Every year at the end of May, UK TV channels head to Los Angeles to check out all the forthcoming US series as they hope to snap up the next Lost or Game of Thrones.
The Hollywood studios roll out the red carpet for this beauty parade process, which includes more than 50 big-budget drama and shiny sitcom pilots that will air in the US between September and May.
The majority of shows screened are bland cop series that make CSI look like The Wire, medical dramas that make you yearn for the days of ER, and terrible tinned laughter comedies.
But there’s always a handful of shows that stand out – and JOE were in LA to pick the best to look out for. Here’s Part One of our rundown…
Billions
The show opens with Paul Giamatti, who plays the pinstriped, politically savvy US Attorney Chuck Rhoades, being p*ssed on by a dominatrix that soon turns out to be his well-to-do therapist wife.
But Billions, surprisingly, isn’t a kinky crime drama – rather a thriller about the world of high finance, written by Andrew Ross Sorkin, the author of Too Big To Fail and one of the few financial journalists to predict the last economic crisis.
Giamatti, best known for his role in indie wine flick Sideways, stars alongside British actor Damian Lewis, star of Homeland, who plays brilliant but beastly hedge fund chief Bobby Axelrod.
Like Homeland, Billions will air on premium cable network Showtime, giving it an edge and a licence for complicated and colourful language.
Given the recent end of Mad Men and Breaking Bad, Billions could well fill this high-end gap.
Supergirl
Superheroes are showing no signs of slowing down; the theatrical success of the Avengers and Captain America franchises has been matched by the small screen success of shows such as Arrow, Gotham and Daredevil.
This year it’s the turn of Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El.
By day, Glee’s Melissa Benoist stars as Zor-El, who works for Calista Flockhart’s Cat Grant at her trendy New York media company.
By night she moonlights as the eponymous city superhero, saving airplanes and other citizens.
Supergirl is much more lighthearted than Gotham; it’s essentially The Devil Wears Prada-meets-The Flash and is exactly as dumb and fun as that sounds.
Blindspot
A suspicious holdall starts to shake in New York’s Times Square and a young woman, who is fully covered in tattoos, emerges from the bag before the local bomb squad arrives.
To make matters worse, the young woman, played by impressive newcomer Jamie Alexander, has no idea who she is or why she’s been stuck in an overnight bag.
It turns out her heavily tattooed body is a mystery map of serious crimes – imagine Kat Von D if she’d spent time with the local constabulary – that shall be solved by Strike Back’s Sullivan Stapleton.
Blindspot is, essentially, Memento-meets-The Blacklist.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was the surprise of the season; a musical comedy about a successful lawyer who leaves her top job in New York to seek love and happiness in suburban California.
On paper, it sounds like a tough concept and similar to that time that your girlfriend dragged you to see Mamma Mia.
But it’s weird and wonderful and dark and kooky and full of inappropriate jokes about the ramifications of waxing and the politics of social media.
It’s brought to life by the incredible Rachel Bloom, better known for producing internet videos such as F**k Me, Ray Bradbury. It’s New Girl (with a little Glee thrown in) written by David Lynch and Mark Frost.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djSnfvxosGY
The Muppets
The Muppets are back and funnier than ever.
This time the gang, including Kermit, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear (who has been turned into a Ted-style lothario) and eventually Miss Piggy, front a warts and all show that looks at their lives, both at home and at work, dissecting their romances and professional ambitions.
Having recently spent time on the big screen, with recent movies featuring Jason Segel and Ricky Gervais, this television version will be filmed in a Modern Family-esque mockumentary style.
There’s obviously a level of nostalgia attached to the Muppets, but the 12-minute presentation that was shown (one of the few shows where a full pilot hadn’t yet been produced), was the funniest 12 minutes of the week.
