. Let's hope this is Mull's return to hipness, so that Cleveland's funniest guitar player doesn't have to do Lifetime movies anymore. Meanwhile, there's also the sitcom "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," which stars "Saturday Night Live"'s Andy Samberg as a hotshot detective and Andre Braugher as a veteran captain. They even have J.J. Abrams producing a sci-fi police drama, "Almost Human," about human cops with androids as partners. Many of Fox's other new shows, including "Us & Them," a sitcom based on the British hit comedy "Gavin and Stacey," starring Jason Ritter and Alexis Bledel as a young couple whose relationship complicated by family and friends, are in fact mid-season replacements.

Fox, the youngest commercial television network in the United States, has firmly established itself in the past quarter century and change, largely on its subversive image, but it seems to be playing it safe for a network founded by Rupert Murdoch and famous for airing animated shows masterminded by McFarlane and Matt Groening. A return to the "24" well? A J.J. Abrams-produced "RoboCop" retread? A sitcom starring Jason Ritter, best known for his heartwarming role in "Parenthood?" Maybe Fox is maturing a bit, but if a good deal of its new shows are in fact mid-season replacements, and if its programming becoming more conventional, I don't see how Fox can be taken more seriously as it continues to aim at the big boys. True, Fox gets higher ratings overall than NBC, but what doesn't? Anyway, Fox does have an edge, and its edge has produced some interesting television, so maybe Fox programmers ought to bear that in mind.

Oh yeah, "The Simpsons" continues (it's likely to stay on until sometime in the year 2525, if man is still alive, and maybe until the year 7510, when God finally makes His appearance), "New Girl" and "The Mindy Project" are back, and there's still no programming in the 10 PM  Eastern hour. Carry on.

The full Fox 2013-14 lineup is here.