Every spring, as the regular TV season winds down, the major networks—unwilling to let us forget they exist—start teasing us with all the new shows they'll be bombarding us with in the new fall season. Technically, the upfronts are meant to convince advertisers to buy in, but since serious TV addicts (read: us) want to know what's good on as much as ad folks do, following the upfronts is now as important as following the NFL draft is for people who own giant foam fingers.
But if you didn't monitor the upfronts the last couple weeks as closely as the rest of us, that's okay—we can help. Amidst the scads of Scandal hopefuls—OK, to be fair, Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes' new show How to Get Away with Murder looks like our next favorite guilty pleasure—there are actually few solid-looking gems. Here's a breakdown of the most promising shows hitting the major networks next fall and beyond—and what could become your new must-see TV.
Network: The CW
The short story: Barry Allen, aka "fastest man alive" the Flash, is the latest DC Comics hero to hit the small screen. Introduced last year on the CW's other DC hero show, Arrow, Allen (played by one-time Glee kid Grant Gustin) is a police investigator and comics fanboy whose work on a series of strange robberies (naturally) brings him into vigilante life.
Reason to be cautiously optimistic: The Flash is brought to you by the same people who produce Arrow, and the first trailer (above) proves the CW is maintaining its commitment to fan service by featuring dudes with perfect jawlines and great abs. Also: It's a show about the Flash.
Reason to be skeptical: Superhero burnout is a dangerous thing, friends.
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Network: Fox
The short story: Think of this as the show that happened before Batman began. Instead of Bruce Wayne, Gotham focuses on Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) when he was a detective, not commissioner, and promises a look at the early days of some of Gotham City's most well-known villains: Penguin, Catwoman, the Riddler, etc. And, of course, a very young Wayne.
Reason to be cautiously optimistic: Based on the first trailer, it looks like this series is going for the kind of gritty realness that made Christopher Nolan's Batman films so badass.
Reason to be skeptical: Because it's about Gotham City's early days, it could just be one big bat-tease.
Network: ABC
The short story: Aliens attempt to invade Earth through the minds of young children. ::Shudder:: From there on out it's a race against time.
Reason to be cautiously optimistic: It's based on a Ray Bradbury story, executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, and directed by music video/One Hour Photo auteur Mark Romanek.
Reason to be skeptical: Cool-sounding premises don't always result in gripping television—especially on ABC, which also brought us FlashForward and No Ordinary Family. Remember those? No? There you go.
Network: Fox
The short story: Brian K. Vaughan's comics series Y: The Last Man minus the women and political intrigue, The Last Man On Earth is about what happens when some average dude (in this case played by Saturday Night Live alum Will Forte) realizes he's...wait for it...the only guy left. He goes on a quest in his RV to find someone—anyone—to hang out with.
Reason to be cautiously optimistic: The show was created by Forte, who showed he had a lot of range in last year's flick Nebraska, and it's being directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord, the duo that's already blessed us with 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie.
Reason to be skeptical: It could end up being like The Walking Dead's worst episodes of pointless, directionless wandering—without the promise of zombies to shake things up.
Network: CBS
The short story: Walter O'Brien is a genius—which we know because people talk about it a lot—who has pulled together an eclectic group of other super-smart folks to protect America from high-tech modern-day threats and stuff. (The first trailer shows them trying to stop a bunch of planes from crashing over Los Angeles because of a bad software upgrade at LAX.)
Reason to be cautiously optimistic: Fast-paced cyber action can be good for a thrill every so often, even if it requires a massive suspension of disbelief. Also the show, based on a true story, is being helmed by Fringe alumni Alex Kurtzman and (future Star Trek 3 director) Roberto Orci and directed by Justin Lin—famous for many of the Fast & Furious movies—so at least it'll be high-energy.
Reason to be skeptical: The whole rag-tag team of eccentric geniuses thing seems a little familiar.
Network: ABC
The short story: Eliza Dooley (Karen Gillan) is huge on social media, but has no real friends, so she hires a marketing guru (played by John Cho) to help her connect with people on a deeper level than a tweet.
Reason to be cautiously optimistic: It's got Doctor Who (and future Guardians of the Galaxy) star Gillan and Cho, the guy who plays Sulu in the current Star Trek movies.
Reason to be skeptical: That premise sounds about as deep as the main character.
Network: ABC
The short story: The Marvel Universe gets even bigger thanks to the tale of Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), who appeared in the Captain America films and helped found S.H.I.E.L.D. Essentially a prequel to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter will trace the origins of the intelligence agency (and probably/hopefully Hydra too).
Reason to be cautiously optimistic: Marvel has a female-lead project! Marvel has a female-lead project! Also, the post-World War II period could provide some fertile ground for exploring interesting historical storylines.
Reason to be skeptical: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. got good towards the end of its first season this spring, but it was a long slog to get there. If Agent Carter takes as long to ramp up, it may not be worth the wait.
Network: Fox
The short story: A master thief in ancient Egypt is taken from prison and tasked with tracking down whoever stole a dangerous scroll known as the Book of Thresholds.
Reason to be cautiously optimistic: This show, which should hit Fox midseason, is being helmed by Travis Beacham, the whiz who wrote Pacific Rim.
Reason to be skeptical: Eh, these "set in ancient Egypt" kind of things tend to be either great sword-and-sandals romps or, you know, bad sword-and-sandals romps.
Network: ABC
The short story: A little bit Monty Python, a little bit Glee, it's a musical comedy fairy tale show with all the makings of spectacular success or spectacular failure.
Reason to be cautiously optimistic: The first trailer (above) made us laugh more than once.
Reason to be skeptical: While we wish Game of Thrones occasionally had a big dance number, we also know that it could be a disaster. So could this.
Network: NBC
The short story: DC Comics is clearly about to have a big year. This show, cribbed from the DC universe like Gotham and The Flash (though it's actually spun off from the long-running Hellblazer from DC's mature imprint Vertigo), is a live-action adaptation of the tale of John Constantine, a detective who protects Earth from dark, supernatural forces. (Those looking for a thrilling series about the guy who brought Christianity to the Roman Empire will have to wait for a future upfronts.)
Reason to be cautiously optimistic: It's being executive produced by David S. Goyer, who has written or had a hand in most of DC's cinematic adaptions, from Batman Begins to Man of Steel.
Reason to be skeptical: Remember when Keaunu Reeves played Constantine? Yeah, it might be hard to erase that image.
Network: Fox
The short story: Comedy writer John Mulaney gets his own Seinfeld-esque show about a stand-up comedian trying to make it … yadda, yadda, yadda.
Reason to be cautiously optimistic: It's being executive produced by Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels and Mulaney is a pretty funny dude.
Reason to be skeptical: It's another comedy about a stand-up comedian—trying to match Jerry Seinfeld or Louis C.K. is a tough row to hoe.
Network: The CW
The short story: Based on the Vertigo comics series, iZombie is about a girl who works in a coroner's office in order to fulfill her craving for brrraaaaiiiinnnns but in so doing ingests that brain's memories. She also solves murders.
Reason to be cautiously optimistic: It's based on an Eisner Award-nominated series and being executive produced by Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas, who somehow has a mainline into the minds of crime-solving young women.
Reason to be skeptical: The title still kinda sounds like an Apple product, but that's about it.
Network: NBC
The short story: In addition to Hieroglyph there are two (thankfully) female-fronted shows coming midseason with crazy potential. The first is Mission Control, which stars Krysten Ritter (Jane from Breaking Bad) as an aerospace engineer trying to prove herself at NASA in the 1960s. (We're hoping for Mad Men with physics jokes and, like, levity.) The other is Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, in which Bridesmaids' Ellie Kemper plays a woman who tries to figure out New York after 15 years in a cult.
Reason to be cautiously optimistic: Mission Control is being executive produced by Will Ferrell and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is Tina Fey's latest endeavor.
Reason to be skeptical: We have a much longer wait to see if they're worth it.
