it's binge season —

Ars TV Guide: All the new shows you’ll want to check out this fall

Killer robots, dork rappers, time traveling terrorists, jerks in heaven, and more!

Luke Cage is coming, and your bullets mean nothing to him.
Enlarge / Luke Cage is coming, and your bullets mean nothing to him.

Fall TV season is in full swing, but there's still time to figure out what's worth watching from the new crop of shows just underway. At Ars, we've painstakingly evaluated the new fall titles for possible geek-related awesomeness and found a baker's dozen for you to check out. Remember—we've only included new shows, not returning ones that are coming back for a second or twelfth season. But feel free to wax poetic about your love for everything from Homeland to The Walking Dead in the comments.

Drama

StartUp

This intriguing series combines Miami gangster action with the tale of a startup that has created GenCoin, a crypto currency that could save the developing world (or... just allow drug dealers to launder their money faster). Either way, this is probably the season's most unexpected tech thriller, streaming on Crackle with a fantastic cast that includes Martin Freeman, Otmara Marrero, and Adam Brody.

StartUp is a tech series in the vein of Mr. Robot, where hacking isn't just a get-rich-quick scheme for VCs in Silicon Valley—it's also about global politics. In StartUp, building a tech company is a chance for its founders to escape from poverty and to help millions of other people in the world have access to bank accounts via mobile. Unfortunately, their angel investors are drug dealers, and their roadblocks involve eluding FBI investigators. The series started streaming on Crackle on September 6.

MacGyver

What else could you want? It's MacGyver, the ultimate nerd wet dream show, where tinkering with tech gets you out of literally every terrible situation on earth. In this reimagining of the original 1980s show, Lucas Till plays the secret government operative who stops crimes/disasters using the power of science. He's younger than the original MacGyver and also has a team that includes his boss (Sandrine Holt) and a surly computer hacker (Tristin Mays). It may not quite measure up to the original—and MacGyver's hair is a bit concerning—but it does promise to be fun in a kind of Scorpion way. The first episode aired September 23.

Van Helsing

A look at the vampire action in the pilot episode of Van Helsing.

This Syfy series sounds absolutely batshit insane, and that's why I'm so excited about it. Remember the character Abraham Van Helsing from Dracula? The learned older chap who knows all about vampire lore? Well, this is about his granddaughter Vanessa Helsing (nicknamed Van, of course), who has awakened from a coma to fight post-apocalyptic vampires of the future. Why was she in a coma? Why does she have the power to bite vampires and turn them human? Why is her name Vanessa Helsing instead of Vanessa Van Helsing, thus making her Van Van Helsing? Oh shut up and just watch the undead Mad Max-style action, presided over by twisted showrunner Neil LaBute. It's going to be great (especially after six beers). The first episode aired September 23.

Luke Cage

Ever since our brains exploded with the awesomeness that was the Netflix series Jessica Jones, fans have been waiting for this series about Jessica's ambivalent partner Luke Cage. Like Jessica, he's got super strength and mega-healing powers but nothing fancy like flight or laser eyes. He's just a serious badass with a heart of gold who wants to clean up Harlem.

In this series, Cage goes up against evil Harlem gangster/club owner Mahershala Ali, who is in cahoots with corrupt politician Alfre Woodard. Cage is a man with a past who tried to flee a horrible tragedy by quietly running a bar and staying out of everybody's way. But the bad guys keep getting worse, so he reluctantly takes up the mantle of vigilante superhero to bring justice to the city. The action looks terrific, and Mike Colter plays Cage with a perfect blend of calm calculation and righteous anger. I guarantee you will be binge watching this one soon. The series will be available on Netflix starting September 30.

Westworld

With an all-star cast, twisty-smart plot, and outrageously cool special effects, HBO's Westworld is poised to become your new obsession. Created by Jonathan Nolan (Person of Interest, The Dark Knight) and Lisa Joy (Burn Notice, Battlestar Galactica), it's the story of a far-future wild west theme park full of robot "hosts" that are virtually indistinguishable from humans. The human guests who visit Westworld can do anything they want to the robots, which as one engineer puts it in an early episode, means "fuck and kill."

But the park's creator, Ford (Anthony Hopkins), has just rolled out an update that has given the robots a new perspective on the humans. Head programmer Jeffrey Wright has to grapple with the consequences, while park guest Jimmi Simpson finds himself sympathizing with the machines. Meanwhile, James Marsden wants nothing more than to romance the kind, artistic robot Evan Rachel Wood—though evil Man in Black Ed Harris has horrific plans for her and every other bot in the park. Our perspective shifts between robots, guests, and programmers as we piece together the mystery that fuels this dystopian game world. Truly mind-expanding explorations of AI and robot consciousness intermingle with ultra-violence and corporate politics in what is guaranteed to be the fall's best new science fiction series. The first episode airs October 2.

Channel Ars Technica