The CW New Shows Gut Reactions: Superheroes, Killer Viruses, and a 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'

Dave Nemetz
Updated
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With a breakout season spiked with freshman hits like The Flash, Jane the Virgin, and iZombie, the other networks don’t have The CW to kick around anymore. In fact, most of its rivals would probably kill for The CW’s combo of youth appeal and social-media buzz.

After such a successful season, The CW didn’t have many holes to fill in its schedule, unveiling only three new series at today’s upfronts — and two of them won’t debut until midseason. But they’re sticking with what’s working, with another DC Comics action series, a Jane-esque rom-com, and a virus thriller from CW veterans Julie Plec and David Nutter.

Let’s check out the trailers to see if The CW’s hot streak can continue.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow
This is the Arrow/Flash spinoff that fans have been buzzing about for months now: Doctor Who’s Arthur Darvill plays a time traveler who sees disaster in the future and enlists a team of heroes and villains to stop it, including Arrow’s Brandon Routh and Caity Lotz and The Flash’s Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell. The trailer fits right in with the lighter tone of The Flash, mixing cool-ass lasers and explosions with sassy one-liners. (And Victor Garber is always a welcome sight on our TV screens.) Someday, though, we’re going to reach a comic book saturation point on TV, right? Right?!?

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Jane the Virgin sticks out like a sore thumb among The CW’s usual comic book/supernatural fare; good thing, then, that it’ll be paired with this new romantic comedy next fall. Comedian Rachel Bloom stars as a passionate (some might say “crazy”) young woman who ditches her career to follow a guy who dumped her a decade ago to the California town of West Covina. It’s like if Felicity went full-on crazy stalker… with over-the-top musical numbers! We can see a lot of people hating this, but we were kind of charmed by Bloom and the unabashed weirdness of it all. At the risk of leading her on, we’ll give it a try.

Containment
Another TV apocalypse is upon us: When a highly contagious flu-like virus hits, the government puts the city of Atlanta under quarantine to stop it from spreading, separating families and loved ones on opposite sides of the barrier. Plec (The Vampire Diaries) and Nutter (Arrow) are old pros by now, and the trailer makes this kind of disaster feel frighteningly plausible. But we’ve been roped in by high-concept shows like this before, that start with a strong concept and run out of gas in Season 2. We’ll wait a few episodes and then check in to see if this patient has any chance of surviving.

More Fall TV Trailers:
CBS Fall Shows Gut Reactions: ‘Supergirl’ Soars, 'Code Black’ Flatlines
ABC Fall Shows Gut Reactions: ‘The Muppets,’ the Bible, the FBI, and a Whole Lot of ‘Oil’
New Fox Shows: Rob Lowe’s ‘The Grinder’ Is a Standout
NBC’s New Shows: Heart Surgeons to Porn Babysitters