Fall 2022 TV Preview: The 19 Best Shows to Watch This Season

There's a chill in the air, there are leaves on the ground, and there are TV shows to watch. It's fall, baby! The schedule is packed with a bunch of new and returning shows, with some signing off for good (Atlanta, The Good Fight), some returning after Emmy-winning first seasons (Abbott Elementary, The White Lotus), and some based on source material you might already be familiar with (Quantum Leap, Let the Right One In). Are you overwhelmed yet? Understandable.

It's a lot, but we've taken the liberty of sorting through it all for you. Below, you'll find our preview of the best shows to watch from September through November, plus a few other highlights we think you'll want to keep on your radar throughout the season.

The Best Shows to Watch This Fall 

The Good Fight Season 6 (Sept. 8, Paramount+)

What do we know about the sixth and final season of The Good Fight? We know Andre Braugher will be there, playing a kind of Saul Goodman through the Kings' looking glass: a showman lawyer by the name of Ri'Chard Lane who is forced on Liz's (Audra McDonald) firm as a new name partner. I'd argue we don't need to know anything else. And even if we knew none of this, I'd still be excited to watch TV's most go-for-broke legal drama go out in a blaze of glory, giving us one last season of juiced up commentary on the state of American hypocrisy. -Kelly Connolly [Trailer | Review]

American Gigolo (Sept. 11, Showtime)

A few times a year, Jon Bernthal is in a role he was born to play. Shane from The Walking Dead. Frank Castle from The Punisher. Wayne Jenkins from We Own This City. And now Julian Kaye from American Gigolo. (Maybe he was born to play everyone?) In this series adaptation of Paul Schrader's 1980 film, Julian Kaye is a male escort who must rebuild his life after he's framed for murder and thrown in the slammer for a decade and a half, and also find the people responsible for setting him up. Crime! Sex! Prison! It's a Showtime show through and through, and with Bernthal front and center, we're there. -Tim Surette [Trailer | Review]

The Serpent Queen (Sept. 11, Starz) 

This irreverent period piece is perfect for fans of The Favourite and The Great. Samantha Morton stars as Catherine de Medici, who was orphaned as an infant and grew up to ruthlessly rule France as its queen regent in the mid-1500s. Catherine de Medici was one of the inspirations for Game of Thrones' Cersei Lannister, a comparison that's unavoidable thanks to the presence of Charles Dance as Pope Clement VII, her uncle and guardian and the closest thing she has to a Tywin Lannister. It's a darkly funny drama about a woman who was often underestimated and never outsmarted. -Liam Mathews [Trailer | Review]

Atlanta Season 4 (Sept. 15, FX)

I'm not the only Atlanta fan who was underwhelmed by Season 3, easily the weakest of the Donald Glover comedy's otherwise stellar run. But its fourth and final season will still be a must-watch for anyone curious about how such a provocative series could wrap things up. It's actually going back to Atlanta, thankfully, after last season brought the characters to Europe, forcing Earn (Glover), Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), Darius (LaKeith Stanfield), and Van (Zazie Beetz) to reckon with the ways they, and their hometown, changed in their absence. Episodes will air on FX and stream on Hulu the next day. -Allison Picurro [Trailer] 

Los Espookys Season 2 (Sept. 16, HBO)

Los Espookys, HBO's zany Spanish-language comedy about a group of friends who turn their love of horror into a peculiar business, deserves to be a huge hit. Julio Torres, Ana Fabrega, and Fred Armisen co-created and star in the series, which is finally releasing its second season after a long COVID-induced hiatus, and hopefully the world will finally come around to its many goth charms. There's nothing quite like it on TV, taking place in the cross-section between the real and the surreal, and relishing its own inherent oddness. -Allison Picurro [Trailer]

Quantum Leap (Sept. 19, NBC)

NBC is leaping back into the past with this reboot — that's also a revival — of Quantum Leap. The late-'80s to early-'90s sci-fi cult classic starred Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, who leapt through history correcting what had gone wrong. In the new series, which picks up 30 years after Sam stepped into the accelerator and vanished, a team has been assembled to restart the project and hopefully crack its mysteries. They're led by physicist Ben Song (Raymond Lee), who changes the game and leaves his team scrambling when he takes an unauthorized leap into the past. Ernie Hudson, Caitlin Bassett, Mason Alexander Park, and Nanrisa Lee also star. -Kelly Connolly [Trailer]

Reboot (Sept. 20, Hulu)

This Hulu original comedy series is the first show created by Steve Levitan since he came up with the megahit Modern Family, so expectations are going to be pretty high, but he's taking the family comedy meta this time. Keegan-Michael Key, Judy Greer, Johnny Knoxville, and Calum Worthy star as actors from a classic broadcast sitcom that gets rebooted, which is harder than you think thanks to all of their unresolved issues with each other. Rachel Bloom and Paul Reiser also star. -Tim Surette [Trailer]

Abbott Elementary Season 2 (Sept. 21, ABC)

TV Guide's pick for the best show on TV right now is going back to class. The coolest show around is Quinta Brunson's ABC sitcom about teachers at an underfunded public elementary school in Philadelphia, a crowd pleaser that Hollywood tastemakers and Midwestern aunts are united in loving. As they should be! For extra credit, the janitor himself, William Stanford Davis, has been upped to series regular for Season 2. You don't want to miss the bus on this one. New episodes will stream on Hulu the day after they air on ABC. -Kelly Connolly [Trailer]

Andor (Sept. 21, Disney+)

If there's one thing the Star Wars universe is going to do, it's expand. Diego Luna returns as Cassian Andor in this Rogue One prequel series, which picks up with the thief-turned-Rebel spy about five years before the events of the film. Forest Whitaker reprises his role as Saw Gerrera, easily one of the coolest names in all of Star Wars, and Genevieve O'Reilly is back as Mon Monthma (also not bad of a name!). The cast also includes Stellan Skarsgård, Fiona Shaw, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach  (more great names!). No word yet on whether Diego Luna will get to touch Jabba the Hutt. The world waits in anticipation. -Kelly Connolly [Trailer]

Ramy Season 3 (Sept. 30, Hulu)

We last saw Ramy in May 2020, when it dropped its phenomenal second season on Hulu all at once. If you need a refresher, it ended with Ramy (Ramy Youssef) telling his new wife, Zainab (MaameYaa Boafo), he cheated on her the night before their wedding, which resulted in an explosive argument with her father and his mentor, Sheikh Ali (Mahershala Ali), that left Ramy with nowhere to go. This show is smart enough to never let its protagonist off the hook, so I'm excited to see how it deals with the personal, familial, and religious fallout from the most selfish thing he's done so far. I'm also intrigued by the news that Bella Hadid will make her acting debut this season. -Allison Picurro

Interview with the Vampire (Oct. 2, AMC and AMC+)

Jacob Anderson, best known as Game of Thrones' Grey Worm, seems like a cool guy, and I'm happy that he has a starring role in the show that AMC hopes will become its next big hit. Anderson plays soulful vampire Louis in this series inspired by author Anne Rice's famous romantic horror novels. Lestat, Louis' truly evil counterpart, is played by relatively unknown actor Sam Reid, who could become a star thanks to the juicy role, which was played by Tom Cruise in the 1994 movie (Louis was played by Brad Pitt). I'm a sucker for gothic vampire stuff, and the talent in front of and behind the camera on this one leads me to believe it will be well-made high-end horror. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]

The Midnight Club (Oct. 9, Netflix)

This is the latest project from prolific horror maestro Mike Flanagan, whose previous Netflix shows include The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass, two of the finest works of horror in any medium of the past 10 years. It's an adaptation of a 1994 teen thriller by Christopher Pike about a group of terminally ill young people living in a hospice ward who gather at midnight to tell each other scary stories. They make a pact that when the first of them dies, they'll communicate with the rest from beyond the grave. Nothing could go wrong there! This looks to skew a little YA for my tastes, but in Flanagan we trust, so it's an automatic watch. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]

Let the Right One In (Oct. 9, Showtime)

So far every adaptation of the 2004 Swedish novel Let the Right One In has been good. The 2008 Swedish film is considered a vampire classic, and the 2010 American adaptation, Let Me In, is a rare American remake that does the original justice. We're guessing the hits keep rolling in Showtime's TV series adaptation, starring Demián Bichir as the father of a 12-year-old girl vampire (Madison Taylor Baez) who grapples with keeping his daughter alive. Expect a tricky mix of heart-filling emotion and blood-spilling gore. -Tim Surette [Trailer]

Shantaram (Oct. 14, Apple TV+)

Charlie Hunnam stars in this adaptation of the best-selling novel as an Australian bank robber who breaks out of prison and runs off to India in the 1980s. The novel, written by Gregory David Roberts and based on his own life, is an ode to the up-and-down life of Mumbai, then known as Bombay — both dangerous and beautiful — and one man's transformation as he becomes consumed by the culture. If the series captures even just a little bit of that, it's got a shot at best of the year lists. -Tim Surette

Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (Oct. 25, Netflix)

At this point in the Peak TV era, there have been so many mediocre episodic anthology series that it's unwise to get too excited over any new one, because more likely than not it will be disappointing. That being said, most episodic anthologies aren't gothic, practical effects-heavy horror shows executive-produced by Best Picture winner Guillermo del Toro. They also don't have horror luminaries behind the camera like Jennifer Kent (The Babadook), Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night), and Panos Cosmatos (Mandy), or have an episode that's an adaptation of one of H.P. Lovecraft's most famous stories, "Pickman's Model," starring Crispin Glover. This might be the exception to anthology fatigue. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]

Sherman's Showcase Season 2 (Oct. 26, IFC)

In a perfect world, all I would have to say is Bashir Salahuddin and Diallo Riddle, and you'd know why the irreverent sketch comedy series the duo created, Sherman's Showcase, needs to be on your watchlist. But the world we live in sucks, and these two geniuses of the Black comedy scene — who also co-created HBO Max's excellent South Side — remain eligible for cult status, which actually makes them even cooler. Get in before they hit the big, big time with this spoof on '70s variety shows like Soul Train that mixes musical numbers with cultural comedy for a totally groovy ride. -Tim Surette

The White Lotus Season 2 (Oct. TBA, HBO) 

Is there any chance Season 2 of The White Lotus, HBO's anthology about the upstairs, downstairs dynamic between the staff at an upscale resort and the wealthy guests who stay there, will be as excellent as its first? Well, this season's cast — which includes Aubrey Plaza, F. Murray Abraham, Michael Imperioli, Haley Lu Richardson, and Jennifer Coolidge, reprising her role as Season 1's flighty socialite Tanya McQuoid — is promising. It's also changing locations, moving to Sicily for these new episodes, and the few details we've gotten so far have been enticing. We'll have to wait and see if it can re-capture the magic, but for better or worse, I'm usually more than willing to put my faith in Mike White. -Allison Picurro [Trailer]

Yellowstone Season 5 (Nov. 13, Paramount Network)

America's favorite Western returns for its fifth season, and the drama is sure to be as extravagant as ever. Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) has her miserable brother Jamie (Wes Bentley) under her thumb after blackmailing him into killing his biological father (Will Patton). John Dutton (Kevin Costner) might F around and become the governor of Montana. And most urgently, we'll find out what Kayce (Luke Grimes) meant when he told his wife Monica (Kelsey Asbille) "I saw the end of us" after he finished his vision quest. The things the Duttons do to hold on to that ranch. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]

Tulsa King (Nov. 13, Paramount Network)

Tulsa King comes from of an unexpected pair of writer-producers with complementary skill sets. The Paramount+ crime drama about a New York mafioso exiled to Oklahoma is created and executive-produced by Taylor Sheridan, the busy producer behind Yellowstone and its many spin-offs. Sheridan knows how to create heartland stories like no one else, but he has no experience writing about Italian-American crooks from the Northeast, so he enlisted Sopranos veteran and Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter to serve as Tulsa King's showrunner. It's a powerful pairing put over the top with the addition of Sylvester Stallone, who stars in his first series regular role as mob capo Dwight "The General" Manfredi. It's Taylor Sheridan's take on The Sopranos (and Lilyhammer), and it sounds counterintuitive enough to work. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]

More on what's coming up:

• The Ultimate Guide to What's on Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max, Hulu, and More in September 2022
• Fall 2022 Broadcast TV Premiere Dates for New and Returning Shows
• 12 Upcoming Shows We Can't Wait to Watch

More Fall Highlights 

Wedding Season (Sept. 8, Hulu) 

Hulu's darkly funny whodunnit is a classic tale of girl (Rosa Salazar) meets boy (Gavin Drea), girl and boy have an affair before girl's wedding to another guy, girl and boy are roped into a murder investigation after girl's in-laws die at her wedding. You know how it is. [Trailer]

The Handmaid's Tale Season 5 (Sept. 14, Hulu)

Season 5 will find June (Elisabeth Moss) facing the consequences of her actions against Commander Waterford (Joseph Fiennes), while Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) tries to bring Gilead's message to Canada. [Trailer]

Ghosts Season 2 (Sept. 29, CBS)

The most charmingly annoying group of dead people are back for Season 2, which finds Sam (Rose McIver) calling on the ghosts to help her B&B flourish. [Trailer]

Entergalactic (Sept. 30, Netflix)

Kid Cudi got his most famous friends — like Timothée Chalamet, Jessica Williams, Vanessa Hudgens, and Jaden Smith — to lend their voices to his new animated series about two artists on the verge of success. [Trailer]

The Winchesters (Oct. 11, The CW)

After all that drama, The Winchesters persists. The Supernatural prequel tells the story of how Dean (Jensen Ackles, who will serve as narrator) and Sam's (Jared Padalecki) parents, John (Drake Rodger) and Mary (Meg Donnelly), fell in love. [Trailer]

Documentary Now! Season 4 (Oct. 19, IFC)

TV's premiere documentary film parody show is finally back for a new season, which includes spoofs of Werner Herzog and Agnès Varda films, plus a roster of guest stars like Alexander Skarsgård, Cate Blanchett, and Nicholas Braun. [Trailer]

The Calling (Nov. 10, Peacock)

David E. Kelley is bringing us another crime show. This one is an adaptation of the Dror A. Mishani novel The Missing File, following an NYPD detective (Jeff Wilbusch) who believes his spirituality helps him solve cases.

Willow (Nov. 30, Disney+)

In this sequel series taking place 20 years after Ron Howard's 1988 film, Warwick Davis reprises his role as the titular sorcerer, joined by a new cast of young people that includes Ruby Cruz, Tony Revolori, Ellie Bamber, and Erin Kellyman. [Trailer]