Spring 2020 was both two seconds and ?????? ???? ????? ??????six months ago. Time means nothing to anyone these days, except for television networks that still have oodles of fall TV to push as the days get shorter. This year's premiere season brings anthology shows about love and monsters, science fiction with a dash of prestige, romantic comedies set in Paris, villain origin stories, talking trash cans, and more — these are the 13 fall TV shows that should absolutely be at the top of your "to watch" list in 2020.
SEE ALSO: 10 of the best romantic comedies now streaming on Hulu1. Raised by Wolves, HBO Max (Sept. 3)
Executive producer Ridley Scott brings his science fiction sensibilities to HBO Max with Raised By Wolves, a futuristic tale of two androids tasked with safeguarding a population of young humans on a distant planet. With no "real" parents around, the android Father and Mother must raise the children amidst constant threats from inside and outside their safe haven.
Watch it on: HBO Max
2. Away, Netflix (Sept. 4)
The creators of Friday Night Lightsand The Good Wifeturned their eyes to the night sky to make Away, a family drama centered around the crew of humanity's first trip to Mars. When mission commander Emma Green (Hilary Swank) leaves her husband and daughter on Earth to lead a three-year expedition to the red planet, her family and crew struggle to cope with the insurmountable distance between them and their loved ones. Far from being yet another space show (though the zero-gravity scenes are cool), Awayfocuses on the human effects of an astronaut's dangerous job and the necessity of scientific exploration.
Watch it on: Netflix
3. Woke, Hulu (Sept. 9)
Wokeis a half-hour comedy about an oblivious Black cartoonist on the brink of tremendous commercial success — or he is, until a traumatizing encounter with racist police officers turns his world upside down. After the incident, inanimate objects begin to talk to him, rudely opening his eyes to the realities of racism he formerly tried to ignore. Lamorne Morris stars as Keef, a thinly diguised analogue for cartoonist and show creator Keith Knight, with SNL's Sasheer Zamata co-starring as the already "woke" editor of an antiracist magazine with an interest in Keef's sudden transformation.
Watch it on: Hulu
4. We Are Who We Are, HBO (Sept. 14)
Call Me By Your Namedirector Luca Guadagnino created and directed We Are Who We Are, a series about American teenagers living on an Army base in Italy. Jack Dylan Grazer (It, It Chapter 2) and newcomer Jordan Kristine Seamon star as a pair of friends with a lot to figure out about life, each other, romance, and the world as they come of age on the sun-drenched Italian coastline.
Watch it on: HBO
5. Ratched, Netflix (Sept. 18)
Ryan Murphy Ryan Murphies once more with Ratched, an American Horror Story-ish origin story for the infamous Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Sarah Paulson plays the younger Mildred Ratched as a sleek and manipulative ex–Army nurse who swindles her way into a job at the Lucia Asylum for reasons both crooked and fascinating. Come for the stylish outfits and gore, stay for Sarah Paulson's terrifying performance as one of cinema's most famous villains.
Watch it on: Netflix
6. Becoming, Disney+ (Sept. 18)
Becoming is a documentary series about the origins of successful individuals like actor Caleb McLaughlin (Stranger Things), former New England Patriot Rob Gronkowski, and dancer Julianne Hough. The LeBron James–produced series follows these icons and others as they reconnect with important figures from their childhood and tell the story of how they "became" who they are, all to inspire the next generation to dream big and become something amazing.
Watch it on: Disney+
7. Utopia, Amazon (Sept. 25)
Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn reinterprets the a hit British TV show from 2013 for the American version of Utopia, a black comedy about comic book aficionados who believe the first installment of a graphic novel predicted real-life human catastrophes and clamor to find the book's unpublished sequel. Utopia(2020) looks like a futuristic, apocalyptic drama with a distinct visual style that differentiates it from the British version and should satisfy anyone looking for fictional conspiracies, explosions, and the allure of nerds trying to save the world.
Watch it on: Amazon Prime Video
8. A Wilderness of Error, FX (Sept. 25)
In 1979, Jeffery R. McDonald was convicted of killing his wife and child in a homicidal rage and sentenced to life in prison. FX's new series a Wilderness of Error (based on Errol Morris' 2012 book of the name name) contests the events that led to McDonald's conviction with a deep dive into forgotten and misinterpreted details of the case.
Watch it on:FX
9. Monsterland, Hulu (Oct. 2)
Monsterland -- "Port Fourchon, LA" - Episode 101 -- A down-and-out waitress questions her choices. Alex (Jonathan Tucker), shown. (Photo by: Barbara Nitke/Hulu) Credit: Hulu Hulu kicks off spooky season with Monsterland, an anthology series based on North America Lake Monsters: Storiesby Nathan Ballingrud. Each episode hauntingly follows a different character's encounter with a figure from American folklore and the terrifying consequences that arise when humans meddle with the unknown. Monsterlandhas a packed cast, including Kelly Marie Tran (Star Wars), Nicole Beharie (Sleepy Hollow, Black Mirror), and Taylor Schilling (Orange is the New Black).
Watch it on: Hulu
10. Emily in Paris, Netflix (Oct. 2)
EMILY IN PARIS (L to R) LILY COLLINS as EMILY in episode 103 of EMILY IN PARIS. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2020 Credit: COURTESY OF NETFLIX Emily in Paris is a lighthearted, sexy macaron of a romantic comedy premiering on Netflix in early October. Lily Collins plays Emily, a marketing and social media whiz who gets the once-in-a-lifetime chance to move from Chicago to Paris for her dream job, only to find out that her American sensibilities don't always match up with her colleagues' French ways. At a swift thirty minutes per episode, Emily in Parisdelivers hot French guys, fantastic fashion, and sweeping views of the City of Lights for easy, bite-sized TV fun.
Watch it on:Netflix
11. The Good Lord Bird, Showtime (Oct. 4)
For historical fiction fans, Showtime comes through in early October with The Good Lord Bird, a pre–Civil War era series based on a novel by James McBride. The series places a fictional slave named Onion at the side of real-life abolitionist John Brown, whose violent antislavery tactics had him tried for treason in his time and hailed as a hero in our own. The Good Lord Birdhas Onion (Joshua Caleb Johnson)n and Brown (Ethan Hawke) encountering fictionalized versions of historical figures like Frederick Douglass (Daveed Diggs) as they follow Brown's unconventional path towards instigating the Civil War.
Watch it on: Showtime
12. Soulmates, AMC (Oct. 5)
Shamier Anderson as Adam, Laia Costa as Libby - Soulmates _ Season 1 - Photo Credit: Jorge Alvarino/AMC Credit: What if there was a 100% reliable test that could determine exactly who your soulmate is? This is the question at the heart of AMC's anthology series Soulmates, and the show does a lot with its deceptively simple premise. Each episode considers a different implication of the test's existence, like what happens to people who married before the test was invented, or how people who can't find their match cope with loneliness in a world dominated with perfectly calculated love. Soulmatesis also a good bet for anyone who is wary of investing time in new shows — AMC has already ordered Season 2 of the six-episode series.
Watch it on:AMC
13. The Undoing, HBO (Oct. 25)
Is there any greater combo than Nicole Kidman, HBO, and a drama about rich people based on a book? The Undoingis a miniseries based on You Should Have Knownby Jean Hanff Korelitz, and you can bet there will be rich moms, amazing houses and/or apartments, a crime or two, Emmy-baiting courtroom scenes, and enough top-notch wardrobe porn to tide everyone over until the next Rich Lady Crime Miniseries arrives to take over Twitter on Sundays.
Watch it on:HBO