TV tonight: 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,' 'Life in Pieces'
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
CW, 8 ET/PT
So here's the question fall's most promising new series faces tonight: Can writers Aline Brosh McKenna and Rachel Bloom (who also stars) replicate the pilot's appeal in the second episode? The task Bloom and McKenna have set for themselves, creating a weekly original musical about an unbalanced woman's search for love and happiness, is far from an easy one. But based on the joy that pilot provoked, you have to at least hope they're up to it. If you're grading, here's the curve: A bit of a let-down is ok — most series struggle to find their footing in their first few outings. All you need worry about for now is complete collapse.
Life in Pieces
CBS, 8:30 ET/PT
This comedy also set a tough task for itself: Doing four distinct stories in one half-hour. The problem so far has been that too many of those segments have felt more like under-developed ideas than stories, and too many of the ideas have not been worth developing.
Minority Report
Fox, 9 ET/PT
And then there are series that set tasks for themselves no one could, or should want to, accomplish. It was never going to be easy to launch a sequel to the Tom Cruise movie without its star — substituting a droopy hero for Cruise's character just unreasonably increased the level of difficulty.