There’s always lots of new beginnings and transitions to be dealt with in the fall: the start of a new school year, the shift from hot summer days to brisk sweater weather and the addition of a heavy new course load after three months of blissful fun in the sun. One thing that never fails to ease our pain, however, is fall pilot season. As we’ve learned in college, no assignment can ever really be completed without a few breaks to catch up on our favorite TV shows. Here’s a list of the top 5 hottest new pilots this fall: prepare to happily procrastinate away.
1. Red Band Society
This Fox hospital drama stars The Help’s Octavia Spencer as a no-nonsense nurse in the pediatric ward of a hospital. The show follows the lives of the teenagers living in the hospital and their unique experiences of typical high school drama. They deal with the normal pressures of fighting and falling in love, with the additional anxieties of going through surgeries and chemotherapy. However, their experiences bring them closer and create strong and heartwarming bonds. As the pilot trailer says, “Everyone thinks when you go to a hospital, life stops. Buts it’s just the opposite; life starts.”
Premiered Sept. 17
2. Black-ish
This ABC comedy follows the life of the Johnsons, a successful African American family living in a predominantly white neighborhood. The father, Dre Johnson, struggles to keep his children in touch with their African roots in spite of their interest in typical American pop culture. While this typically leads to hilarious situations, it also brings to light real issues of parent-child relationships, cultural awareness and the importance of personal identity.
Premiered Sept. 24
3. Selfie
Starring Doctor Who’s Karen Gillan and Star Trek’s John Cho, this ABC comedy is actually a modern day parody of My Fair Lady. Gillan is the Eliza Dooley (Doolittle) to Cho’s Henry Higgs (Higgins). But instead of correcting her cockney accent, Higgs is teaching insta-obsessed Dooley to behave like a 2014 lady; someone who doesn’t just speak in terms of Facebook likes, Instagram followers and hashtags. Throughout the course of their lessons the pair finds that they both have a thing or two to learn from one another, other than just manners.
Premiers Sept. 30
4. American Horror Story: Freak Show
Just in time for the Halloween season, American Horror Story returns with its fourth original series. This time around, the story will be focused on a traveling freak show in the fifties, with such characters as a bearded lady, three-breasted woman, Siamese twins, and scariest of all, an evil clown. Get ready to cozy up with some friends or that special someone and get into the spooky spirit. As creator Ryan Murphy promises, this is the scariest horror story yet!
Premiers Oct. 8
5. How to Get Away with Murder
The hottest new legal drama stars Viola Davis as a genius criminal law professor who teaches her students the basics of defending guilty murderers. As the class learns more and gets the opportunity to work for her firm, they get entangled in a web of sex, lies and murder that will take all of their training to get out of alive.
Premiered Sept. 25