Autumn Season Preview: Six Shows Worth a Look

Every new cour arrives like a stack of unopened letters, and the autumn lineup is thicker than usual. We watched the first episodes of more than a dozen premieres so you can spend your evenings on the ones that land.

Two quiet slice-of-life shows surprised us most, trading loud hooks for patient character work that pays off by the third episode. A sports drama and a moody fantasy round out the picks, each strong enough to carry a full season.

As always, first impressions are only that. We will revisit this list at the halfway mark and admit, cheerfully, wherever we turned out to be wrong.