Point Pleasant

Premiered: Wednesday, Jan. 19

Airs: Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET

Premise: The daughter (Elisabeth Harnois) of the Prince of Darkness washes up in the seaside town of Point Pleasant. Not surprisingly, where the Devil’s spawn goes, chaos follows, impacting both the young residents of Point Pleasant (Sam Page, Aubrey Dollar, Cameron Richardson, Terry Burke) and their hot-blooded parents (Richard Burgi, Susan Walters, Dina Meyer). Grant Show is also on hand as the Devil’s leading advocate.

Our Prophecy: All FOX needs "Point Pleasant" to do is perform better on Thursday nights than "North Shore" did. So far, though, the occult drama has hemorrhaged oodles of viewers whether its lead-in was "American Idol" or "The O.C." Are horror fans shying away from this moody series because of lingering resentment toward Marti Noxon from her "Buffy" Queen of Pain days? Or are they turned off by the cast of generically attractive actors mouthing bland platitudes about the nature of good and evil? To its credit, "Pleasant" has shown minor creative improvement since its muddled pilot, but it still isn’t likely to outlast its original order.

The Inside

Premieres: To Be Decided

Premise: Tim Minear ("Angel") took over a "21 Jump Street" clone starring relative unknown Rachel Nichols and transformed it into a small screen "Silence of the Lambs" starring Nichols as a new FBI agent with a traumatic past assigned to LA’s Violent Crimes Unit. Peter Coyote, Jay Harrington and Adam Baldwin co-star as her partners in crime-fighting.

Our Prophecy: With a strong cast and a crack creative team that also includes "Buffy" writing star Jane Espenson and "24" ace Howard Gordon, "The Inside" may actually be a good show. Clips shown to critics make this look darker and more mature than anything FOX has on the air right now and FOX seems to enjoy tearing out Minear’s still-beating heart (see "Wonderfalls" and "Firefly"). Either way, it’s probably doomed, but in the most noble way possible.