The fall television season is short on blockbuster titles — a “Star Wars” extension, “Skeleton Crew,” from Disney+, and perhaps HBO’s as-yet-unscheduled “Dune: Prophecy.” But there is plenty that’s of interest, including Alfonso Cuarón’s return to television with “Disclaimer” on Apple TV+, Colin Farrell’s incarnation of the Penguin for HBO and Kathryn Hahn’s reboot of her “WandaVision” character in “Agatha All Along” for Disney+. There will also be new seasons of offbeat but proven comedies like “Bad Sisters” on Apple TV+, “Somebody Somewhere” on HBO and “What We Do in the Shadows,” which, unlike its vampire heroes, will perish after its sixth season on FX. Here are 25 shows to keep an eye out for this fall, in chronological order; all dates are subject to change.
September
‘THE OLD MAN’ In Season 2 of this melancholy spy thriller, Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow return as former C.I.A. colleagues and improbable action buddies — the two actors’ average age is 76, and Lithgow’s character once hired a hit man to kill Bridges’s. (With 76-year-old Kathy Bates starring in CBS’s “Matlock” reboot, it’s a good season for septuagenarians.) (FX, Sept. 12)
‘HOW TO DIE ALONE’ The actress and writer Natasha Rothwell (“Insecure,” “White Lotus”) created and stars in this wistful comedy about a lonely airport worker whose life changes after a near-death experience involving an armoire and crab Rangoon. (Hulu, Sept. 13)
‘AGATHA ALL ALONG’ Kathryn Hahn returns to her “WandaVision” character in this Marvel spinoff series. The witch Agatha Harkness, stripped of her powers, hits the road and forms a new coven; the cast includes Joe Locke of “Heartstopper,” Sasheer Zamata, Debra Jo Rupp and Aubrey Plaza. (Disney+, Sept. 18)
‘THE PENGUIN’ Colin Farrell covers himself in silicone once again to play the waddling gangster Oswald Cobblepot, a.k.a. the Penguin, a role he first essayed in Matt Reeves’s 2022 film “The Batman.” Reeves is an executive producer of this mini-series, and Lauren LeFranc (“Impulse,” “Chuck”) is writer and showrunner. (HBO, Sept. 19)
‘A VERY ROYAL SCANDAL’ Following a strong start with “A Very English Scandal” and a step back with “A Very British Scandal,” this series about shameful British kerfuffles dramatizes Prince Andrew’s Waterloo: his 2019 BBC interview about his connections to Jeffrey Epstein (already the subject of the Netflix film “Scoop”), and the withering reaction it received. Michael Sheen plays the prince and Ruth Wilson plays his relentless interrogator, Emily Maitlis. (Amazon, Sept. 19)
‘GROTESQUERIE’ The producer Ryan Murphy is inescapable this fall, with “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez” on FX, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” on Netflix, the prime-time soap “Doctor Odyssey” on ABC and this new horror-mystery. Niecy Nash-Betts plays a small-town detective, and the cast includes Courtney B. Vance, Lesley Manville and America’s most famous boyfriend, Travis Kelce. (FX, Sept. 25)
‘MIDNIGHT FAMILY’ Luke Lorentzen’s acclaimed 2019 documentary about a family racing through Mexico City’s streets in its private ambulance has been turned into a drama series, with Natalia Beristáin (“The Mosquito Coast”) as showrunner. Joaquín Cosío, who played the heroic ex-luchador Angel in “The Strain,” portrays the gruff patriarch. (Apple TV+, Sept. 25)
‘NOBODY WANTS THIS’ The charm potential here is extremely high: Kristen Bell and Adam Brody spar as a snarky podcaster and a sensitive, eligible rabbi. The actress and writer Erin Foster created this Los Angeles romantic sitcom, with Steven Levitan of “Modern Family” and “Reboot” as an executive producer. (Netflix, Sept. 26)
‘AMERICAN HISTORIA: THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF LATINOS’ Expanding on the work he did for his 2017 Broadway production “Latin History for Morons,” John Leguizamo hosts a three-episode documentary presenting a mosaic of Latino history from the Mesoamerican empires to the protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s. (PBS, Sept. 27)
October
‘DAN DA DAN’ She believes in ghosts but not aliens; he believes in aliens but not ghosts; they take themselves very, very seriously. This awkward-teenager rom-com from the anime studio Science Saru (“Adventure Time,” “Inu-Oh”) should be an otaku’s dream. (Crunchyroll, Oct. 3; the first three episodes will premiere in theaters on Sept. 13)
‘LA MAQUINA’ Two decades after their brilliant pairing as teenagers coming of age fast in “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna play a struggling Mexican boxer and his manager in Hulu’s first original Spanish-language series. (Hulu, Oct. 9)
‘CITADEL: DIANA’ Traditionally, the international offspring of American TV shows have stayed safely out of sight. Now, Amazon is taking a different approach: This Italian spinoff of the spy thriller “Citadel” will be available immediately in America, as will an Indian production, “Citadel: Honey Bunny,” on Nov. 7; Spanish and Mexican versions have also been announced. These all stand a fair chance of being better than the original. (Amazon Prime Video, Oct. 10)
‘DISCLAIMER’ The sometimes-visionary director Alfonso Cuarón’s second American TV series (after “Believe” in 2014) and first directorial project since “Roma” in 2018 is a mini-series about a journalist (Cate Blanchett) who discovers she is the main character of an anonymous, scandalous novel. Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen, Lesley Manville and HoYeon Jung of “Squid Game” also appear. (Apple TV+, Oct. 11)
‘NCIS: ORIGINS’ Austin Stowell plays the rookie Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs in this prequel series narrated by Mark Harmon, who played Gibbs for 19 seasons on “NCIS.” If it succeeds, look for “Law & Order: Police Academy” and “Grey’s Anatomy: The Med School Years.” (CBS, Oct. 14)
‘HYSTERIA!’ This satirical-sounding thriller series, about a teenage, heavy-metal band that exploits fears of Satanism in the 1980s, has a promising cast: Anna Camp and Julie Bowen as mothers caught up in small-town panic and Garret Dillahunt as a reverend. (Peacock, Oct. 18)
‘WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS’ The riotous vampire spoof, created by Jemaine Clement and now overseen by Paul Simms, enters its sixth and final season. (FX, Oct. 21)
‘SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE’ Bridget Everett and Jeff Hiller return in this quietly transgressive comedy, based on Everett’s life, about learning to love the Midwest again. Olafur Darri Ólafsson (“Trapped”) joins the cast in Season 3. (HBO, Oct. 27)
November
‘THE DAY OF THE JACKAL’ Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch play an assassin-for-hire and the agent hunting him in a new adaptation of the Frederick Forsyth novel, taking on the roles played by Edward Fox and Michael Lonsdale in Fred Zinnemann’s tense 1973 film. The story has been updated, so Charles de Gaulle will no longer be in the Jackal’s crosshairs. (Peacock, Nov. 7)
‘ST. DENIS MEDICAL’ Justin Spitzer, a writer and producer on “The Office” who went on to create the workplace sitcoms “Superstore” and “American Auto,” makes his most direct attempt to recapture the “Office” magic with this mockumentary set in a chaotic Oregon hospital. Wendi McLendon-Covey, David Alan Grier and Allison Tolman star; Eric Ledgin is co-creator and showrunner. (NBC, Nov. 12)
‘BAD SISTERS’ Eva Birthistle, Anne-Marie Duff, Sarah Greene, Eve Hewson and Sharon Horgan return for the second season of this dark but cheerfully mordant Irish comedy. Season 1 was dedicated to revealing which sister(s) killed the sociopathic husband of one of them; let’s hope that the death doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of Claes Bang, who was wonderful as the vile victim. (Apple TV+, Nov. 13)
‘CROSS’ James Patterson, whose Hollywood profile has never caught up to the astounding success of his best-selling fiction, tries again with a series centered on his best-known character, District of Columbia detective Alex Cross. In this new series, Aldis Hodge stars in the role previously played in movies by Morgan Freeman and Tyler Perry. (Amazon, Nov. 14)
‘SAY NOTHING’ Patrick Radden Keefe’s “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland” has been turned into a nine-episode drama for FX. Lola Petticrew and Hazel Doupe play sisters who were fervent young members of the Irish Republican Army. (Hulu, Nov. 14)
‘LANDMAN’ You never know what you’ll get when Taylor Sheridan creates a TV series — maybe a taut action thriller (“Special Ops: Lioness”) or a relaxed, funny gangster spoof (“Tulsa King”) or maybe a pretentious mess (“1883,” “1923,” “Mayor of Kingstown”). This series about the Texas oil business has two things in its favor: It’s not a period western, a genre that seems to bring out Sheridan’s worst tendencies, and it stars Billy Bob Thornton. (Paramount+, Nov. 17)
‘INTERIOR CHINATOWN’ Jimmy O. Yang (“Silicon Valley”) stars in this adaptation of Charles Yu’s metafictional, award-winning novel about Willis Wu, a bit player in a “Law & Order”-like police procedural shot at a Chinatown restaurant. Yu, a TV writer himself (“Westworld,” “Here and Now”), wrote the first and last of the show’s 10 episodes. (Hulu, Nov. 19)
December
‘EARTH ABIDES’ George R. Stewart’s 1949 novel about what happens after disease wipes out most humans — an early standout in the maybe-it’s-time-to-start-over genre — gets its first major screen adaptation. Alexander Ludwig, who has postapocalyptic experience from “The Hunger Games,” plays Ish Williams, the man who tries to set the survivors on the road back to civilization. (MGM+, Dec. 1)
‘STAR WARS: SKELETON CREW’ Details are scant regarding the latest “Star Wars” series, but the trailer appears to show Jude Law playing a vagabond Jedi who meets up with four children who have accidentally commandeered a spaceship. Jon Watts (“Spider-Man: No Way Home”) and Christopher Ford are the show’s creators. (Disney+, Dec. 3)
‘FALLEN’ The Swedish actress Sofia Helin has worked assiduously to separate herself from her defining role in “The Bridge” as the troubled detective Saga Noren in Malmo, Sweden. Helin has played an archaeologist (“Mystery Road”), a sex researcher (“Lust”) and a Norwegian princess (“Atlantic Crossing”). But maybe she’s tired of the effort: In this new Swedish crime drama, she plays a troubled detective who takes a new job as head of the cold-case unit in … Malmo. (MHz Choice, Dec. 10)
Other Returning Shows
Sept. 9: “My Brilliant Friend,” HBO; Sept. 13: “Dora,” Paramount+; Sept. 15: “Tulsa King,” Paramount+; “Ridley,” “Van der Valk,” PBS; Sept. 16: “Candice Renoir,” Acorn TV: Sept. 19: “Frasier,” Paramount+; Sept. 22: “From,” MGM+; Sept. 23: “9-1-1 Lone Star,” Fox; Sept. 25: “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med,” “Chicago P.D.,” NBC; Sept. 26: “9-1-1,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC; “Colin From Accounts,” Paramount+; Sept. 29: “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol,” AMC; “Bob’s Burgers,” “Krapopolis,” “The Simpsons,” Fox.
Oct. 2: “Sullivan’s Crossing,” CW; Oct. 3: “The Legend of Vox Machina,” Amazon; “Found,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: SVU,” NBC; “Heartstopper,” Netflix; Oct. 8: “Accused,” Fox; “The Irrational,” NBC; Oct. 9: “Abbott Elementary,” ABC; Oct. 13: “Tracker,” CBS; Oct. 14: “NCIS,” CBS; Oct. 15: “FBI,” “FBI: International,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” CBS; Oct. 16: “Shrinking,” Apple TV+; Oct. 17: “Elsbeth,” “Ghosts,” CBS; “Superman & Lois,” CW; Oct. 18: “Blue Bloods,” “Fire Country,” “S.W.A.T.,” CBS; “Lopez vs Lopez,” NBC; Oct. 20: “The Equalizer,” CBS; Oct. 21: “The Neighborhood,” CBS; Oct. 31: “The Diplomat,” Netflix.
Nov. 10: “Yellowstone,” Paramount; Nov. 13: “Children Ruin Everything,” CW; Nov. 14: “Sherwood,” BritBox; Nov. 15: “Silo,” Apple TV+; Nov. 19: “Night Court,” NBC; Dec. 26: “Squid Game,” Netflix.
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