What to watch this fall: Here are 12 TV shows we’re looking forward to

The Emmys have come and gone and fall TV season is already underway. From returning shows like Stranger Things to mysterious new series like Apple TV+’s Pluribus, we’re taking stock of the shows airing as the weather cools down.

The Paper, Sept. 4 (out now), Peacock
A loose follow-up to the U.S. version of The Office, The Paper tracks a new industry full of frustrations and petty grievances: journalism. Domhnall Gleeson plays Ned, the brand-new editor-in-chief of the Toledo Truth-Teller, a once-great newspaper that has withered in a changing media environment. Other than Oscar Nuňez, who returns as accountant Oscar Martinez, this is a whole new cast, although the shooting style and the mood will remind you very much of the happenings at Dunder Mifflin. — Linda Holmes

Task, started Sept. 7, HBO Max
Yeah, it sounds predictable on paper: Mark Ruffalo as an aging, mediocre FBI agent leading a task force chasing a goofy guy played by Tom Pelphrey running a backwoods stickup crew outside Philadelphia. But the story is elevated by both men’s struggle to handle devastating tragedies that damaged them and those they love. Add in spot-on accents that put Mare of Eastown to shame — Eastown creator Brad Ingelsby made this one, too — and you’ve got a subversively compelling series. — Eric Deggans

The Girlfriend, Sept. 10 (out now), Prime Video
Based on author Michelle Frances’ psychological thriller, Robin Wright plays an uber-wealthy woman whose son brings home a new girlfriend, played by Olivia Cooke. Mom suspects the girlfriend’s motivations are less than genuine, and maybe they’re not … or maybe mom’s just being paranoid? Whatever’s really going on here, it looks like no one is going to end up unscathed. Juicy! — Aisha Harris

The Morning Show, Season 4, Sept. 17, Apple TV+
After previous seasons enduring her co-anchor’s #MeToo scandal and death, surviving COVID on-camera and outwitting a scheming billionaire boyfriend, Jennifer Aniston’s character Alex Levy is starting to look like TV’s version of Job. In truth, this show often plays like a glitzy soap opera. And there’s lots more coming for Levy, now a top executive at her network, from trouble with the FBI to fights with a Joe Rogan-style podcaster played by Boyd Holbrook. — Eric Deggans

The Lowdown, Sept. 23, FX, Hulu
Sterlin Harjo (Reservoir Dogs) created this series starring Ethan Hawke as a Tulsa “citizen journalist” who works out of a bookstore and gets tangled up in a mystery about a powerful family. The cast includes Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kyle MacLachlan, Keith David and Tim Blake Nelson. Harjo has an offbeat sensibility that seems like it would be well-suited to Hawke’s, and it’s exciting to think the surging interest in Westerns will extend to a project like this. — Linda Holmes

Slow Horses, Season 5, Sept. 24, Apple TV+

You’d think a 5th season of a show centered on under-achieving British intelligence agents led by a flatulent, annoyingly canny boss would get tiresome eventually. But Gary Oldman’s over-it-all leader Jackson Lamb keeps viewers — and his fumbling staff — off-balance as his team stumbles into a new plot by terrorists to turn the country’s intelligence tactics against itself. Showrunner Will Smith keeps us guessing as MI5’s worst intelligence agents tackle Britain’s most serious threat yet. — Eric Deggans

The Last Frontier, Oct. 10, Apple TV+
It sounds like the plot of Con Air 2: A plane filled with inmates crashes in Alaska, forcing local law enforcement and the CIA to join forces to find them. But what makes this story soar — pun intended — is Australian actor Jason Clarke deploying his trademark take on a hard charging American, this time playing U.S. Marshal Frank Remnick. He’s chasing a super dangerous, CIA-trained fugitive played by British actor Dominic Cooper, who the agency might not be all that anxious to capture. — Eric Deggans

Talamasca: The Secret Order, Oct. 26, AMC
Ok, this one’s a total crap shoot. Talamasca focuses on the secret society that researches and monitors the supernatural elements of Anne Rice’s fictional world. It’s been featured on both Interview with the Vampire, one of the best series on television, and The Mayfair Witches, one of the worst. Will the team behind Talamasca be content to flatly adapt Rice’s work (Witches) or will they reimagine it, finding exciting new resonances and deepening characters (Vampire)? I’m curious to find out. — Glen Weldon

Pluribus, Nov. 7, Apple TV+
It’s enough that this is Vince Gilligan’s first new show since the end of Better Call Saul, and it’s enough that it stars Rhea Seehorn, whose work as Kim was one of Saul’s most potent weapons. And that’s good, because they are not saying much about what this show is about. The tagline: “The most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness.” The art: a Q-tip carving a happy face into the contents of a petri dish. A few equally mysterious teasers. Still can’t wait. — Linda Holmes

The Mighty Nein, Nov. 19, Prime Video
The second animated series from the folks at Critical Role — one of several web series wherein you watch people play Dungeons & Dragons around a table — is a follow-up to The Legend of Vox Machina. Like that series, The Mighty Nein collapses hundreds of hours of gameplay into a more digestible and propulsive streaming series that brings the story to vivid life — one that’s set in the same world, and that features the same cast, though they’re playing a different set of characters. — Glen Weldon

The American Revolution, Nov. 16, PBS
Documentarian Ken Burns has already sounded alarms about the fate of documentary film, now that the federal government has defunded public media. So fans should show up for his six-part, 12-hour documentary series examining how America’s fight to free itself from British rule turned the world upside down. He’s said that his own projects will likely survive cuts to public media, but as a critic, I still worry Burns may have to scale down his future visions. This series stands as a stark reminder of how much America gains from the work of artists like him — and the projects from other filmmakers that could go unmade in the years ahead. — Eric Deggans

Stranger Things, Season 5, Nov. 26, Netflix
The beginning of the end for Netflix’s 1980s-set horror drama starts with a batch of episodes in November, another clutch on Christmas Day and a New Year’s Eve finale. It’s a fittingly drawn-out send off for a series that redefined TV, made stars of its cast and broke viewership records for Netflix. Press materials say the kids of Hawkins, Ind., will face off against bad guy Vecna once again; but with Terminator co-star Linda Hamilton onboard, anything’s possible. — Eric Deggans