The Paste Fall TV Preview: 25 New and Returning Shows You Can’t Miss

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: Summer’s almost over, pumpkin spice is back, and Fall TV is upon us. Yes, that’s right, time to barricade yourself inside with some snacks, a cozy blanket, and hours upon hours of your favorite (or about to be favorite) shows. 

Granted, streaming has taken a lot of the fun out of the concept of “Fall TV”, with more shows launching than anyone could ever hope to watch and a shift to year-round premieres that make this particular season less of a communal event than it used to be. But, viewers really are spoiled for choice at the moment, with a raft of returning favorites like Stranger Things and Only Murders in the Building, new projects from popular creators like Vince Gilligan and Sally Wainwright, and shows featuring big-name Hollywood talent taking on the small screen (Down Cemetery Road, Chad Powers). 

Here are 25 of the new and returning TV shows you should make sure to catch this Fall. 

The Paper

Network: Peacock

Premiere: September 4

Status: New Series

Created by The Office’s Greg Daniels and Michael Corman, The Paper is technically a spin-off of their megapopular original. But only in the very loosest of terms: It follows the story of the same documentary crew that filmed the lives of our Dunder Mifflin faves as they take on a new project. This time around, they’re focusing on the folks behind the Toledo Truth Teller, a Midwestern newspaper with a declining readership and a floundering future.

Domhnall Gleeson and Sabrina Impacciatore lead the series’ ensemble, which also includes original Office cast member Oscar Nuñez, whose character is now working as an accountant at paper company Enervate. 

Only Murders in the Building 

Network: Hulu

Premiere: September 9

Status: Returning 

Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) are back on the case to investigate the death of the Arconia’s doorman. Convinced his death wasn’t an accident, the intrepid podcasting trio starts digging and soon discovers a web of secrets inside their beloved building connecting powerful billionaires and old-school mobsters. 

The Season 5 guest cast is predictably stacked, featuring Meryl Streep, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Richard Kind, Nathan Lane, Bobby Cannavale, Renée Zellweger, Logan Lerman, Christoph Waltz, Téa Leoni, Keegan-Michael Key, Beanie Feldstein, Dianne Wiest, Jermaine Fowler, and more

The Girlfriend

Network: Prime Video

Premiere: September 10

Status: Limited Series

Robin Wright directs and stars in this psychological thriller that promises to make for addictive (and fairly twisted) viewing. An adaptation of Michelle Francis’s novel of the same name, the story follows Laura (Wright), whose picture-perfect life begins unraveling when her son Danny (Laurie Davidson) brings home a new girlfriend (Olivia Cooke), who may or may not have a hidden agenda when it comes to their relationship 

The series plays with perspective and unreliable narrators as we see events from the point of view of each woman, which twists motivations and actions in ways that force the audience to decide who they choose to believe. Is Cherry a manipulative liar looking to rip her boyfriend away from his family, or is Laura an overbearing mother who wants too much control over her son’s life? Tune in to find out.

The Morning Show

Network: Apple TV+

Premiere: September 17

Status: Returning

Like Marie Kondo, I love mess. Which means I love The Morning Show, television’s consistently most ridiculous and relentlessly addictive program that’s occasionally about journalism but also somehow about everything but journalism.

When last we left the bonkers world of UBA, the network was about to merge with rival NBN, Bradley was being forced to turn herself in to the FBI after covering up information about January 6, and Alex had outsmarted her billionaire boyfriend, Paul Marks (Jon Hamm), just in time to save the network from being sold for parts. Where on Earth does Season 4 go after this? Two years into the future, apparently, where the UBA-NBN newsroom must tackle everything from reporting in an increasingly polarized America to the rise of deepfakes, A.I., and conspiracy theories. Buckle up, is all I’m saying. 

Gen V

Network: Prime Video

Premiere: September 17

Status: Returning 

Prime Video’s college-set The Boys spin-off, Gen V, returns for its sophomore season with a lot riding on its shoulders, as the series introduces a new dean (Midnight Mass star Hamish Linklater), a new conspiracy, and a deeper connection to the original show that started it all. Last season concluded with the first year being framed for a campus attack, actual culprits Cate (Maddie Phillips) and Sam (Asa Germann) lauded as heroes, and the shocking revelation that the blood-bending Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) may actually be somehow stronger than Homelander (Anthony Starr).

In Season 2, they’re reluctantly back on campus, and the Season 2  trailers show Marie teaming up with Starlight (Erin Moriarty) to undertake an undercover mission to stop a mysterious initiative known as Project Odessa. Where this all goes from here is anyone’s guess, but it seems safe to say we’re in for a wild ride.

The Lowdown

Network: FX

Premiere: September 23

Status: New Series 

The new series from Reservation Dogs creator Sterlin Harjo stars Ethan Hawke as Tulsa citizen journalist Lee Raybon, a self-proclaimed “truthstorian” whose obsession with finding the truth and exposing corruption regularly gets him into all sorts of trouble. But when the amateur sleuth’s investigation into the powerful Washberg family appears to lead to the death of that family’s black sheep (Tim Blake Nelson), Lee knows he’s stumbled onto something bigger than he ever expected. 

Described as a “Tulsa noir”, the series’ stacked cast also includes Kaniehtiio Horn, Tim Blake Nelson, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kyle MacLachlan, and Keith David.

Slow Horses

Network: Apple TV+

Premiere: September 24

Status: Returning 

Apple TV+’s award-winning espionage drama returns for Season 5, which adapts London Rules, the fifth book in Mick Herron’s Slough House series of novels about a unit that serves as the dumping ground for MI-5’s least successful employees. (Every series that barely manages to put out eight episodes every three years needs to take a lesson from this drama, which is not only dropping its fifth season in the same timeframe, but has simply kept getting better and better with every release.)

Led by the irascible Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), the team finds itself investigating a series of increasingly bizarre events taking place around London. Everyone is immediately suspicious of cocky tech expert Roddy Ho’s (Christopher Chung) glamorous new girlfriend (Hiba Bennani), but whether the two are connected remains to be seen. The cast also includes Kristin Scott Thomas, Jack Lowden, Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Eleazar, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Ruth Bradley, James Callis, Tom Brooke, and Jonathan Pryce.

House of Guinness

Network: Netflix

Premiere: September 25

Status: New Series

The latest series from the incredibly prolific Steven Knight, House of Guiness, may not technically have anything in common with his previous Netflix hit, Peaky Blinders, but wow, the vibes are similar. And by similar, I mean immaculate. 

The historical series is set in mid-19th-century Dublin and follows the story of the four heirs of the infamous Guinness clan in the wake of their powerful father’s death. As Arthur (Anthony Boyle), Edward (Louis Partridge), Anne (Emily Fairn), and Benjamin (Fionn O’Shea) battle to sort out the future of the family brewery and fortune, they must navigate public scandal and potential rebellion along the way. The larger cast includes James Norton, Niamh McCormack, Seamus O’Hara, Michael McElhatton, Danielle Galligan, Ann Skelly, Jack Gleeson, and more.

The Savant

Network: Apple TV+

Premiere: September 26

Status: New Series

Oscar winner Jessica Chastain stars in this buzzy prestige series based on a Cosmopolitan article from 2019. It follows the story of an undercover FBI investigator who infiltrates online hate groups in an attempt to identify the domestic extremists plotting dangerous attacks before they can strike. Her occasionally unnerving ability to tell the difference between serious threats and those who simply fetishize violence online has earned her the nickname “The Savant,” which is, of course, where the show gets its title. 

Its uncomfortably timely premise, thanks to the rise of hate groups, misogynists, incels, far right extremists, and garden-variety weirdos online in recent years, means this one feels like must-see viewing for our current moment.

Murder Before Evensong

Network: Acorn TV

Premiere: September 29

Status: New Series

PBS fans may be mourning the impending end of Grantchester, the long-running mystery series about a string of surprisingly attractive vicars who help solve crimes in a quaint English village. Not to worry, Acorn TV is here with the latest entry into its string of cozy mysteries, which, surprise, also happens to feature an attractive vicar solving crimes in a fictional small town. 

Based on the bestselling series of novels by British celebrity vicar Reverand Richard Coles (yes, that’s a thing), the 1980s-set story follows the young vicar of an ancient parish who finds himself embroiled in a murder investigation when a body is discovered at his church. Former Harry Potter star Matthew Lewis leads the cast as the crime-solving vicar, joined by Amanda Redman, Amit Shah, Adam James, and more.

Chad Powers

Network: Hulu

Premiere: September 30

Status: New Series

Glenn Powell, one of the entertainment industry’s current It Guys of the moment, stars in this half-hour series based on a prank sketch comedy character created by Eli Manning that is clearly gunning to follow in Ted Lasso’s footsteps.

Powell stars as a disgraced college football quarterback who gets a second chance at stardom when he adopts a disguise as the affable Chad Powers to earn a walk-on role on a struggling Southern football team. Steve Zahn co-stars as the team’s coach, and the ensemble includes Perry Mattfeld, Quentin Plair, Wynn Everett, and Frankie A. Rodriguez. 

The Diplomat

Network: Netflix

Premiere: October 16

Status: Returning

Television’s most delightfully bonkers political thriller returns with a season that promises higher stakes than ever as Kate (Keri Russell) and Hal (Rufus Sewell) Wyler find themselves entangled in an even more complicated web of secrets following the sudden death of President Rayburn (that Hal may or may not be at least partially responsible for). Allison Janney plays the newly elevated POTUS, while her former The West Wing co-star Bradley Whitford stars as her First Gentleman, but, of course, the question we all really want to know the answer to is whether the Wylers are going to manage to stay together or not. (Personally, I’m rooting for these crazy kids.) 

Matlock

Network: CBS

Premiere: October 17

Status: Returning

It’s been a rough few years for traditional broadcast television, so there’s something particularly satisfying in the success of CBS’s Matlock, a series inspired by the original 1980s Andy Griffith-led procedural of the same name.

Oscar winner Kathy Bates, finding a career renaissance on the cusp of retirement, plays Madeline “Matty” Matlock, a brilliant septuagenarian who achieved success in her younger years and decides to rejoin the workforce at a prestigious law firm while investigating a personal secret of her own. Bates snagged an Emmy nomination for her performance in the series’s first season. Matlock Season 2 will pick up where its first left off, now that Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) knows the truth about both Matty’s identity and her ex-husband Julian’s (Jason Ritter) betrayal. 

Riot Women 

Network: BritBox

Premiere: October 22

Status: New Series

Sometimes the simple fact of a series’ premise is enough reason to tune in. Such is the case with Riot Women, the latest offering from Happy Valley creator Sally Wainwright, which follows the story of a group of menopausal older women who form a punk rock band in West Yorkshire. Need we say more? 

The cast includes Lorraine Ashbourne, Joanna Scanlan, Amelia Bullmore, Tamsin Greig and Rosalie Craig as our central quartet of rockers, and the group allows them all to work through an assortment of later-in-life issues, ranging from cheating husbands and ungrateful children to declining parents, budding rage, and feelings of invisibility and inadequacy. Genuinely, it looks delightful. 

Nobody Wants This

Network: Netflix

Premiere: October 23

Status: Returning 

Netflix’s surprise hit romantic comedy returns for a second season as we follow the next steps in the relationship between agnostic podcaster Joanna (Kristen Bell) and Jewish rabbi Noah (Adam Brody). While the show’s first outing captured the romantic whirlwind of falling for someone new, its second installment will move past the honeymoon phase into more complicated territory. 

Bell and Brody have terrific chemistry, and the show itself is surprisingly thoughtful and even-handed about its approach to issues of faith and compatibility. Justine Lupe and Timothy Simons are back as Joanne and Noah’s siblings, and Brody’s real-life wife (and Gossip Girl alum) Leighton Meester joins the cast as Joanne’s teenage nemesis turned Instagram mommy influencer.

Anne Rice’s Talamasca: The Secret Order

Network: AMC/AMC+

Premiere: October 26 

Status: New Series

AMC’s Immortal Universe has given one of the best TV adaptations in recent memory with Interview with the Vampire, and one of the most disappointing in its sister series, Mayfair Witches. So, what to expect from the third installment in the franchise, Anne Rice’s Talamasca: The Secret Order? It’s hard to say. 

For one, this is the first series in the Immortal Universe that’s not based on an Anne Rice novel or series, but rather more of a concept. It focuses on the titular secret organization that tracks supernatural creatures around the world, and which has already played a key role in the stories of both Louis de Pointe du Lac and Rowan Mayfair on AMC’s other series. Here, we’ll follow an aspiring lawyer (Nicholas Dneton) who finds himself as the Talamasca’s newest recruit. Eric Bogosian is confirmed to be making a crossover appearance as Interview’s Daniel Molloy, and the rest of the cast includes familiar faces like Elizabeth McGovern, William Fichtner, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, and Celine Buckens.

Down Cemetery Road

Network: Apple TV+

Premiere: October 29

Status: New Series

In the wake of the success of Slow Horses (a show whose upcoming fifth season is also on this list), Apple TV+ is betting big on the work of author Mick Herron, but this time with a female-centric twist.

Set in the aftermath of a home explosion in an Oxford suburb, the story follows Sarah Tucker (Ruth Wilson), a concerned neighbor who becomes obsessed with the incident—and the disappearance of a local girl that follows. Enlisting the help of private investigator Zoë Boehm (Emma Thompson), the two dig deeper into the case—and find themselves at the center of a vast and complex conspiracy. Slow Horses scribe Morwenna Banks penned the eight-part series, which also stars Adeel Akhtar, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Tom Goodman-Hill, and Steven Cree. 

Robin Hood

Network: MGM+

Premiere: November 2

Status: New Series

Pretty much everyone knows the story of Robin Hood, but for whatever reason, good adaptations of the familiar legend are few and far between. (The last television version of this story was the 2006 BBC adventure series that starred Richard Armitage.) MGM+ is ready to take another crack at the story of the famous outlaw and his band of merry men with the unoriginally titled Robin Hood. 

This version of the story promises to center more of its focus on Robin and Maria’s romance, reimagining the pair as the son of a Saxon forester and the daughter of a Norman lord post-1066, as they fall in love and work together to fight for justice and freedom. Newcomer Jack Patten is set to play Robin Hood, bolstered by a cast that includes Sean Bean as the Sheriff of Nottingham and Connie Nielsen as Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Death By Lightning

Network: Netflix

Premiere: November 6

Status: Limited Series

For all that U.S. audiences like to watch period dramas (see also: The Gilded Age’s runaway success this season), there are very few series either set in or about specifically American stories. Limited series Death By Lightning aims to start changing that, recounting the bizarre but true story of the assassination of President James Garfield, who was killed just seven months into his term by one of his former supporters.

Michael Shannon plays Garfield opposite Matthew Macfadyen as the very strange and self-obsessed Charles J. Guiteau, and the cast is full of recognizable faces, including Betty Gilpin, Nick Offerman, Bradley Whitford, Tuppence Middleton, Željko Ivanek, Ben Miles, and more. 

All Her Fault 

Network: Peacock

Premiere: November 6

Status: New Series

Fresh off her Emmy win for Succession and her Tony win for The Picture of Dorian Grey, Sarah Snook returns to bless our TV screens with this drama from Megan Gallagher. Adapted from the Andrea Mara novel of the same name, All Her Fault follows the story of Melissa, a Chicago mom who arrives to pick up her son, Milo, from a playdate, only to find a stranger who insists she’s never heard of the child.  (If this sounds a bit like Freeform’s underrated British series The Stolen Girl, all to the better, if you ask me.) 

Snook on her own is reason enough to tune in, but the cast boasts some notable faces, including Dakota Fanning, Michael Peña, Jake Lacy, Sophia Lillis, Abby Ellott, and Daniel Monks.

Pluribus

Network: Apple TV+

Premiere: November 7

Status: New Series

We don’t actually know all that much about Pluribus, the latest series from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan that reteams him with Better Call Saul star Rhea Seehorn. (Though I expect that sentence alone is enough to get most of us to tune in.) 

The nine-part science fiction drama is described as a “genre-bending original in which the most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness.” Presumably, that miserable person is Seehorn’s character Carol, but what the rest of it means is still anyone’s guess.

The Beast in Me

Network: Netflix

Premiere: November 13

Status: Limited Series

This star-powered limited series reteams Claire Danes with former Homeland co-creator Howard Gordon for a tense-sounding thriller with an intriguing premise. Danes plays the terribly named Aggie Wiggs, an acclaimed author who has gone into hiding after the death of her son, struggling with writer’s block and depression. But when a mysterious real estate mogul (Matthew Rhys) moves in next door, her professional interest is piqued by the still-swirling accusations of foul play against him surrounding his wife’s disappearance from years before. Has she found the subject of her next book? 

If this sounds a bit like a fictional twist on Robert Durst and The Jinx, that’s probably on purpose, but with a pair of leads like this, how can we not watch?

The Mighty Nein

Network: Prime Video

Premiere: November 22

Status: New Series

In the wake of its success with The Legend of Vox Machina, the animated adaptation of Critical Role’s first live-streamed Dungeons & Dragons campaign, Prime Video is looking to do it all over again with The Mighty Nein, which brings the group’s second campaign to life. The story follows an all-new cast of characters with their own traumas and backstories to unpack, who must band together to track down a mysterious relic that’s gone missing in the world of Exandria.

The voice cast includes Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Matthew Mercer, Sam Reigel, Travis Willingham, Taliesin Jaffee, and Ashley Johnson, with some assists from guest stars ranging from Alan Cumming and Tim McGraw to Ming-Na Wen, Anika Noni Rose, and Jonathan Frakes.

Stranger Things 

Network: Netflix

Premiere: Volume 1 (Episodes 1-4) on November 26, 2025; Volume 2 (Episodes 5-7) on December 25, 2025; and The Finale (Episode 8) on December 31, 2025. 

Status: Final Season

After what feels like an eternity, the final season of Stranger Things is at last upon us. Well, almost. Netflix is taking the opportunity to extend these last episodes as long as possible by grouping them in three separate releases across Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. Which feels like one part celebration and one part punishment, if you ask me, but it’s not like we’re not all going to ditch our family gatherings for the Upside Down as soon as humanly possible..

At any rate, even though the show’s adorable young stars are now all practically college students (or new parents), Season 5 will pick up a year later than its predecessor in 1987, with the fate of Hawkins hanging in the balance. With the town in lockdown and swarming with agents searching for Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), our heroes must do whatever it takes to find and kill Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) for good. 

Fallout

Network: Prime Video

Premiere: December 17

Status: Returning

Widely proclaimed as one of the best video game adaptations ever made, the first season of Fallout racked up 16 Emmy nominations and widespread critical acclaim. The second will arrive with sky-high expectations following its dramatic Season 1 finale, which saw Lucy (Ella Purnell) fully join forces with the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) and Maximus (Aaron Moten) knighted as a member of the Brotherhood of Steel. Season 2  will take viewers through the wasteland of the Mojave to the post-apocalyptic city of New Vegas and, if the trailer is anything to go by, dig into the Ghouls’ tragic backstory. 

New guest stars include Justin Theoux as Mr. House and McCauley Culkin in an undisclosed role.

Lacy Baugher Milas writes about Books and TV at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter and Bluesky at @LacyMB