With July finally here, autumn continues its slow, chilly approach. In television, the fall season introduces viewers to new series, new seasons, and a host of new entertainment. This year, fall is shaping up to be as promising as ever, with cool new shows set to pop up all over network TV. Here are a few series you can’t afford to miss in the 2015-16 season.
Scream Queens
The latest series from the mind of Glee and American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy follows a group of university students as they’re terrorized by an enigmatic killer. Scream Queens, poised to be a comedy-horror anthology, stars a number of actors from Murphy’s previous works, including Emma Roberts and Lea Michele.
While, on the surface, Scream Queens appears fairly similar to American Horror Story, it differs in an interesting way: while AHS reboots its story and characters every season, surviving characters from Scream Queens will move on to each successive season. Finally, horror movie tropes can be fully realized on the small screen.
Scream Queens is scheduled to premiere September 22 on Fox.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow
DC continues its superhero expansion into television with Legends of Tomorrow, a spin-off series of its highly-successful Arrow and The Flash. Legends of Tomorrow follows Rip Hunter, a rogue time traveler who aims to prevent the destruction of the world by traveling back in time to assemble a team composed of both heroes and villains to stop the antagonistic Vandal Savage.
The series features a cast of characters based on a number of DC Comics characters, including Firestorm, The Atom, and Hawkgirl. The show is also set to crossover with Arrow and The Flash, with Grant Gustin’s Flash planned to make an appearance.
Legends of Tomorrow is scheduled to premiere midseason on The CW – not exactly this fall, but still exciting, nonetheless.
Heroes Reborn
News of Heroes’ resurrection both surprised and delighted fans who were disappointed in the direction of the original show – and its abrupt ending. Heroes Reborn is just that: a rebirth of the original show… but in miniseries format.
The miniseries will follow a group of ordinary people who have discovered gifts of supernatural abilities, with promises to recreate the basic elements and success of Heroes’ first season. While the show’s cast will largely be compromised of new characters, a few from the original series will make appearances, such as Jack Coleman’s Noah Bennet and Masi Oka’s Hiro Nakamura.
Given the critical acclaim the original Heroes received early on, Reborn has a lot to live up to. It’ll certainly be interesting seeing the direction this new series takes.
Heroes Reborn is set to premiere September 24 on Fox.
Supergirl
Joining the numerous other superhero programs debuting during the 2015-16 season, Supergirl stars Melissa Benoist as Kara Zor-El/Supergirl, the costumed cousin of the legendary Superman. The show is said to follow her exploits as she learns to control and accept her powers – powers she had previously hidden.
A first-look of the show drew comparisons to a Saturday Night Live skit involving a fictional Black Widow film, in which Marvel claims to “get women” while showcasing the super-spy in a stereotypical romantic comedy (eerily similar to The Devil Wears Prada). While the show’s first-look was… erm… disappointing, to say the least, it may be worth seeing the course Supergirl takes.
Supergirl will debut its first episode on CBS on October 26.
Bordertown
Created by the showrunners of the immensely-popular Family Guy, Bordertown is an adult animated sitcom that follows the lives of Bud Buckwald, a border patrol agent, and Ernesto Gonzalez, a Mexican immigrant.
While many may groan at the presence of yet another Seth MacFarlane-produced Fox series on TV (especially after the move of American Dad! to TBS), it’s no secret that his shows get viewers. With a premise ripe for comedy (and controversy), Bordertown is a series definitely worth checking out.
Bordertown will premiere in January 2016 on Fox with a 13-episode first season.
Along with various new series, the fall will also see the return of shows such as Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Family Guy, The Last Man on Earth, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Supernatural, Empire, The Blacklist, Arrow, and The Flash.