6 Geeked-Out TV Shows We Can't Wait For

6 Geeked-Out TV Shows We Can't Wait For

Normally, we'd be sad to see summer go—but with new fall TV just around the corner, we can't get too upset. Our favorites—including Fringe, Dollhouse, Lost and Heroes—are coming back with all-new episodes, and two new series with real sci-fi promise are making their big debut. Here are the six shows that will have us couch-surfing this fall.


1 Fringe



Season Two Premiere: September 17, 9 pm, Fox

The end of Fringe's first season saw FBI agent Olivia Dunham transported to an alternate dimension to meet with elusive and mysterious Massive Dynamic CEO William Bell—a dimension where JFK lived and the Twin Towers are still standing. Executive producer J.R. Orci says that reality represents "the road not taken." And from what Anna Torv, who plays Dunham, has to say, it holds startling revelations for our favorite FBI agent. "What she's told when she's in the parallel universe will give her a big kick in the bum," the actress says. "I think last season was very much about becoming aware of the fact there was some kind of enemy. This season everyone is a little more proactive and it's a little more about gathering the truth." One thing's for sure: Season two will have tons of science for Digital Hollywood to fact check: "I think we're trying to blur the line [between the supernatural and science]," Orci says. "If you go on any major Web site, you'll see that the articles written now about major science would have been science fiction five years ago. And it was odd timing for the show, but that's part of why the show emerged from us."

2 Heroes



Season Four Premiere: September 21, 8 pm, NBC

Tim Kring's Heroes has had it's ups and downs since it premiered in the Fall of 2006, due in part to the writer's strike which crippled Season Two with only 11 out of 24 episodes produced, and also the shift away from character-driven episodes which made the first season so popular. Fan-favorite writer and producer Bryan Fuller returned for the second half of Season Three ("Fugitives") and helped to lay much of the groundwork for Season Four before leaving the show for good. The shocking events of last season's finale, which saw the death of Nathan Petrelli whose mind was then placed into the villainous Sylars body by resident telepath Matt Parkman, really shook up the Heroes status quo. Season Four ("Redemption") picks up six weeks later with all the main characters moving on with their lives: Peter is a Paramedic, Claire is off to college, Nathan is learning more about his "new" abilities, Parkman is tortured by visions of Sylar due to the transfer and Hiro is dying. Things are going to get even crazier when the Carnival, led by the mysterious Samuel (Prison Break's Robert Knepper), rolls into town complete with an all new band of freaks including a tattooed woman, an elderly time traveller and a knife thrower played by Darth Maul himself, Ray Park.

3 Flashforward



Season Premiere: September 24, 8 pm, ABC

"We're really trying to write this show for two audience members: The people who watch ‘Lost' and the people who watch ‘Grey's Anatomy,'" executive producer Marc Guggenheim told Popular Mechanics about Flashforward. The show—which revolves around a mysterious event that causes the whole world to black out and have visions of their lives six months in the future—currently has a 13-episode order from ABC that, if the show is successful, will be expanded to 24 episodes. FF will have a mix of serialized elements and stand-alone storylines, and like Lost, viewers will be treated to both flashforwards and flashbacks in the characters' lives. But the show's greatest similarity to Lost is one of its central themes: What is the nature of destiny? "Is there such a thing as destiny?" Guggenheim asks. "If so, are you prisoner of destiny or can you fight it? Look at Oedipus Rex—the first great stories about destiny and the human condition. In that story the attempt to prevent destiny actually brings it about. In the show characters, will want to fight their destinies. Others will try to make it happen. And some will live in denial."

4 Dollhouse



Season Two Premiere: September 25, 9 pm, Fox

Joss Whedon is a fanboy favorite and he knows that his fans are the reason that Dollhouse, the latest addition to the ever-expanding Whedonverse, didn't meet the same fate as Firefly, his former Friday-night foray on Fox which was canceled after only 11 episodes. With a high concept (think Charlie's Angels meets The Matrix) and a batch of stellar episodes to close out the first season, Whedon and company have a strong foundation on which to base Season Two, exploring the mysteries and expanding on the mythology of Dollhouse. The addition of Reaper's Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters to the writing staff and the return of Felicia Day, whom we last saw in the DVD exclusive post-apocalyptic 13th episode "Epitaph One," can only help to build on the show's already sizable momentum. The ultimate fate of the series is up to you, but rest assured that for Season Two Echo and her fellow actives will undergo more memory-erasing pseudoscience to become whomever their clients wish them to be, all while trying to uncover who they really are.

5 V



Season Premiere: November 3, 8 pm, ABC

In this much-buzzed-about remake of a 1983 miniseries, aliens, who call themselves the Visitors—Vs for short—come to Earth seeking water and a mineral they need before they can begin their long journey back home. In exchange for humanity's help, the aliens will share their advanced technologies. But as some embrace the Vs, others doubt the creatures, who might not be as new to planet Earth as they've lead people to believe. What their ultimate endgame is, is anyone's guess, but the pilot episode of this show is enough to have us tuning in when it airs in November.

6 Lost



Season Six Premiere: 2010 TBD, ABC

Okay, so it's not exactly a fall preview, but we're so excited for the final season of Lost we had to mention it. The show's Comic Con panel—which included commercials for Mr. Cluck's, where Hurley said he'd had nothing but luck since winning the lottery, and Kate's "America's Most Wanted" segment, where we found out that she'd killed her father's assistant and not her dad—hinted that the detonation of Jughead may have rebooted history. Stars of the hit series were largely mum about the possibility of a reboot—Jorge Garcia, who plays Hurley, did tell executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse that rewriting history would "like, totally be cheating." Josh Holloway, who plays Sawyer, had this to say about the final season: "The material will finally make sense … maybe," he told Popular Mechanics. "I'll be sad to see it end, but it's gonna be magical."