October is turning out to be the new September when it comes to premiering TV shows. Here are three reasons to make room for “Psych,” “Whitechapel” and “Grimm” in your no doubt already jam-packed TV scheduled this fall. You might not regret it.
“PSYCH” on USA, premieres tonight at 10 p.m.
(Alan Zenuk/USA Network)
(Steve Brown )
1. Shawn (James Roday) and Gus (Dule Hill) dress up like Lestat and Blacula during the vampire-themed Oct. 26 episode. Enough said.
2. This show was “The Mentalist,” before “The Mentalist” – a point that creator Steve Franks is more than happy to point out repeatedly and as humorously as possible. And, frankly, it deserves to be pointed out because the whole crime-solving fake psychic TV show idea was inspired…back in 2006.
3. Few series are as joyously fun-loving as “Psych” is. Plus, clever cases and characters make it the full package.
While you’re waiting for tonight’s Season 5 premiere, here’s a video from last week’s Psych Fan Appreciation Day at the Ziegfeld, in which James Roday and Dule Hill sing a song they improvised on set after their costume person told James to take off his jacket because it was dirty. Great event from a network that knows how to treat fans right. (As in, by not canceling a series after three episodes.)
“WHITECHAPEL” on BBC America, premieres Oct. 26 at 10 p.m.
1. The Brits know their crime dramas and this one is particularly chilling, creepy and cool, thanks to slow-building investigations that seem destined to fail. Unlike US crime shows, this one doesn’t exactly wrap up as neatly as you’d expect.
2. It’s rare for an actor with marquee good looks to play anything but the smartest, lone-wolfiest, most jaded person in the precinct. But here, Rupert Penry-Jones (of “MI:5” and “Jane Austen’s Persuasion” fame) is a ladder-climbing newbie Detective Inspector who is wildly out of his depth, in charge of a department that kind of hates his well-tailored guts and suffers from a bad case of OCD. How that plays out alone makes the series worth watching.
3. The first half of the series involves a Jack the Ripper copycat. Always a good time. (The second half is about big time ’60s London gangsters, the Kray Twins.)
“GRIMM” on NBC, premieres Oct. 28 at 9 p.m.
1. DVR “Supernatural” or “Fringe” at least once to check out this show, because it puts a suitably scary and mysterious spin on old fairy tales that’ve been softened up into cuddly stories over many, many years.
2. Thank those same fairy tales for elevating what’s essentially another procedural drama out of the increasingly stale world of crime solving TV shows.
3. Silas Weir Mitchell, who you may recognize from “Prison Break” and “My Name is Earl,” is lots of fun to watch as Monroe, a slightly sketchy reformed big bad wolf. Of the “my what big teeth you have, grandma” variety of big bad wolf.