On TV this fall: Thrillers, corruption and crime. Lots of crime

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Fall TV is already well underway, with a spate of nominally new projects building off old IP that includes Peacock’s “The Office” spinoff “The Paper,” FX’s “Alien: Earth,” and the first half of Season 2 of Netflix’s Addams Family spinoff “Wednesday.” Recycling works! Relatedly, CBS’s “Good Wife” spinoff “Elsbeth” and the “Matlock” reboot starring Kathy Bates both return Oct. 12.

Plenty of beloved feel-good shows are returning, too: Netflix juggernaut “Nobody Wants This” returns for a second season Oct. 23, the fifth season of “Only Murders in the Building” premieres Sept. 9, and ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” returns Oct. 1. Political thrillers continue to do well: Netflix’s “The Diplomat,” starring Keri Russell, comes back Oct. 16, and “Slow Horses” returns for a new season Sept. 24 on Apple TV+. Speaking of the streaming service, “The Morning Show,” a fascinatingly bad but eminently watchable show that has itself inspired glossy knockoffs about the struggles of the ultrarich, returns Sept. 17. So does Prime Video’s surprisingly good spinoff of “The Boys,” the college drama “Gen V.”

But there are a few genuinely new shows premiering this fall. In aggregate, the fall looks a little, oh, bleak: lots of crime, betrayal and corrupt government agencies. Still, here’s a list of some of the series we’re most excited about.

Task

Mark Ruffalo stars in HBO’s latest production from Brad Ingelsby, the creator of “Mare of Easttown.” Ruffalo plays Tom Brandis, a Philly-based FBI agent (and former priest) heading up a task force trying to stop a spate of home invasions in Montgomery and Delaware counties. He’s a tormented dad. So is the thief, Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey). Like “Mare,” “Task” feels real, lived-in; the houses feel and look like messy places people actually sleep in. The workaday miseries, too, feel modulated or perhaps just repressed, packed down deep so people can function. A strong cast includes Raúl Castillo (“Looking”), Fabien Frankel (“House of the Dragon”), Alison Oliver (“Conversations With Friends”) and Martha Plimpton. (Premieres Sept. 7 on HBO Max and Crave.)

The Lowdown

Sterlin Harjo, who changed TV history with “Reservation Dogs,” is back, this time with “The Lowdown,” a noir period drama rooted in Tulsa history. Ethan Hawke (who’s also executive-producing) stars as Lee Raybon, a self-proclaimed “truthstorian” based loosely on a real citizen historian named Lee Roy Chapman. Kaniehtiio Horn (Deer Lady in “Reservation Dogs”) plays his ex, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong plays his teenage daughter, who wants to follow in his footsteps. Also starring Kyle MacLachlan! (Premieres Sept. 23 on FX channel, Sept. 24 on Disney+.)

The Savant

Based on a true story, this thriller from Apple TV+ stars Jessica Chastain as an undercover “savant” whose job it is to monitor and infiltrate internet hate groups, particularly those consisting of white supremacists. The eight-episode drama follows her efforts to balance her work tracking planned bombings and mass shootings with being a military spouse and the mother of mixed-race children. Also starring Dagmara Domińczyk (“Succession”) and Jordana Spiro (“Ozark,” “My Boys”), Nnamdi Asomugha, Cole Doman, Trinity Lee Shirley and Toussaint Francois Battiste. (Premieres Sept. 26 on Apple TV+.)

The Last Frontier

The sporadic homages to small-town life in “The Last Frontier” sometimes scan as a nod to “Northern Exposure”; the pilot even features a wandering moose. But this thriller from Jon Bokenkamp and Richard D’Ovidio features a darker and more conventional showdown between Alaskans and the Lower 48. Jason Clarke stars as Frank Remnick, an Alaskan U.S. marshal forced to deal with the aftermath of a plane crash that happened to be ferrying dangerous prisoners, some off-book. There are survivors. Haley Bennett plays a disgraced CIA officer brought back by her superior (Alfre Woodard) to clean up the mess made by the worst of them, a rogue agent known as Havlock (Dominic Cooper), while Clarke’s character tries to save his town, his wife and his whole way of life. (Premieres Oct. 10 on Apple TV+.)

Talamasca: The Secret Order

Having bidden the role of Cora Crawley goodbye in “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale,” Elizabeth McGovern returns to the small screen as Helen, a recruiting agent for a secret organization dedicated to monitoring vampires, witches and demons in Anne Rice’s “Talamasca.” Her target, and mentee, is Guy Anatole (Nicholas Denton). Also starring Jason Schwartzman as a vampire and William Fichtner as a sinister American who has taken control of the London Motherhouse. The third TV series set in Rice’s Immortal Universe, “Talamasca” packages gothic horror in the trappings of a spy drama. (Premieres Oct. 26 on AMC.)

Down Cemetery Road

Good news for Mick Herron fans for whom five seasons of “Slow Horses” simply aren’t enough: Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson are starring in an eight-episode adaptation of his novel “Down Cemetery Road.” Wilson plays Sarah Tucker, a woman who hires a detective named Zoë Boehm (Thompson) to investigate an explosion and the subsequent disappearance of a girl from an Oxford suburb. (Premieres Oct. 29 on Apple TV+.)

All’s Fair

This legal drama from Hulu and Ryan Murphy follows a renegade group of female divorce attorneys who break off from their male-dominated firms to start an all-woman firm that only serves female clients. The cast is a murderer’s row of thespian powerhouses, including Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash-Betts, Teyana Taylor, Sarah Paulson and Glenn Close. (Also starring: Kim Kardashian.) Even the recurring characters feel like a delicious, nostalgic buffet, with appearances from the likes of Judith Light, Ed O’Neill, Brooke Shields, Elizabeth Berkley and Jessica Simpson. (Premiering this fall on Disney+.)

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All Her Fault

Sarah Snook stars in this mystery thriller based on Andrea Mara’s novel of the same name. Written and created by Megan Gallagher, the series follows Marissa Irvine (Snook), a mother whose life gets turned upside down when she goes to pick her son Milo up from a playdate and finds a woman she’s never met there instead – who doesn’t know Milo or where he might be. Unlike the novel, which is set in Dublin, the series is set in Chicago. The cast includes Dakota Fanning, Jake Lacy and Jay Ellis. (Premieres Nov. 6 on W Network and Showcase.)

Pluribus

Fans of “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” can rejoice: Vince Gilligan is back. Here’s what little we know about his new series, “Pluribus”: It features doughnuts in some pleasurably sinister capacity, stars Rhea Seehorn (who played Kim Wexler in “Better Call Saul”) and while it is, like most Gilligan projects, set in Albuquerque, there’s a sci-fi element (perhaps marking a return to Gilligan’s roots working on “The X-Files”). Apple TV+ has already ordered two seasons. (Premieres Nov. 7 on Apple TV+.)

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The Beast in Me

From “Homeland” and “24” showrunner Howard Gordon comes a cat-and-mouse thriller starring Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys. She plays a once-successful author paralyzed by grief since the tragic death of her son. He plays her new neighbour, a real estate mogul formerly suspected of playing a role in his wife’s disappearance. The cast also includes “Better Call Saul” alums Jonathan Banks and Julie Ann Emery, Natalie Morales, and Hettienne Park. Jodie Foster and Conan O’Brien are among the producers. (Premieres Nov. 13 on Netflix.)