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" This time last year, we were staring down a meager slate of fall TV offerings, thanks to NBC&amp;#039;s cost-cutting decision to more or less abandon original programming by reserving a primetime slot for The Jay Leno Show. Happily, now that network programmers have learned from that example, the 2010 schedule arrives looking pretty packed. The best sign? There&amp;#039;s only one new show prefaced with &amp;quot;C.S.I.&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;Law &amp;amp;amp; Order,&amp;quot; and it arrives with a cast smart and starry enough (Terrence Howard, Skeet Ulrich, Alfred Molina) to override the seen-it-before monotony. That said, we like these 12 new and returning entries far more. Nikita  You&amp;#039;d be forgiven if you skipped this one due to &amp;quot;Nikita&amp;quot; overload. This is, after all, the fourth go-round for the junkie-turned-assassin concept, following the movie La Femme Nikita, a USA Network TV show of the same name and an American version of the film called Point of No Return. But The CW&amp;#039;s twist on the tale has one thing going for it that the others lacked: Asian action superstar Maggie Q, both a fine actress and one who looks natural wielding a weapon. In conclusion, butts shall be kicked. Premiered September 9 on The CW. Photo courtesy of The CW. Lone Star  Usually when a new series is promoted as &amp;quot;the season&amp;#039;s breakout show!&amp;quot; and its lead as &amp;quot;fall&amp;#039;s buzziest new star!,&amp;quot; the actual product falls short of the hype. Which is why Lone Star\u2014long since slapped with the aforementioned tags\u2014is such a revelation: It lives up to the advance billing. Chronicling the high-wire act of a Texas con man juggling two different lives with two different women, the show manages to avoid the usual soap opera pitfalls by presenting itself as a morality play of sorts, especially with James Wolk&amp;#039;s somehow-sympathetic portrayal of main character Robert/Bob Allen. Premieres September 20 on Fox. Photo courtesy of Fox. Mike &amp;amp;amp; Molly  New-couple sitcoms are usually voted least-likely-to-get-syndicated, but resist the temptation with Mike &amp;amp;amp; Molly. While the premise doesn&amp;#039;t exactly excite the imagination\u2014surrounded by friends and family, a newly united couple attempts to find its way in the world\u2014the execution is uncommonly clever. The main characters meet in Overeaters Anonymous, meaning that they more closely resemble the people you see on the street or at the airport than the ones that normally grace your TV screen every night. Luckily, it plays more charming than clich\u00E9. Premieres September 20 on CBS. Photo courtesy of CBS. The Event  Even after watching the pilot of The Event, we&amp;#039;re not quite sure what it&amp;#039;s about\u2014an event of some sort, we suspect. And that&amp;#039;s clearly how the show wants it. Aiming to inherit Lost&amp;#039;s legions of mythology-minded fans, The Event boasts the fall season&amp;#039;s most intriguing ensemble, including Blair Underwood (L.A. Law), Laura Innes (ER) and Zeljko Ivanek (pretty much every show on TV ever, but notably on 24). Here&amp;#039;s hoping NBC doesn&amp;#039;t oversell the show&amp;#039;s similarities to Lost, or &amp;quot;forget&amp;quot; to answer a sizable percentage of the questions it poses. Premieres September 20 on NBC. Photo courtesy of NBC. Glee  The questions here aren&amp;#039;t whether Glee will tweak its barbed comedy/teen drama balance (it won&amp;#039;t) or whether it&amp;#039;ll pack its episodes with guest stars galore (it will, with Carol Burnett and Susan Boyle set to appear as well as an episode centered around Britney Spears). The question is whether a backlash will finally hit; all of the awards and &amp;quot;Gleek&amp;quot; fanaticism prompting the Internet to turn on the show. Either way, the great Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) will continue to lord over McKinley High in her bespoke track suits, and isn&amp;#039;t that what everyone really wants, anyway? Premieres September 21 on Fox. Photo courtesy of Fox. Raising Hope  Similar in attitude to My Name Is Earl\u2014no surprise, given that the same person, Greg Garcia, created both shows\u2014Raising Hope follows a hapless but well-intentioned man as he raises his newborn son with the help of his family, who prove to be not all that helpful. The show works owing to its more-sweet-than-sarcastic approach, which gives it a warmth that most family comedies lack. And it sure doesn&amp;#039;t hurt to have proven pros like Cloris Leachman and Martha Plimpton around as part of the supporting cast. Premieres September 21 on Fox. Photo courtesy of Fox. Cougar Town  Rarely has a show that started so unwatchably shrill found its way back in such a short period of time. Cougar Town arrived as a randy sitcom about a romantic predator\u2014the twist being that said predator was a woman, not a man. Fortunately, it quickly changed into something far different and more entertaining: a show about friendships. Now, if only it could shed that title... Not that the cast needs the boost, but Friends fans will certainly appreciate when Jennifer Aniston pops up as Jules&amp;#039; therapist. Premieres September 22 on ABC. Photo courtesy of ABC. Modern Family  After wrestling the comedy Emmy and the funniest-show-on-network-TV crown away from 30 Rock, all Modern Family has to do now is remain as simultaneously barbed and sweet as it was during its first season. Easy, right? The family will expand further with the appearance of Cameron&amp;#039;s mom, plus we&amp;#039;ll get the lobbied-for-on-Facebook Cameron/Mitchell kiss. As for provocative plot twists, there won&amp;#039;t be any, unless you count an earthquake that shakes stuff up for a tidy 30 minutes. Premieres September 22 on ABC. Photo courtesy of ABC. Community  Last year, Community started as one show (a cute, broad look at the exploits of a community college study group) and ended as another (a pop-culture-aware celebration of benign idiocy, and a devastatingly cynical one at that). To see what we mean, new viewers should check out episode 21, &amp;quot;Contemporary American Poultry,&amp;quot; which was less a typical sitcom half-hour and more an homage to the classic gangster flick Goodfellas. As for the season&amp;#039;s guest stars, the comeback queen Betty White will be making an appearance. Premieres September 23 on NBC. Photo courtesy of NBC. No Ordinary Family  No Ordinary Family is the most easily blurbed of all the fall 2010 entries: &amp;quot;a non-animated version of The Incredibles.&amp;quot; But don&amp;#039;t hold that against it. The show, in which a family&amp;#039;s four members gain superpowers after a plane crash, manages to wrap deadpan humor and surprisingly frisky action sequences in a family-friendly package. And with two of cable TV&amp;#039;s finest actors inhabiting the parent roles\u2014The Shield&amp;#039;s Michael Chiklis and Dexter&amp;#039;s Julie Benz\u2014No Ordinary Family boasts a whole lot of heart behind its showy premise. Premieres September 28 on ABC. Photo courtesy of ABC. The Good Wife  Yeah, it&amp;#039;s disappointing that The Good Wife will return with the Alicia/Will/Peter love triangle as a major part of its focus. But last year&amp;#039;s best new drama still has class and smarts to spare, transcending the legal-drama genre by having the plots take a back seat to the characters who figure prominently in them. New for 2010\u20132011: the introduction of a few family members and a love interest for the ever-mysterious Kalinda. Premieres September 28 on CBS. Photo courtesy of CBS. The Walking Dead  TV doesn&amp;#039;t do zombies, because really, how many seasons&amp;#039; worth of creative mileage can you get out of them? The zombies invade, they dine, they get shot, end of story. But if anyone can pull it off, it&amp;#039;s the folks behind the six-episode first season of The Walking Dead: Frank Darabont of The Shawshank Redemption fame, working off the renowned comic-book series by Robert Kirkman (on board here as executive producer). Even the trailer is terrifying (in the best possible way) and the Halloween-night debut is a clever touch, too. Premieres October 31 on AMC. Photo courtesy of AMC.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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