Let the games begin: Fox's season begins tonight

While “Prison Break� continues its established brand of frenzied, hyperbolic drama, “Vanished� offers a new type of conspiracy thriller. It concerns the disappearance of a Georgia Senator’s wife – who may or may not have been whom she claimed to be – that explodes into what the network calls a “Da Vinci Code-esque� type of conspiracy. The pilot has scads of intriguing plot twists.

Unfortunately, Fox has not made any other episodes of “Vanished� available for review – nor of any of a couple of other new dramas (which is a subject for a future screed), which isn’t particularly promising (if future episodes aren’t as good as the pilot -- and, frequently, they aren't -- that naturally hurts reviews).

Most promising of Fox’s new shows is “Standoff,� which stars Ron Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt – who have the most chemistry of any new onscreen couple this season – as FBI hostage negotiators who are involved both professionally and personally. Outside of its stars’ chemistry, one of its biggest selling points is that, opposed to most of the new dramas this season, it’s not a serialized drama. (How many of those shows can viewers realistically and assiduously follow, anyway?)

More problematic is “Justice,� which stars “Alias�’ Victor Garber as Ron Trott, the wildly arrogant head of a high-profile legal defense team (think Johnny Cochran, Robert Shapiro, et al). The pilot has a handful of plot holes, but more importantly: Will audiences really want to root for wealthy lawyers who strive to free potential murderers? Viewers may side with one of Trott’s colleagues who at one point tells him: “Ron – go away.�

Fox’s new sitcoms – “Til Death� and “Happy Hour� – are old-fashioned shows shot before a studio audience. “Til Death� juxtaposes the comic possibilities in the culture-clash between a jaded, long-married couple (Brad Garrett of “Everybody Loves Raymond� and Joely Fisher) and a blissful pair of newlyweds (Eddie Kay Thomas and Kat Foster, who scarcely mirror Garrett and Fisher’s credibility). “Happy Hour’s� a dodgier proposition, though not without its charms, about a passel of drifting twentysomethings looking for some sense of meaning or significance in their lives and finding it mainly in alcohol at reduced prices.

Even if some of the shows have dubious prospects, they’re better than those Fox has trotted out at this time of year in the past. And, of course, there’s always January.