Fall Television Season 2013

It seems like every month has a batch of new television series, but fall is still when we get the biggest bunch of premieres and returns.  Here’s what I’m looking forward to:

New:

“Masters of Sex” — Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan play the pioneering researchers Masters and Johnson, who spent decades examining every possible biological element of sex and fell in and out of love along the way.

“The Black List” — David Spader, recently announced as the villain in the next “Superman” film, plays a big-time bad guy in this drama about a brilliant criminal who surrenders to the FBI with something to trade: inside information about some very evil and destructive people.

“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” — Joss Whedon is behind this spin-off or rather spin-side of “The Avengers,” with Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, supervising a non-super back-up squad in support of The Avengers.”

“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” —  Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher star in a cop show that has something of the feel of the great “Barney Miller.”

“The Michael J. Fox Show” — Fox returns to television in a series inspired in part by his own life, playing a newsman with Parkinson’s who goes back to work.

Returning:

“The Good Wife” — There have been rumors of a big “red wedding”-style surprise in the fifth season of this absorbing drama.

“How I Met Your Mother” — Yes!  We get to meet her at last in the series’ final season, with every episode taking place on the same day.  Cristin Milioti joins the cast as the woman with the yellow umbrella.

(And not looking too good, despite very talented performers: “Mom,” “The Millers,” “The Crazy Ones,” “Sean Saves the World,” and  “Dads”)