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Here in the U.S., Fall is when TV networks try to win over viewers with new shows, and this season is gonna be a big one for us geeks. Here’s a handy guide to all the new shows you should know about.

Ringer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL65njmvD34

Tuesdays on The CW
Premieres: September 13
Sarah Michelle Gellar returns to television in this complicated thriller about twin sisters Siobhan and Bridget. Bridget’s life is a disaster, while Siobhan is a wealthy success. When the latter sister seemingly dies and the former witnesses a murder, Bridget escapes by assuming her sister’s name and life. It looks appropriately twisty/turny, but I have no idea where it’s going — or how the premise will be maintained week after week. But Gellar is geek royalty, and The CW knows it. Did you notice what night Ringer is airing on? That’s right: the same night of the week that Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired on for most of its run.

The Secret Circle

Thursdays on The CW
Premieres: September 15

The makers of The Vampire Diaries (using another novel series by Diaries‘ author L.J. Smith) bring you this new teen-friendly series about modern day witches. Basically, if Vampire Diaries is “True Blood Lite,” then you’ll probably notice some similar parallels between The Secret Circle and Twilight – only with witches instead of vamps and werewolves. The cast includes Sarah Connor Chronicles‘ Thomas Dekker in a similarly broody role.

Revenge

Wednesdays on ABC
Premieres: September 21

Based loosely on Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, the series finds a girl from the Hamptons whose father’s life was destroyed by the rich and powerful returning to the wealthy beach town to take down the people responsible. She changes her name and reappears in the Hamptons, working her way into their lives while systematically scheming to destroy them all. Of course the twist comes when she falls for the son of one of her wicked targets, causing a crisis of conscience. Revenge is the soapiest entry on this list, but its pseudo-literary pedigree gives it marginal geek interest.

Charlie’s Angels

Thursdays on ABC
Premieres: September 22

Proving once more that Hollywood is running low on new ideas, Charlie’s Angels is getting yet a third incarnation (after the classic TV series and the two Hollywood movies). This time it’s a flashy, glitzy actioner from the duo that created Smallville, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. Their involvement gives one hope, but really — it’s Charlie’s Angels. I think we all know what to expect.

Person of Interest

Thursdays on CBS
Premieres: September 22

By all accounts, it has the biggest buzz of any new show this season. Its killer premise — a genius billionaire teams up with a burnt-out special ops soldier to stop the worst crimes before they happen — is topped only by its creators’ pedigree. Dreamed up by Jonathan Nolan (writer of The Dark Knight, and brother to its director) and produced by JJ Abrams, it also boasts a great cast in Lost‘s Michael Emerson as the reclusive techno-mastermind and Jim Caviezel (in full-on “Batman with guns” mode) as the lethal operative. CBS, taking on its first JJ Abrams show, believes so much in Person of Interest that they’ve given it the most coveted time slot on television: CSI‘s old home of Thursdays at 9.

Terra Nova

Mondays on Fox
Premieres: September 26

You could literally call it the biggest gamble in television history. Or maybe Jurassic Park: The Series. If Person of Interest has the biggest buzz of the season, then Terra Nova is the show it was stolen from. But that doesn’t mean Terra Nova isn’t a big deal. Far from it. As point of fact, the FX-heavy series has the biggest budget of any TV show ever, along with a producer by the name of Spielberg. Every episode is said to be akin to a big-screen blockbuster with its huge scale and epic scope, and Fox is appropriately treating it as “event television.” The story follows a family from overcrowded, polluted 2149 traveling back in time to join a colony that’s attempting to restart human civilization — and get it right this time — in prehistoric times. There’s a colorful cast of characters, dark forces at work within Terra Nova itself, a rebel colony that’s living elsewhere, and of course, the show’s real stars: dinosaurs.

Bedlam

Saturdays on BBC America
Premieres: October 1

If there’s one thing BBC does well, it’s taking preposterous ideas and making them work. Bedlam is their latest kooky-idea-turned-can’t-look-away-drama: it’s about a posh, renovated apartment building that happens to be a former insane asylum (old Indian burial grounds are so five minutes ago) and is now filled with the place’s disturbed ghosts. Central to the story is a man named Jed, who suffers from mental illness himself, but also possesses the ability to see both the ghosts who haunt the building and visions of their deaths.

Homeland

Sundays on Showtime
Premieres: October 2

Claire Danes returns to television as a troubled CIA agent in this taut thriller from the makers of 24. Danes’ agent, a reckless, dangerous individual lost in a spiral of narcissism (she feels guilty about not anticipating 9/11), has intel suggesting that a newly-returned, longtime POW might have been turned by his terrorist captors. But there’s a chance she could simply be delusional. Figuring out who’s the hero and who’s the villain is a big part of what makes this provocative series tick. And it’s always a good sign when the early reviews are downright gushing over how good it is.

American Horror Story

Wednesdays on FX
Premieres: October 5

This one’s from the creators of Glee, but don’t let that scare you off; one of the musical’s creators was also responsible for Nip/Tuck. American Horror Story is about a family that moves into a haunted mansion. It’s an age-old plot, but it’s spiced up with an extremely dark, dangerous, and sexed-up vibe and a lot of bizarre, Twin Peaks-ish characters. Among them: a ghost on fire, a man in a rubber bondage suit, and a nosy neighbor played by big-screen actress Jessica Lang.

Grimm

Fridays on NBC
Premieres: October 21

The first of two new series inspired by fairy tales, Grimm explains that fairy tale monsters are real and living among us. To the unknowing, they look just like everyone else. But a magical kind of people known as “Grimms” are capable of seeing them for what they are, and are charged with policing them and protecting the human population. The trailer looks smart and creepy, and the creators are a talented pair of alums from Buffy and Angel, but I’m not holding out a lot of hope for this one. Its time slot puts it head-to-head against Fringe and Supernatural.

Once Upon a Time

Sundays on ABC
Premieres: October 23

What if fairy tales like Snow White were real? And what if the Evil Queen got the upper hand and transported everyone to the real world, while erasing their memories? That’s the premise behind this serial from two of the staff writers on Lost. It sounds kinda nuts, but darn if that trailer doesn’t look terrific. Word has it ABC is hoping Once Upon a Time might become its next Lost, which is why they gave the series a budget big enough to accomodate its lavish production values. Personally, I’m hoping for a big mythology and a smart serial, with surprises and game-changers and all that jazz. Because hitting the reset button week after week will suck the life out of this one.

Hell on Wheels

Sundays on AMC
Premieres: November 6

In the aftermath of the Civil War, a former Confederate soldier sets out to take revenge on the Union soldiers who killed his wife, and finds himself out west in a traveling town called Hell on Wheels. The small town moves alongside the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, while also addressing the lives of newly freed slaves following the war. Westerns were made for these kinds of revenge stories, and Hell on Wheels looks to capitalize on both that and an important historical period not touched upon by other film or television.

And coming mid-season…

Early 2012 brings more new shows, including the buzz-heavy horror serial The River on ABC (from the creator of Paranormal Activity); Jason Isaacs as a cop displaced between parallel realities in Awake on NBC; Missing, about a former covert agent (played by Ashley Judd) who goes searching for her missing son, take-no-prisoners style; and JJ Abrams’ Alcatraz on Fox, about former inmates of the prison island who mysteriously disappeared in the past and are reappearing in the present day.