Matt's Help guide to Weekend TV: Premieres of Not so long ago, Boss and much more!

Lana Parrilla, Jennifer Morrison Once isn't enough. A second look, or perhaps a second episode, is essential to convince a skeptic that the show may be worth taking a chance on. So it's with ABC's dazzling but dauntingly precious Not so long ago (Sunday, 8/7c), which when I had been thinking about it for Fall Preview left me wondering: "Is ambitiously fanciful fantasia the following Pushing Daisies cult fave or even the next Eastwick insta-flop? (In either case, it'll be a constant climb to happily ever after.) It might be simpler to like whether it were not so convoluted and cheesy."However ABC made another episode (the 3rd, airing November. 6) readily available for review, and that i began to locate myself enchanted and beguiled, prepared to relax with increased sections of the fractured story book. First, though, you need to digest the premise, and also the overstuffed and frequently over ripe pilot will be a lot to swallow. We start inside a lavishly made fairy-tale land where Snow Whitened (Large Love's Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming wrangle by having an Evil Full (Lana Parrilla), who interrupts their wedding using the commitment of a curse. Stated curse arrives just like Snow handles to transmit her newborn daughter Emma via a magical portal into the world. Years pass, and also the grown Emma (House's arch Jennifer Morrison), now a loner of the fugitive hunter, is enlisted with a son to hasten towards the isolated burg of Storybrooke, Maine, where time is frozen and all sorts of the most popular figures of legend reside in lack of knowledge of the fabled roots. The boy thinks Emma can turn back curse, however she needs to face the city mayor (Parrilla again), who's provided to saying such things as, "I'll destroy you if it's the final factor I actually do.Inch (Has she looked at Revenge? Will they have Televisions in Storybrooke?)"Seriously?" Emma remarks with a few frequency, that is understandable. I had been initially deflated by all of the heavy-handed whimsy, however i started to consider Once a little more seriously upon sampling the approaching third episode. It cleverly weaves Lost-like flashbacks - the show's designers are Lost veterinarians, also it shows - taking us to Snow's colorful past like a frisky bandit, performed off against her modern-day look for the Someone In Particular she does not know is her Prince Charming (as well as their meet-cute in the enchanted forest truly is charming). There's gorgeous fun available here, and I am very carefully positive that ABC's persistence in stalling the premiere until per month in to the season, combined with heavy and wise promotion, pays off, a minimum of initially. It might be unfortunate with this book to become closed too early.Want more fall TV news? Sign up for TV Guide Magazine now!The weekend's other large premiere, Starz's dark and dreary Boss (Friday, 10/9c), is just one of individuals shows I stored wishing would improve or even more interesting the greater I viewed. No such luck. These acer notebooks noticably for giving Kelsey Grammer (Frasier who?) a superbly meaty dramatic workout. A global taken off the sitcom debacle of Hank, his new TV venture isn't any laughing matter - which becomes shateringly apparent in the opening moments once we watch Chicago mayor Tom Kane introduced to earth, though hardly humbled, through the not so good news that he's struggling with an irreversible degenerative brain disease. Ain't we've got fun.Grammer clearly relishes the tragic size of this juicy role. He's part cagey and callous Godfather because he wields energy from his literal bully pulpit, at some point taking an alderman through the ear and humiliating him just like a naughty child. He's also part Shakespearean Lear, raging against fate, his personal and professional misfortunes and also the cynical tides of political chicanery. "During my kingdom, we are all whores," he declares to 2 actual ladies from the evening who're doing stuff you only see on pay cable. (The sexual content frequently feels gratuitously applied, possibly from some acknowledgment that otherwise Boss will be a pretty drab affair.)Grammer brings a remarkable vitality and morally queasy gravity towards the role, because he grooms a handsome but randy idealist (Shaun Hephner) for that governor's race while hiding the extent of his physical worries from his cronies, his co-employees (Kathleen Robertson and Martin Donovan, both excellent) and the steely Lady MacBoss of the estranged wife (the terrific Connie Nielsen).Like a character study, Boss is intriguing, well-behaved and superbly crafted (Gus Van Sant directed the pilot), with the key points of high-finish premium cable. But ultimately, it is really an simpler show to admire than to recommend. Preachy and self-important (together with a by-the-amounts newspaper subplot), it is also glum, plodding and chilly towards the bone. Within the first four hrs of their initial eight-hour run, I can not say I had been ever truly surprised at the familiar political and sordid personal intrigues, or terribly compelled to determine what goes on next. But Starz has restored the show for any second season - discuss hubris - so there's sufficient time for this to earn our election.More highlights in the TV weekend:FridayPick from the evening: Gem Jam Twenty (PBS, 9/8c, check local agendas), a conference from the influential rock-band on its 20th anniversary by filmmaker Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous), a united states Masters presentation airing included in the PBS Arts Fall Festival.Guest-star alert: It is a Buffy reunion around the CW's Supernatural (9/8c) as Charisma Contractor, the first kind Cordelia, plays a witch who removes her anger on her behalf philandering husband (James Marsters, forever Spike) by causing damage to occupants of the small town. ... CBS' A Gifted Guy (8/7c) will get an ER vibe when Eriq La Salle visitors as Evan Morris, an understanding neuro-shrink Michael woos to become listed on his practice. Evan's nickname is "E-Mo," as with "emo," making him the switch side from the gruff Dr. Peter Benton. (This is a reunion of sorts, as Gifted Man's executive producer Neal Baer handled similar responsibilities for several years on ER.) Sadly, the stunt casting is easily the most interesting factor relating to this routine episode, which indicates the show still has not determined an account balance between your medical and also the mystical (embodied with a too-coy Jennifer Ehle as Michael's nagging ghost ex-wife).What exactly else is on? ... Oprah's Lifeclass (OWN, 8/7c) grows to 2 hrs on Fridays effective now, using the second hour an active online/on-air discussion using the Full of Talk herself. Almost comprises in order for there being forget about instances of The famous host oprah Behind the curtain. ... On ABC's 20/20 (10/9c), Chris Cuomo interviews Stephanie Madoff Mack, widow from the well known Bernie Madoff's boy Mark, who committed suicide within the wake from the financial scandal. ... Did this week's tragic story of wildlife roaming an Ohio town provide you with bad dreams? Maybe you are the crowd for Animal Planet's My Extreme Animal Fear (10/9c), a brand new series by which psychiatrist Dr. Robin Zasio subjects individuals to 5 days of intensive "exposure therapy" to tackle their fears - of bots and bugs, pit bulls and snakes, and that is this week's episode.SATURDAYPick from the evening: The baseball action on the planet Series moves to Texas because the Rangers host the Cardinals, each with one win to their name. Saturday's game starts on Fox at 7:30/ET, and Sunday's (following football) at 8/ET.Seeing ghosts has become awfully trendy - on American Horror Story, The Vampire Journals and almost non-stop on BBC America's haunted-asylum series Bedlam (9/8c). This week's episode involves a really bad and incredibly creepy toy that can take having an innocent young girl. Jed to save the day! ... For any more family-friendly haunting, Hallmark Funnel presents a brand new movie, Oliver's Ghost (9/8c), by which an 11-year-old boy finds out he is able to contact the cranky ghost (Martin Mull) who once possessed his family's new house within the and surrounding suburbs.Where's The Worst Spot to Be Gay? Logo design launches its beCAUSE Paperwork number of documentaries having a film (8/7c) asking that question in the title, and responding to it by using freely gay performer Scott Mills to Uganda, where homosexuality is criminalized and where he encounters virulent bigotry in each and every part of society.SUNDAYPick from the evening: Episode a couple of AMC's blockbuster zombie thriller The Walking Dead (9/8c). Even with this show's unsparing standards, last week's episode ended on the shocking note, using the accidental shooting within the forest of little Carl Grimes. The frantic aftermath introduces new figures in to the fold because the action moves towards the lengthy-looked forward to farmhouse of Hershel (the truly amazing character actor Scott Wilson). Occasions build to a different harrowing cliffhanger. This series just does not let up.A lot of class functions to select from on Sunday: Showtime's breakout newcomer hit Homeland (10/9c), by which Brody's erratic behavior starts to tarnish his coming back-hero image HBO's Boardwalk Empire (9/8c), where there is no brotherly love from a combative Nucky and Eli, and Richard Harrow's solitary trip in to the forest takes an unpredicted turn CBS' The Great Wife (9/8c), with Dylan Baker reprising his scrumptious guest turn because the smarmy killer Colin Sweeney, whom Alicia unwillingly enlists to testify after her key witness commits suicide. ... The 2nd of three wonderful Situation Histories movies on Masterpiece Mystery! (PBS, 9/8c, check local agendas), in line with the novel One Good Turn, finds Jason Isaacs' private agent Jackson Brodie getting into over his mind when he attempts to retrieve a drowning victim in the ocean after which begins monitoring her identity. Webs do not get a lot more twisted compared to these tales.The theme of belief, perverted or else, within this season of Dexter (Showtime, 9/8c) has been hammered home non-stop, to the stage of monotony. But Dexter has valid reason to wish now, when adorable little Harrison becomes ill. Meanwhile, the Miami cops use it of Thought to decipher the most recent terrible four-horsemen tableau, the job of the fiend they dub the "Doomsday Killer."Perhaps a little star energy can give ABC's diminishing newcomer series Pan Am (10:01/9:01c) some lift within the rankings. ER's Goran Visnjic starts a guest arc like a dashing passenger on the way to Monte Carlo who catches the attention of both Kate and Maggie. But his participation in Kate's latest CIA mission muddies the Riviera waters.What exactly else is on? ... ABC launches a brand new game show, Billion Dollar Mind Game, in daytime (4/3c). The premise: a team of six - within the premiere, middle-school instructors - has a minute to reply to questions needing logic expecting a $a million pay day. After each right answer, they need to decide all whether or not to fold or continue. ... Who much better than Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe to host a chapter of Discovery's Curiosity (9/8c) entitled "World's Filthiest Guy," revealing the apparently numerous microscopic microorganisms living on your body. ... Nick News With Linda Ellerbee explores the disturbing trend of babies getting plastic surgery inside a special entitled Minor Changes (Nickelodeon, 9/8c). Kids, do not attempt this in your own home.Sign up to TV Guide Magazine now!