25 TV Shows You'll Be Binge-Watching This Fall

fall tv shows 2016
Oren Aks/Thrillist
Oren Aks/Thrillist

Saying "so long" to summer isn't entirely sadness-inducing, not with all the unmissable entertainment options queued up over the next few months. Our series of fall previews will guide you to the very best movies, shows, albums, booksvideo games, and events arriving this season.

The quality-TV boom keeps booming: this fall's TV schedule is loaded with a dizzying number of new series that scream "watch me." Granted, some of these programs will crash and burn before you have the chance to do that, but the 25 we've singled out here should be around long enough for you to get hooked. Collect them all!

donald glover, fx, atlanta
Guy D'Alema/FX

Atlanta

September 6 (FX)
Donald Glover's ode to his hometown may be fictionalized, but it features plenty of signatures of the Childish Gambino you know and love. Glover stars as Earnest "Earn" Marks, an ambitious, semi-homeless deadbeat helping his cousin hustle his way to rap stardom and vexing his baby mama along the way. Glover takes the backseat to hilarious up-and-comers Brian Tyree Henry (Alfred "Paper Boi" Miles) and Keith Stanfield (Darius), working subtle social commentary into what might be the strongest new comedy this fall.
Watch the trailer

better things fx pamela adlon
Colleen Hayes/FX

Better Things

September 8 (FX)
Louis C.K. has teamed up with former co-star and frequent collaborator Pamela Adlon on a new single-parent sitcom. Adlon stars as Sam, a working actress trying to boost her career and raise three daughters at the same damn time. This show is everything Bad Moms tried and failed to be: frank, funny, and real about the single-parent struggle.
Watch the trailer

logan marshall green quarry cinemax
Cinemax

Quarry

September 9 (Cinemax)
Managing postwar PTSD is hard enough without falling into an extended murderous crime network. Yet that's just what happens when Vietnam vet Conway (Prometheus' Logan Marshall-Green) returns to his Mississippi hometown in 1972. Based on the '70s crime-novel series by Max Allan Collins, this brooding prestige drama is a hardboiled mystery fan's binge-watch bonanza.
Watch the trailer

ben sinclair high maintenance the guy hbo
HBO

High Maintenance

September 16 (HBO)
The husband-and-wife duo Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld self-produced this web series for Vimeo before it was scooped up by the big boys. As always, Sinclair's seen-it-all weed deliveryman pedals his product around New York City and his awkward encounters with his highly entitled client base provide the munchies your eyeballs have been craving.
Watch the trailer

cbs the case of jonbenét ramsey
CBS

The Case Of: JonBenét Ramsey

September 18 (CBS)
TV's gone true-crime crazy, best evidenced by not one, not two, not three but four new specials about the unsolved JonBenét Ramsey murder. (Lifetime will also debut a movie entitled Who Killed JonBenét? later this fall.) In CBS's four-hour, two-part docuseries, the 20-year-old cold case's original investigators re-team to attempt to sleuth the mystery of what really happened to the slain child beauty queen. At minimum, we hope to learn, once and for all, if Katy Perry is JonBenét Ramsey, all grown up.
Watch the trailer

kristen bell ted danson the good place nbc
Justin Lubin/NBC

The Good Place

September 19 (NBC)
In this comedy from a Parks and Recreation co-creator, your two favorite people, Kristen Bell and Ted Danson, team up, respectively, as a deceased woman who wasn't supposed to die and the spirit guide who helps her navigate the afterlife while they attempt to figure out what went wrong. Let's just hope the "Bad Place" isn't Veronica Mars Season 3.
Watch the trailer

designated survivor abc kiefer sutherland
ABC

Designated Survivor

September 21 (ABC)
So the president and his whole cabinet got killed in a horrific attack, leaving that random guy holding down the crisis bunker to ascend to power. Hey, that guy is Kiefer Sutherland! Unfortunately, this is not the 24 reboot debuting in 2017, so that guy does not possess the particular set of skills required to quash the ensuing terror plot single-handedly. But since the show is in the hands of writer David Guggenheim (Safe House) and exec producer Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Apocalypse and X-Men: Days of Future Past), we have faith that Kiefer will heroically rise to the grim challenge.
Watch the trailer

lethal weapon fox tv reboot damon wayans
Fox

Lethal Weapon

September 21 (Fox)
Yep, you're officially too old for this $%#! The idea of a classic buddy-cop movie franchise getting a kinetic TV makeover courtesy of director McG (We Are MarshallCharlie's Angels) could have resulted in this becoming every Gen-Xer's appointment hate-watch, but the chemistry between stars Damon Wayans (as Murtaugh) and Clayne Crawford (as Riggs) elevate this beyond mere small-screen reboot. Hey, sometimes you need a little bit of comfort food.
Watch the trailer

survivor generation x versus millennials cbs
CBS

Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X

September 21 (CBS)
Speaking of getting too old for this sh*t... How best to revive a franchise that turned 16 this year and is now in its 33th iteration? Pit ten contestants from the demographic formerly referred to primarily as Generation Y against nine folks who fall squarely into Gen X plus this one dude who's assigned to the older tribe even though, come on, he was born in 1982. This season will be deliberately ageist and, judging by cast members' incredibly cliché bios, they're going to have to outwit, outplay, and outlast some veeeery mismatched ideals.
Watch the trailer

the exorcist fox isaac linares ben daniels
Jean Whiteside/Fox

The Exorcist

September 23 (FOX)
You might say network TV has been... exorcised... of original ideas with this reboot of the classic 1973 fright-fest. FOX's update doubles down on the demonic possession, though, contrasting the experiences of a suburban Chicago priest and one in Mexico City, both of whom must face the timeless high-stakes struggle between good and evil. Geena Davis stars as the spooked-out mother who senses an evil presence in her home.
Watch the trailer

cheryl hines jason sudeikis son of zorn fox
Fox

Son of Zorn 

September 25 (FOX)
Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego MovieThe Last Man on Earth) turn their collaborative efforts toward the tricky live-action-animated hybrid. Their pal Jason Sudeikis voices Zorn, an otherworldly He-Man-like cartoon character who returns to Earth to reconnect with his ex-wife (Cheryl Hines) and their teenage son. With Zorn navigating our world from an outsider's perspective, look out for oddball observational comedy and silly sight-gags.
Watch the trailer

marvel's luke cage netflix mike colter jaiden kane
Myles Aronowitz/Netflix

Marvel's Luke Cage

September 30th (Netflix)
See that photo up there? That's Luke Cage (Mike Colter), and the guy whose neck his hands are wrapped around is some chump thick-skulled enough to skip this show. Just kidding, but we're amped up for the super-strong Defender's stand-alone series after seeing the havoc he wrought in last year's Jessica Jones. 
Watch the trailer

ed harris westworld hbo
HBO

Westworld 

October 2nd (HBO)
The big-budget remake of Michael Crichton's 1973 pleasure-robot movie has walked one hell of a long road to your TV. After production shutdowns, controversially explicit directions for extras, and plenty of public frustration courtesy of writer-director Jonathan Nolan (InterstellarPerson of Interest), we're amazed it all came together. HBO is positioning it as your Game of Thrones replacement -- no pressure, guys.
Watch the trailer

hayley atwell conviction abc
ABC

Conviction

October 3rd (ABC)
When Hayes Morrison (Hayley Atwell), a hard-partying lawyer and ex-First Daughter, gets busted one-too-many times, she's assigned to a legal task force as "punishment." Her team reexamines wrongful convictions -- and what do you know, they really get under her skin. Will she change her ways and help out her family's political causes, or will she continue to get into trouble?
Watch the trailer

timeless nbc
Joe Lederer/NBC

Timeless

October 3rd (NBC)
After a big bad (Goran Visnjic) steals a time machine, three friends (Abigail Spencer, Malcolm Barrett, and Matt Lanter) band together to travel through the past to hunt him down, changing the course of history in the process. Confirmed stops on their high-stakes tour include the Hindenburg airship explosion, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Watergate, and the battle of the Alamo. It looks, in a word, epic.
Watch the trailer

divorce hbo sarah jessica parker
HBO

Divorce

October 9th (HBO)
The prodigal Sarah Jessica Parker returns to the home of Sex and the City, this time for a blunt look at marital separation, with Thomas Haden Church co-starring as her ex. Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe) wrote the series, so we have very high hopes.
Watch the trailer

issa rae insecure hbo
HBO

Insecure

October 9th (HBO) 
YouTube star Issa Rae has spun her wildly popular Awkward Black Girl into a premium-cable comedy co-produced by Larry Wilmore that's positioning itself as "the black Girls." Rae co-stars with Yvonne Orji as two best friends navigating their relationships with the world and each other while illuminating the complications of black culture.
Watch the trailer

falling water usa network will yun lee
Michael Parmalee/USA

Falling Water 

October 13th (USA)
If you love the mind-bending twists of Mr. Robot, this new series will be right up your creek (sorry). Three strangers figure out they're each dreaming components of the same mystery, and piecing together this disjointed dream can help track down a missing child and potentially affect the fate of the entire world. Producers Gale Anne Hurd and Lizzie Brocheré come from The Walking Dead and American Horror Story, respectively, so expect high stakes.
Watch the trailer

the great indoors cbs joel mchale
CBS

The Great Indoors

October 27th (CBS)
Remember the pitch for Survivor: Gen X vs. Millennials above? This is like that, but a scripted workplace comedy. Joel McHale stars as a seasoned journalist-explorer who has to slum it at... the horror!... a website. Expect lots of jokes about selfies and Tinder, and look out for Superbad's McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) in a supporting role.
Watch the trailer

stan against evil john mcginley ifc
IFC

Stan Against Evil

November 2nd (IFC)
The Simpsons' Dana Gould put together a post-Halloween delight for all you farce-horror nerds out there. His Shaun of the Dead-style limited series stars John C. McGinley (Scrubs) and Janet Varney (You're the Worst) as small-town sheriffs unraveling the creepy ghost story of 17th-century witches.
Watch the trailer

claire foy matt smith netflix the crown
Robert Viglasky/Netflix

The Crown

November 4th (Netflix)
England's sitting Queen Elizabeth II gets the glitzy bio-series treatment in one of Netflix's most expensive projects ever (and after Baz Luhrmann's The Get Down, that's really saying something). Claire Foy plays the monarch, with the action opening on her wedding to Prince Philip (Matt Smith) and exploring her burgeoning political relationship to Winston Churchill (John Lithgow).
Watch the trailer

michelle dockery good behavior tnt
TNT

Good Behavior

November 15th (TNT)
Lady Mary, is that really you? Michelle Dockery stars as an ex-con con artist in this dark, thrilling drama. When she overhears a hitman conspiring his next kill, she decides to step in and attempt to foil the plot -- and ends up romantically entangled with the aspiring murderer.
Watch the trailer

undercover bbc
BBC

Undercover 

November 17th (BBC)
Peter Moffat, who created Criminal Justice, the British show The Night Of was based on, whipped up this six-parter about a death-row inmate wrongly convicted of a crime, and the defense lawyer who tries to solve the case under deep cover. Viewers were outraged at the series' messy conclusion when the finale aired in Britain, so we have a feeling there'll be just as much chatter when it comes stateside.
Watch the trailer

search party tbs alia shawkat
TBS

Search Party

November 21st (TBS)
Michael Showalter's mystery-comedy hybrid has a cast positively stacked with familiar faces: Rosie Perez, Ron Livingston, Alia Shawkat, Parker Posey, Brandon Michael Hall, and Christine Taylor, to name a few. A clique of college friends has to figure out what happened to their missing friend (Shawkat). Look out for NYC stereotypes, post-collegiate angst, and dry laughs.
Watch the trailer

shut eye hulu jeffrey donovan
Hulu

Shut Eye

December 7th (Hulu)
At last, the series about LA storefront psychics you never knew you needed! Jeffrey Donovan stars as a failed magician and current "psychic" conning innocent customers who starts having mysterious visions. Featuring Isabella Rossellini as his boss.
Watch the trailer

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Lauren Leibowitz is an editor and couch potato at Thrillist Entertainment. Find her on Twitter @lleibowitzz.