Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It's Saturday, Sept. 16. Here's what you need to know to start your weekend:
- Fall TV is returning, with fewer options due to strikes
- Striking workers could get unemployment benefits
- Nothing could stop these kissing (step) siblings from dating
- And here's today's e-newspaper
The shows we're most excited about this fall
Cooler temperatures may start rolling in soon, but nothing is more exciting about fall than the TV lineup.
TV has progressed past the days of me rushing home from school to get my homework done before "Reba" and "What I Like About You" aired. Instead, access to a wide range of shows and replays on streaming services, where I can binge watch full seasons.
How we watch TV has changed. But this year, what we watch looks a lot different, too.
The writers' and actors' strikes have halted productions, stalling new seasons of popular shows like "Abbott Elementary" (I was so ready to root for Janine and Gregory as a couple!) and "Young Sheldon."
Still, there's a lot of TV to get excited about. UBA's daily broadcast is starting up again in the third season of "The Morning Show" on Apple TV+. (I worked in TV news, so that mess and chaos? I get it.)
It looks like the sex-crazed teens in Moordale are also back at it in the fourth and final season of "Sex Education," which returns next week on Netflix.
Over on network television, unscripted reality programming is back with a force (much like during the last writers' strike). "The Golden Bachelor," a new twist on ABC's "The Bachelor" franchise, premieres Sept. 28. Instead of contestants in their 20s and 30s finding love and sex, the spinoff features retirees in their 60s and 70s looking for a second (or third) chance at love.
The networks are also padding their lineups with shows from overseas, including the original British version of "Ghosts" and series borrowed from within their parent companies (this explains why "Yellowstone" reruns will air on CBS starting Sunday).
The great thing about streaming is we don't always need new shows to fill our time anyway. ("Suits" became an unlikely sensation on Netflix earlier this summer.)
As Times television critics Lorraine Ali and Robert Lloyd write, "there will still be more television than you can watch."
The week's biggest stories
(Andrea D'Agosto / For The Times)
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Column One
Column One is The Times' home for narrative and longform journalism. Here's a great piece from this week:
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
There's a hidden crisis among California's rural kids. Would this teen make it? Even the most ambitious students in California's impoverished rural north often deal with extreme challenges, including poverty and neglect, at higher rates than anywhere else in the state. For Linda Plumlee, academics were a ticket out of Alturas, a cattle-ranching town of 2,700.
More great reads
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.
For your weekend
(Miki Kim/For The Times)
Going out
Staying in
L.A. Affairs
Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.
(Inma Hortas / For The Times)
My dad and her mom had an affair. Should that stop us from dating? As Paul and Gabby's love blossomed, their parents were concerned that they might have some sort of ugly breakup, making family gatherings uncomfortable. But exactly the opposite happened.
Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.
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