Five Most Intriguing TV Premieres Out This Fall

Thankfully, not every new show coming out this fall is a new comedy or crime procedurals.

Some networks are also taking some risks this fall, airing new high-concept science fiction shows or remakes of beloved books or movie franchises.

The hope is that these riskier shows turn into the next sleeper hit or critically acclaimed darling in the vein of LOST or Mr. Robot.

Here are five shows that that we can’t quite put a finger on, the new dramas that look interesting but could also be disasters waiting to happen.

Good or bad, these new shows look intriguing and are at least worth checking out this fall:

Westworld

With Game of Thrones entering the home stretch, HBO is looking for a new hit TV series that can fill the Westeros-sized hole it’ll leave in two years. Their most ambitious new series is Westworld, a remake of the 1973 movie written and directed by Jurassic Park creator Michael Crichton.  

The premise of Westworld is deceptively simple.

In the near future, a western theme park is built and filled with lifelike androids. For a (large) fee, visitors can enter the park and do just about anything they’d like with the androids. However, a virus begins to spread among the androids, causing them to rebel and turn against the human guests. 

Anthony Hopkins will star as the creator of the theme park, and the cast also includes film stars Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, and Ed Harris. There’s a few names comic book fans might recognize as Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie in the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok film) and Luke Hemsworth (the older brother of Chris Hemsworth) are also in the show. 

Westworld‘s star power doesn’t just stop with the cast. Jonathan Nolan, the brother of Christopher Nolan and screenplay writer for The Dark Knight, is the show’s executive producer along with LOST creator JJ Abrams.  

HBO is heavily hyping Westworld as their next big series and, judging by the cast and promos, this is one show sci-fi fans don’t want to miss. 

Westworld premieres October 2. 

Van Helsing

SyFy’s newest series Van Helsing isn’t exactly a remake of the 2004 disaster starring Hugh Jackman as the famous vampire hunter. Instead, this is a modern take on the character, set in a post-apocalyptic world infested by feral vampires.

The lead is Vanessa Helsing (True Blood‘s Kelly Overton), the daughter of Abraham Van Helsing, who is resurrected five years after vampires take over the planet. Not only is Vanessa immune to vampire bites, she can transform vampires back into humans by biting them….which is a pretty unique twist to the well worn vampire hunter trope. Vanessa learns about the extent of her powers while trying to stop a world overrun by vampires and treacherous humans. 

Van Helsing‘s vampires are closer to The Strain‘s brand of vampire than The Vampire Diaries, with most of the world overrun by feral, animalistic creatures. There are a group of ancient vampires that are far more refined and dangerous. 

SyFy’s shows aren’t for everyone, but we’re intrigued by Van Helsing‘s twist on the vampire genre and think it could be a fun sleeper hit.

Van Helsing debuts on September 23. 

Lethal Weapon

Movies remade into television shows are pretty commonplace today, although most have fizzled out after only a season or two. Limitless and Rush Hour were the latest movie remakes to flop last season, but Fox is coming back with two remakes this fall in The Exorcist and Lethal Weapon. 

We covered The Exorcist in our list of new TV shows we’re looking forward to, but Lethal Weapon looks interesting too. A cop drama about a grizzled vet and his maverick younger partner isn’t groundbreaking television, but there looks to be chemistry between series leads Damon Wayans (as Danny Glover’s Murtaugh) and Clayne Crawford (as Mel Gibson’s Riggs).

There’s a ton of crime procedurals and dramas on television right now, so Lethal Weapon needs to quickly find a niche while not coming off as a poor imitiation of the original movies. Let’s just hope that fans of the original Lethal Weapon movies aren’t too old for this shi–, I mean remake. 

Falling Water

USA’s weird new drama continues that network’s trend of pursuing more serious and mindbending shows. Falling Water is about three people (American Horror Story’s Lizzie Brocheré, The Wolverine’s Will Yun Lee, and David Ajala) who all seem to be sharing the same dream.

Each of Falling Water‘s main cast members are searching for something in their dreams. Tess is looking for her son, Burton is trying to figure out why he’s haunted by a mysterious woman, and Take is trying to find a way to communicate with his comatose mother. However, as the three strangers begin to interact within this dream world, they realize that the dream might be telling them something more important. 

By using a dreamscape as their primary setting, Falling Water looks like it will have some crazy visuals and sequences. Between weird faceless men, monsters lurking in the shadows, and surreal and pristine settings, the show looks very bizarre and captivating. Early press for Falling Water hints there could be even more to the show, but we’ll just have to wait until the premiere in October. 

Falling Water premieres on October 13. 

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is a BBC America/Netflix series based on a humorous detective novel written by Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams. Penny Dreadful‘s Samuel Barnett stars as Gently, an eccentric detective who takes a holistic approach to solving crime, while Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood plays his reluctant sidekick and former bellhop Todd. 

The series has been described as “Sherlock meets Doctor Who” and Barnett’s version of Gently certainly has shades of Matt Smith’s version of the Doctor. The big question is whether Dirk Gently can match the cleverness of the original novel without alienating its audience. The 2005 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie showed that adapting a Douglas Adams can be tricky, especially when it comes to his eccentric absurdist style of humor. 

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency debuts on October 22 on BBC America.