Hollywood stars shine on the small screen this fall. Our critic picks the season’s 10 most promising TV shows

Resistance is futile: school is back in a couple of days and Starbucks has already started selling pumpkin spice lattes. That means fall is here, no matter what the weather says, so we might as well talk about fall television (which, for our purposes, is anything after Labour Day and before late November).
While it’s true that networks and streamers churn out new content all year long — less, and of lesser quality, lately than before the strikes and the pandemic — there are still some intriguing new shows landing as the days get cooler and the leaves prettier. Here are 10 of them:
Sept. 5, Netflix
I get “White Lotus” and “Big Little Lies” echoes from this soapy mystery series about a rich family whose Nantucket wedding festivities are disrupted by a body floating in the harbour. Not everything Nicole Kidman does on TV is fabulous — hello, “Nine Perfect Strangers” and “The Undoing” — but she’s still an Oscar-winning A-lister. Here she plays the matriarch of the Winburys, joined by Liev Schreiber (“Ray Donovan”), Dakota Fanning (“The Talented Mr. Ripley”), Meghann Fahy (“The White Lotus”), Billy Howle (“Under the Banner of Heaven”) and Eve Hewson (“The Knick”).
Sept. 18, Disney Plus
My usual reaction to news of yet another Marvel TV show is a supersized eye roll, but seeing as how “WandaVision” was the only one I actually liked and that Kathryn Hahn is generally good in everything (see: “Parks and Recreation,” “Transparent,” “I Know This Much Is True,” etc.), I am willing to park my skepticism. Here, Hahn reprises the role of witch Agnes Harkness from “WandaVision” and she’s putting together a coven to walk the Witches’ Road. With actors like Patti LuPone, Aubrey Plaza and Sasheer Zamata along for the ride, it could be a fun jaunt.
Sept 19, 9 p.m., Crave
HBO dips back into the DC Comics universe with this Batman spinoff about the Gotham City criminal Oz Cobb, a.k.a. the Penguin. It’s Oscar nominee Colin Farrell under the prosthetic makeup, expanding on the role he first played in 2022’s “The Batman” movie. In the words of showrunner Lauren Lefranc, the limited series explores “Oz’s psychology, showcasing his perverse logic and history without glorifying it,” or shying away from the brutality. 
Sept. 20, Apple
If you think it’s been too long since nasty, rich people who happen to be related occupied your screens, this French-language drama set in Paris might be the fix. There are two brothers, Vincent and Victor Ledu (Lambert Wilson and Pierre Deladonchamps), attached to rival fashion houses; a muse, Perle (Amira Casar), with ties to both bros; a scheming nephew, Robinson (Antoine Reinartz); Victor’s mother-in-law, Diane Rovel (Carole Bouquet), a ruthless luxury group owner determined to sink House Ledu; and a young designer, Paloma (Zita Hanrot), who might save the disgraced maison from itself. Canadian Daniel Grou is one of the directors.
Sept. 20, Prime Video 
If you were one of the 11.7 million Canadians who watched the band’s last concert live from Kingston, Ont., in 2016, I don’t have to tell you about the emotion attached to this docuseries, which makes its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 5. Almost seven years after lead singer Gord Downie died of brain cancer, Gord’s brother, Mike, tells the story of the beloved band, promising previously unseen performances and archival footage and unreleased music. 
Sept. 24, StackTV
Although this crime drama is coming from the American Fox network, it has a lot of Canadian connections. It stars Vancouver-born Rossif Sutherland — son of the late Donald, to whom the series will be dedicated — alongside fellow Vancouverite Kristin Kreuk (“Smallville,” “Burden of Truth”), and it’s filmed and set in Gibsons, B.C., home of the classic Canadian series “The Beachcombers.” (Yep, that’s Molly’s Reach in the trailer.) It’s based on the Karl Alberg novels of Saskatoon author L.R. Wright, with Sutherland as the titular detective.
Sept. 25, FX; TBA Disney Plus 
Let’s be honest: the main reason we’re all going to watch this is to see Taylor Swift’s boyfriend act. Travis Kelce is among the cast in the latest Ryan Murphy horror series, which features a nun (Micaela Diamond of “Elsbeth”) and a detective (Niecy Nash-Betts of “Scream Queens”) investigating particularly nasty crimes. Rounding out the cast are Courtney B. Vance and Lesley Manville (if you count this and “Disclaimer,” below, plus “Moonflower Murders” on PBS on Sept. 15, it’s her third fall TV appearance). 
Sept. 27, Crave
If you’re a Leonard Cohen fan, chances are the romance between him and Marianne Ihlen has already reached mythic proportions in your mind, given the songs that it inspired. This drama explores their coupling on the Greek island of Hydra and beyond in the 1960s, with Alex Wolff (“In Treatment,” “Oppenheimer”) playing Cohen and Norwegian Thea Sofie Loch Naess portraying Marianne. The series, which bows just days after what would have been Cohen’s 90th birthday, also boasts music from Montreal singer-songwriter Patrick Watson.
Oct. 9, Disney Plus
Since they first came to worldwide attention in “Y tu mamá también” in 2001, Mexican actors and best friends Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal have established thriving Hollywood careers, appearing in movies and shows like “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” “The Motorcycle Diaries,” “Andor,” “Narcos” and “Mozart in the Jungle.” They reunite in this limited series, with Bernal as a boxer staging a comeback with the help of his manager, played by Luna, despite threats from underworld forces. 
Oct. 11, Apple
We’re well past the point where movie stars appearing in TV shows is a big deal, but this intriguing psychological thriller boasts three Oscar winners: actors Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline, and director and writer Alfonso Cuarón. Blanchett plays a celebrated documentarian whose picture-perfect existence is threatened when her darkest secret is exposed in a novel, and Kline is the retired teacher who wants to bring her down. The cast also boasts Lesley Manville (“The Crown”), Sacha Baron Cohen (“Borat”), Louis Partridge (“Pistol”) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (“The Power of the Dog”).