Here comes CBS, like an old-school TV network — which, it is, after all — premiering its new and returning shows in short order like a real fall season. (For someone growing up in Southern California, it was the most visible sign of autumn.) Going on the hardly radical assumption that what once worked will work again — witness the many flavors of "NCIS" and "CSI," the myriad exhumations of 20th century IP — the network in this century has been a carnival of franchises, spinoffs and revivals. Whatever happens to CBS News under its new conservative overlords, nothing the former Tiffany Network — home once to "M.A.S.H." and "All in the Family" — airs now on its prime-time schedule could be seen as objectionable, except by racists, homophobes, misogynists and the most extremely prudish.

Friday brings two brand-new dramas, "Sheriff Country," spun off from the network's "Fire Country," beginning its fourth season (also on Friday) and "Boston Blue," taking over from "Blue Bloods," which closed up shop last December after 14 years; both mix family matters with police business, with an emphasis on the former. There are mysteries to solve, of course, but they come and go, while family, even at its most arduous and argumentative, is forever. Each series, not necessarily because they're female forward, which they are, has a sentimental streak — an impulse toward kindness any cop show, or actual police department, can use. Each is built closely and efficaciously along the lines of their respective motherships, which is to say, crowds will be pleased. I have no complaints myself.

Born from a backdoor pilot in the second season of "Fire Country," with a third season episode to keep the memory fresh, "Sheriff Country" stars Morena Baccarin as Mickey Fox, the interim sheriff of the town of Edgewater (and the rest of the county, presumably), who in the extended "Country" universe is the aunt of "Fire" main character, paroled convict-firefighter Bode Leone (Max Thieriot), who will drop by for a cameo, naturally, as will his mother, Mickey's stepsister, Cal Fire division chief Sharon (Diane Farr).

The series begins in a light mood, almost like a small-town comedy with cops. (There's a chili contest.) Though four guns are drawn in the first scene, by Mickey, her partner, Boone (Matt Lauria), and two brothers you won't have to remember, Mickey, who calls everyone in town by their first name, talks them down. But clouds will roll in soon enough.

Mickey has a daughter, Skye, established in "Fire Country" as going in and out of rehab; we finally meet her in person, four months sober, playing guitar in a park alongside a boyfriend we'll quickly learn is bad news. Skye's father, Mickey's ex-husband, Travis (Christopher Gorham), is a lawyer; Mickey will learn along with the viewer that he's dating Cassidy, one of her deputies; not the sort of thing that Mickey — who can be a little judgy and has a tendency to ignore difficult questions and walk away from conversations she doesn't want to have — is likely to answer with a blessing.

Her father, Wes (W. Earl Brown), "the patron saint of Edgewater outlaws," earlier seen in "Fire Country," is a crusty old trouble-making, beekeeping weed farmer who lives up on the mountain and doesn't trust police or any sort of authority. Worried that Skye will relapse, Mickey counterintuitively decides Wes is just the one to keep her in line and invites him to come and stay with them. It's nice to see Caroline Rhea — you loved her in the original "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," or will as soon as you go watch it — in a small part as office assistant Gina who had "a thing" with Wes "back in the day," which is something else Mickey doesn't want to discuss.

In addition to the family mishigas and the crime-solving (with a long arc mystery that spans the four episodes sent for review), there's an election to determine who'll officially replace the old sheriff, killed back in "Fire Country"; Boone, whose more aggressive notion of policing doesn't align with Mickey's lighter touch, has his eyes on the job as well, injecting tension into an otherwise relatively good relationship.

"Boston Blue" finds young Sean Reagan (Mika Amonsen), the son of "Blue Bloods" NYPD detective Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg), grandson of NYPD police commissioner Frank Reagan, great-grandson of former NYPD commissioner Henry Reagan and nephew of assistant district attorney Erin Reagan, as a rookie cop in … Boston, because with an NYPD hiring freeze, his father suggested he try there. As the series opens, Sean is hospitalized unconscious after he and best friend and partner Jonah Silver (Marcus Scribner) run into a burning building to see whom they might save. This brings Danny (taking a moment to introduce us to his remarkable six-pack, which might be more of an eight-pack), into the series, rushing north to his comatose son's bedside. He'll muscle in on a murder investigation — someone in that fire had already been shot dead — and stick around to co-star in this rambunctious series.

As in "Blue Bloods," there is family to spare, though the patriarchal thrust of the parent series here becomes matriarchal. Jonah is the son of District Attorney Mae Silver (Gloria Reuben), who is also the mother of Det. Lena Silver, (Sonequa Martin-Green, back to Earth after "Star Trek: Discovery") and stepmother to police superintendent Sarah Silver (Maggie Lawson). Like the Reagans, they gather for Friday night dinners, though as distinct from the "Blue Bloods" Catholics, it's a Shabbat thing — the Silvers are Jewish, and also Black, except for Sarah, the child of a first marriage.) Grandpa (Ernie Hudson) is a Baptist preacher, so I'm not really sure how that all works out, or how much it really matters. It's all family!

Danny and Lena, the show's main characters, find themselves unofficial partners in the two episodes out for review, as they go from antagonistic to affectionate. He's bullish and impatient, she's flexible and methodical. ("Sometimes dotting I's and crossing T's has to come second to right and wrong," says he.) He doesn't like the fact that she can outrun him. She calls him Brooklyn, he calls her Beantown — although Wahlberg, born in Dorchester, is the most Bostonian of all these cops; it doesn't take an expert to place that accent.

The city itself appears in street scenes and inserts of swan boats in the Public Garden, the Old North Church and Faneuil Hall. Fenway Park plays a more substantial part when, at the end of Episode 2, the principals gather for a game and, sealing Danny's official transfer to Boston, the locals symbolically drape a Red Sox shirt over his Mets tee. He takes it better than you'd expect. Family!

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'BOSTON BLUE'

Rating: TV-14

How to watch: 10 p.m. ET Fridays on CBS (and streaming on Paramount+)

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'SHERIFF COUNTRY'

Rating: TV-14

How to watch: Pilot airs 9 p.m. ET Oct. 17, then new episodes at 8 p.m. ET Fridays (and streaming on Paramount+)

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