fall preview 2023

37 TV Shows We Can’t Wait to See This Fall

Plenty to keep you entertained until the AMPTP decides to pay its employees a living wage.

Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Apple TV+, FX, Hulu, Netflix, Peacock
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Apple TV+, FX, Hulu, Netflix, Peacock

Yes, the Hollywood strikes have delayed production on many of our fall favorites, but the final stretch of 2023 in TV is looking just as captivating as the months preceding it. At first glance, much will be recognizable: You’ve got the requisite franchise spinoffs (Ahsoka, The Boys Gen V, Loki season two), reboots (Frasier, Donald Glover’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith), and long-awaited adaptations (The Changeling, The Other Black Girl, Lessons in Chemistry, All the Light We Cannot See), as well as returning seasons of frothy delights (The Gilded Age, Julia) and animated entries both established (Invincible), original (Krapopolis), and, improbably, both (Scott Pilgrim Takes Off). But innovative, decidedly not IP productions still managed to make their way onto the slate, including Colin Farrell as a detective (!), a new collaboration from Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij (!!), and a mysterious scripted collaboration between Benny Safdie and Nathan Fielder (!!!). If none of that feels right, there’s always the stalwart reality offerings (The Golden Bachelor, new seasons of RHOSLC and Love Is Blind) to fill the hours. In other words, there’s plenty to keep you entertained until the AMPTP decides to pay its employees a living wage.

August

Star Wars: Ahsoka (Disney+, August 23)

If you thought it was annoying to have to watch the first season of The Book of Boba Fett to catch up to The Mandalorian’s third season, Ahsoka will test your interconnected-universe limits. The title character was created for the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and played by Rosario Dawson in The Mandalorian; the actress reprises her role for this series, which narratively continues the plot of Star Wars Rebels. Lightsabers, spaceships, pew-pew sound effects, Mary Elizabeth Winstead being a badass: Ahsoka has it all. But good luck to casual Star Wars fans who thought the TV side of this universe could make for some self-contained stories — your time is numbered. —Roxana Hadadi

One Piece (Netflix, August 31)

There’s a strong chance Netflix’s latest anime-to-live-action adaptation will be another letdown like Cowboy Bebop. Eiichiro Oda’s equally treasured manga One Piece, which began in 1997 and has 1,090 (and counting) chapters, is a swashbuckling tale of adventure, friendships, and pirates with awesome and/or wacky powers. This eight-episode first season will only scratch the surface of that source material, and the biggest question might be whether protagonist Monkey D. Luffy’s cartoony, super-stretchy powers become straight-up body horror in live action. But the international young cast all seem game, Oda’s given it his seal of approval, and, worst case, most of the original anime’s streaming on Netflix, too. —James Grebey

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Also premiering in late August

The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On season 2 (Netflix, August 23)
Invasion season 2 (Apple TV+, August 23)
Archer season 14 (FXX, August 30)

September

The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City season 4 (Bravo, September 5)

A new era begins in Utah. Jen Shah is behind bars for running a nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme (not that one), so the rest of the women have to plow ahead with another winter of high drama and petty differences all on their own. They’ll be joined by two fresh faces filling in the Shah-size hole: Angie Katsanevas, who was soft-launched last season, and newcomer Monica Garcia, an excommunicated Mormon and baby-products mogul who’s divorcing her husband for the second time. Oh, and Mary Cosby is back, too, but only as a “friend.” —Nicholas Quah

The Changeling (Apple TV+, September 8)

Girl meets boy, girl marries boy, girl … disappears after giving birth to her first child? So goes The Changeling, Apple’s adaptation of the best-selling novel by Victor LaValle. With Melina Matsoukas directing the pilot and LaKeith Stanfield EPing and starring, this eight-episode series will surely be as beautiful as it is unsettling. —Julie Kosin

Welcome to Wrexham season 2 (FX, September 12)

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s feel-good nonfiction turducken, which stuffs premium sponcon into the hollowed-out corpse of the docuseries format, returns for a sophomore season. Having established themselves as club owners, the Hollywood duo oversees their humble Welsh club’s renewed efforts to win promotion into the sport’s lowest level of official league competition: the EFL League Two. Sure, you can learn how the season ends with a simple Google search, but what’s the fun in that? —N.Q.

The Morning Show season 3 (Apple TV+, September 13)

Among all the high-gloss, movie-star-filled prestige series that have come to define late-peak television, The Morning Show holds the title for simply being the most television. Last season saw Reese Witherspoon’s Bradley Jackson and Jennifer Aniston’s Alex Levy try to negotiate their way through the aftermath of the first season’s Me Too scandal as the show crept up to the outbreak of the pandemic; also, Steve Carell died in a car crash in Italy. Now, with a new showrunner (Charlotte Stoudt), the third season will pick up post-pandemic, seemingly as watchably messy as ever. A tech titan (Jon Hamm) is interested in acquiring their TV network, and by the looks of the trailer, also interested in Alex Levy. There’s the matter of Bradley Jackson’s secret queer relationship with Julianna Margulies to address. Plus, Billy Crudup’s network head looks as manic as ever. Good or bad or simply incoherent, with a show like this, there’s no reason to ever look away. —Jackson McHenry

The Other Black Girl (Hulu, September 13)

As was the case in the best-selling novel of the same name by Zakiya Dalila Harris, something immediately seems off about Wagner Books. When Nella (Sinclair Daniel), an editorial assistant and the publishing company’s only Black employee, learns a second Black woman (Ashleigh Murray) has been hired to work alongside her, things get even stranger. —Jen Chaney

Wrestlers (Netflix, September 13)

With Last Chance U and Cheer, director Greg Whiteley built a reputation as a man who likes to explore [Jamie Lee Curtis voice] trauma — mainly how it both drives and damages amateur athletes. It was only a matter of time before he found his way to the professional-wrestling ring: Ohio Valley Wrestling in Louisville, Kentucky, once served as the WWE’s developmental league and has seen the likes of John Cena and Dave Bautista grace its locker room, but has struggled to survive since that heyday. Much like Apple TV+’s Monster Factory, Wrestlers is a story about performers trying to make it to the big leagues as their gym owner struggles to keep things afloat. But while Factory’s villain was the existential threat of giving up, Wrestlers has Matt Jones, a radio personality who invested in the league with a group of local businessmen and has given gym owner Al Snow the summer to turn things around. —Anne Clark

The Continental: From the World of John Wick (Peacock, September 22)

Brushing right up against the “movie or TV show?” question, The Continental is a spinoff of the John Wick series that goes back to the 1970s to explore the history of its titular hotel for assassins. The show is airing as a “three-part event,” stars Colin Woodell as the younger version of Ian McShane’s Winston Scott, and, we’re sorry to say, also features Mel Gibson. —Jackson McHenry

Love Is Blind season 5 (Netflix, September 22)

The wildly popular and wildly messy unscripted dating franchise returns, once again hosted by a vestigial Nick and Vanessa Lachey. Will it be feel-good-enough like season four was? Will it be a car crash like season three? Crack open the pods to reveal their secrets! —K.V.A.

Krapopolis (Fox, September 24)

The newcomer joining the long-tenured shows in Fox’s Sunday-night Animation Domination lineup comes with an impressive TV-comedy pedigree: It was created by Dan Harmon of Community and Rick and Morty fame, and its main cast features Richard Ayoade and Matt Berry — The IT Crowd reunion! — alongside Emmy winner Hannah Waddingham. (It’s not billed as a musical, but with this group, assume that random singing could break out at any moment.) It’s also, uh, Fox’s first series to be created on the blockchain, whatever that means. We’re choosing to ignore that and focus on the fact that this animated comedy centered on a dysfunctional family of humans, gods, and monsters in Ancient Greece has cast Vulture favorite Berry as a “mantitaur” (half-centaur, half-manticore) who is “the self-described life of the orgy.” —Genevieve Koski

The Golden Bachelor (ABC, September 28)

Okay, but will Gertrude and Ethel be there for the right reasons? Gerry Turner, a 71-year-old widower from Indiana, is about to embark on one of the most fascinating reality-television pivots in recent memory. The Golden Bachelor, a Bachelor spinoff, will follow Gerry’s journey as he tries to find the second love of his life. The formula won’t change despite the contestants’ older age range, with Turner forced to reckon with rose ceremonies, group dates, and being stolen for a second on a weekly basis. This may not be the most dramatic season of the franchise, but it’ll likely be the most heartwarming. —Devon Ivie

Starstruck season 3 (Max, September 28)

TV’s best rom-com going left off with romantic leads Jessie (co-creator Rose Matafeo) and Tom (Nikesh Patel) reconciling with each other in a filthy river, both literally and metaphorically crossing the fraught gulf between them to acknowledge their shared love. Sadly, sweeping gestures and witty banter can only propel a relationship so far, and season three explores what happens when that inertia grinds to a halt. Matafeo has said she feels conflicted about her role in perpetuating the genre’s fairy-tale tropes, and by the looks of the new season’s trailer, she funneled all of those feelings into her characters’ latest predicaments. —Hershal Pandya

Gen V (Prime, September 29)

A spinoff of Prime’s blood-and-sex-fest superhero series The Boys, Gen V promises the same level of NSFW storytelling and a new college-age cast: Jaz Sinclair, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sean Patrick Thomas, Maddie Phillips, and Chance Perdomo. The Boys but with even fewer inhibitions sounds like a recipe for mayhem. —Kathryn VanArendonk

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Also premiering in September

Disenchantment part 5 (Netflix, September 1)
God. Family. Football. (Freevee, September 1)
Power Book IV: Force season 2 (Starz, September 1)
Wheel of Time season 2 (Prime Video, September 1)
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 (Paramount+, September 7)
Virgin River season 5 part 1 (Netflix, September 7)
Tiny Toons Looniversity (Max, September 8)
Dreaming Whilst Black (Showtime, September 8)
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (AMC, September 10)
Southern Charm (Bravo, September 14)
Wilderness (Prime Video, September 15)
The Gold (Paramount+, September 17)
Mrs. Sidhu Investigates (Acorn TV, September 18)
American Horror Story season 12: Delicate Part One (FX, September 20)
The Super Models (Apple TV+, September 20)
Sex Education season 4 (Netflix, September 21)
Young Love (Max, September 21)
Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court (Showtime, September 22)
Still Up (Apple TV+, September 22)
The Amazing Race season 35 (CBS, September 27)
Survivor season 45 (CBS, September 27)
Bachelor in Paradise (ABC, September 28)
The Kardashians season 4 (Hulu, September 28)
Love Is Blind: After the Altar season 4 (Netflix, TBD)

October

Loki season 2 (Disney+, October 6)

For a period in 2021 and 2022, MCU spinoff shows flooded the market and audiences seemed to grow weary of them. There’s been a cooling-off period (this summer’s Secret Invasion came and went), and now Marvel is back for another round of Loki. Jonathan Majors will be in it; too soon to say if his career has also had a sufficient cooling-off period. —K.V.A.

The Fall of the House of Usher (Netflix, October 12)

Mike Flanagan helped Netflix become a go-to streamer for horror series with The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and The Midnight Club — but the cancellation of the last coupled with Flanagan’s new deal with Prime Video makes The Fall of the House of Usher his final one for Netflix. Most members of his usual acting ensemble (Bruce Greenwood, Carla Gugino, Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Kohli, and Zach Gilford) return for this eight-episode Edgar Allan Poe adaptation, which puts a modern spin on the short story with a story line about a pharma company whose heirs start mysteriously dying. New to the crew is Mark Hamill, whose role is unclear but whose campiness will surely be off the charts. — R.H.

Frasier (Paramount+, October 12)

The revered Cheers spinoff gets its long-discussed revival with Kelsey Grammer returning as the titular intellectual therapist/radio host. Not returning: Frasier’s brother, Niles (David Hyde Pierce), Frasier’s dad Martin (John Mahoney, who passed away in 2018), or Daphne (Jane Leeves). A bunch of brand-new characters will join the cast, though, and presumably tossed salad and scrambled eggs will factor in somehow. —J.C.

Lessons in Chemistry (Apple TV+, October 13)

Given the popularity of the debut novel by Bonnie Garmus, this drama seems destined to be a talker: Brie Larson stars as a gifted chemist unable to advance in her career due to rampant 1950s-era sexism. So she gets her own cooking show and finds a way to teach the world about sciences both chemical and social. —J.C.

Fellow Travelers (Showtime, October 27)

Two very symmetrical men traverse the history of 20th-century gay liberation in this limited series, created by Philadelphia screenwriter Ron Nyswaner and based on Thomas Mallon’s novel. Matt Bomer (of many a Ryan Murphy project) and Jonathan Bailey (of Bridgerton and the upcoming Wicked) meet in McCarthy-era Washington, D.C., and their romance continues through the Vietnam War and into the AIDS era. —J.M.

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Also premiering in October

Bob’s Burgers season 14 (Fox, October 1)
Family Guy season 22 (Fox, October 1)
The Simpsons season 35 (Fox, October 1)
Chucky season 3 (USA, October 4)
Quantum Leap season 2 (NBC, October 4)
Lupin part 3 (Netflix, October 5)
FBoy Island season 3 (The CW, October 12)
House of Villains (E!, October 13)
Shining Vale season 2 (Starz, October 13)
Elite season 7 (Netflix, October 20)
Upload season 3 (Prime Video, October 20)
Fear the Walking Dead season 8 (AMC, October 22)
American Horror Stories season 3 (FX on Hulu, October 26)
Goosebumps (Disney+ and Hulu, TBD)
The Enfield Poltergeist (Apple TV+, TBD)

November

All the Light We Cannot See (Netflix, November 2)

A major prestige play for Netflix, this limited-series adaptation of Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize–winning World War II saga was written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, directed by Shawn Levy, and stars Louis Hofmann (Dark), Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and Aria Mia Loberti in a potential breakout role as the blind daughter of Ruffalo’s character. —J.C.

Invincible season 2 (Prime Video, November 3)

Robert Kirkman’s adaptation of his own Image Comics series will pick up where season one left off: How does Mark Grayson (voiced by Steven Yeun) move on from his father Omni-Man’s (voiced by J.K. Simmons) literally Earth-shattering betrayal? Who Mark is without his father, and whether he might eventually fall prey to the same superiority and smugness that defined Nolan, will certainly be a part of the series’ second season — along with the shocking amount of gore that splattered throughout the first eight episodes. Blood, brain, viscera: Get ready to be artistically grossed out again. — R.H.

The Buccaneers (Apple TV+, November 8)

A new adaptation of Edith Wharton’s unfinished final novel, starring Josie Totah, Kristine Froseth, and Christina Hendricks, sees young Americans show up in 1880s London and upset all the norms of culture and tradition. You and your mom are going to eat this with a spoon. —K.V.A.

Rap Sh!t season 2 (Max, November 9)

In a fall season littered with adaptations, franchises, and shows about the past, trying to find original TV about plausibly real people doing plausibly real things is nearly impossible. But, thank God, there is another season of the charming Issa Rae–produced comedy Rap Sh!t, which stars Aida Osman and KaMillion as two friends trying to build a rap career while managing all the obstacles of everyday life. —K.V.A.

A Murder at the End of the World (FX on Hulu, November 14)

The OA fans, rejoice! Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij are back with a murder mystery starring Emma Corrin as a hacker and sleuth and Clive Owen as a reclusive billionaire who invites her and other guests to his remote retreat. The miniseries seems more straightforward than The OA or the pair’s psychological thriller film Sound of My Voice, but they’ve taken a recognizable genre formula and injected their own strain of bizarreness into it before, so this will hopefully be more than “Lisbeth Salander does Knives Out.” —R.H.

Julia season 2 (Max, November 16)

The first season of Julia, Max’s biopic series about Julia Child, was warm and rich and occasionally cloying, much like the French cuisine she popularized. Reportedly, the second season will include a Paris interlude and maybe even a flashback to Julia’s time in the foreign office. (Spies! Spies! Spies!) —K.V.A.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Netflix, November 17)

Bryan Lee O’Malley’s mid-aughts graphic-novel series has made its way through several forms of media — comics both paper- and app-based, a side-scrolling video game, and, of course, Edgar Wright’s cultishly beloved, meme-generating film — so it’s not particularly surprising to see it make the jump to Netflix series. Nor is it particularly surprising that the series will be an anime (with original music by chiptune act Anamanaguchi), given that O’Malley’s original books drew liberally on both anime and video-game styles. What is surprising is that, despite bringing back the entire cast of the 2010 movie to voice their animated counterparts, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is neither an adaptation nor a continuation of that film or the books that inspired it — it’s something else entirely, something that should surprise even the most completist of Scott Pilgrim fans. —G.K.

Fargo season 5 (FX, November 21)

Will this be the post–Mad Men TV role worthy of Jon Hamm? Two years after the somewhat overstuffed fourth season about Black and Italian criminal organizations fighting over control of Kansas City, the anthology series goes in a different direction with a plot about a kidnapping and a seemingly unhappy marriage. Hamm stars alongside Juno Temple and Jennifer Jason Leigh in a story set in the Midwest in 2019. Put that square jaw to good use, Jon! — R.H.

Faraway Downs (Hulu, TBD)

Fifteen years after Baz Luhrmann directed a massive epic about his country of origin, Australia, he’s expanding the nearly three-hour film into a miniseries. The original was, in typical Luhrmann fashion, sweeping and maximalist, although its treatment of Indigenous characters was not necessarily as progressive as he might have intended. His do-over will have footage from the film cut into six episodes, a new ending, and a rejuvenated soundtrack. We bet our weight in glitter it will at least be visually stupendous. —R.H.

Lawmen: Bass Reeves (Paramount+, TBD)

Bass Reeves, the first Black U.S. federal deputy marshal west of the Mississippi, is a fascinating historical character and a fitting subject for a TV series, especially when played by an actor like David Oyelowo. (Reeves was already a crucial inspiration in the mythology of HBO’s Watchmen.) The potentially bad news: This version of his story is part of the greater Taylor Sheridan storytelling universe, which has a spotty record on race and just general coherence; the show’s also going to be part of an anthology series, each one focusing on a different lawman of the west. But Sheridan himself didn’t write the project (phew). It’s created by Chad Feehan and includes a supporting cast of Dennis Quaid, recent Tony winner Joaquina Kalukango, and Donald Sutherland. –J.M.

Squid Game: The Challenge (Netflix, TBD)

It’s incredibly depressing, but perhaps inevitable, that a TV show about a horrendously demeaning and brutal competition between desperate contestants looking for a payday would inspire a reality-TV spinoff in which … desperate contestants looking for a payday compete in a horrendously demeaning and brutal competition. (Netflix has already denied serious on-set injuries.) — R.H.

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Also premiering in November

Orlando Bloom: To the Edge (Peacock, November 9)
Echo (Disney+, November 29)
Hannah Waddingham: Home For Christmas (Apple TV+, TBD)

Fall TBD

The Crown season 6 (Netflix)

Like a stately but old-fashioned royal yacht steaming off into retirement, The Crown will return on Netflix for one big grandiose final season. Is it grim and cynical to lead with “This is the season where they’re going to have to kill Diana?” Yes. Is this the season where they’re going to have to kill Diana? Also yes. —K.V.A.

The Curse (Showtime)

This is a Safdie brothers and A24–produced TV series that co-stars Emma Stone, Benny Safdie, and Nathan Fielder; Safdie and Fielder co-created it and Fielder is also directing it. Already, that’s so much to process. Then, add in the premise: a newly married couple who are disturbed by a curse, who are trying to conceive a child, and who are starring in a new HGTV show. The mind boggles. —K.V.A.

For All Mankind season 4 (Apple TV+)

The last season of Apple’s epic space show ended, spoiler alert, with a semi-permanent Mars colony, the ramifications of Russian espionage finally hitting home, and also catapulting a pregnant woman into outer space?? That’s good TV, baby. —K.V.A.

The Gilded Age season 2 (HBO)

It’s been more than a year since we last hung out at stuffy society functions with the old and nouveau money of the Upper East Side, and thank goodness, they’re all coming back to bicker about the most minor of slights. The HBO series, by Downtown Abbey’s Julian Fellowes, stars Christine Baranski, Carrie Coon, Louisa Jacobson, and seemingly everyone who has stepped on a Broadway stage, all adorned with the largest hats possible. —J.M.

Life & Beth season 2 (Hulu)

Will quitting her wine-distribution job so she can plunge beet greens into buckets of water help ease Beth’s grief over her mother’s death? Amy Schumer’s lightly autobiographical comedy series, starring Schumer as a woman who falls in love with a charming neurodivergent farmer (Michael Cera), returns for a second season. —K.V.A.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (Apple TV+)

The king of the monsters is ready to stomp on the small screen, as Legendary’s Monsterverse, which offered kaiju-size thrills in movies like Godzilla vs. Kong, is coming to Apple TV+. The series, which is seemingly set in the aftermath of the 2014 showdown that kicked off the latest iteration of the long-running franchise, has two siblings attempting to uncover what their father knows about these giant monsters, called Titans, and the mysterious organization called Monarch that tracks them in the shadows. It’s a true family affair, as Kurt Russell plays Army officer Lee Shaw in the present-day scenes, while Wyatt Russell plays the younger Shaw in flashbacks set in the 1950s. Of course, none of this human drama is quite as important as Godzilla smashing buildings, but Apple’s got a Godzilla-size pile of money, so the monster effects ought to be good. —J.G.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Prime Video)

Two years into Donald Glover’s Amazon deal and a few months after Swarm, he delivers his second TV project with an adaptation of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. It was a surprise when Phoebe Waller-Bridge, originally co-creator and co-star, left after six months of work, but the ensuing cast and crew shuffling — Atlanta’s Francesca Sloane is showrunner and PEN15’s Maya Erskine took over Waller-Bridge’s role — is intriguing. And unlike the 2005 film made famous by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s real-life romance, this version sets up John (Glover) and Jane (Erskine) as strangers who sign up to pretend to be married and work together as spies, with each episode following a new mission. —R.H.

Our Flag Means Death season 2 (Max)

The first season of Our Flag Means Death was a lovely little surprise, a whimsical ensemble piece about a pirate crew who love and care for each other — and squabble and bicker, too — like family. Rhys Darby was thoroughly charming as the aristocrat turned marauder Stede Bonnet, who abandons his domestic life to become a gentleman pirate, and series executive producer Taika Waititi gave one of his best performances in years as the swashbuckling and braggadocious Blackbeard. Can the two give their relationship another go in the second season? —R.H.

Sugar (Apple TV+)

Colin Farrell stars as a private detective who investigates the disappearance of a “beloved granddaughter of a legendary Hollywood producer.” We will be watching attentively. —J.C.

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Also premiering in 2023

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Disney+, December 20)
The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: RHONY Legacy (Peacock, December TBD)
Slow Horses season 3 (Apple TV+, TBD)
Wolf Like Me season 2 (Peacock, TBD)

37 TV Shows We Can’t Wait to See This Fall