Fall TV 2015: Everything you need to know about shows new and old

Fox is betting big on Scream Queens, which premiered on Tuesday, September 22. The latest show from the team behind Glee and American Horror Story is as close to a mashup of those two series as anyone could possibly get, and Fox has accordingly promoted the hell out of it in the hopes that the stylish show can break out of a bland fall TV season.

There are moments in Scream Queens’ two-hour premiere that are truly fun, witty, and slick. These moments are so good, in fact, that they make the disappointing parts that much worse.

Heading into its second season, Gotham is desperately struggling to remind people why they might have been excited about a Batman prequel series, back before the show muddled up its mission. After premiering to over 8 million viewers, Gotham’s first season finale ended up just under 5 million — and that was an improvement over the rest of the season. (The second season premiere drew just 4.49 million viewers.)

For a show that features a preteen Batman and a steady rotation of cartoonish villains (including one whose murders involved balloons), Gotham somehow managed to take itself far too seriously.

You might have heard there’s a new Muppets series debuting Tuesday, Sept. 22, the first featuring all of these characters as series regulars since The Muppet Show left the air in 1981. You might have even heard that this new Muppets series is more “adult,” which conjures unfortunate images of a tawdry version of Kermit’s famous flailing routine. And you might know that the series goes behind the scenes of a late-night talk show hosted by Miss Piggy.

For all its obvious weak spots, the show has turned out pretty well. It’s silly but emotionally resonant, and able to call back on Muppets lore without getting lost in it. Here’s what works, and what doesn’t.