Your TV will be flooded with new shows in coming weeks, so consider this an attempt to help you sort through your couch-potato options.

Of course, when it comes to new shows, no one can accurately predict which ones will fulfill their early promise and which ones will flame out creatively or get canceled within weeks of their premieres. And this year there are few slam-dunks along the lines of 'The Good Wife' or 'Modern Family' (to get our comedy kicks we'll probably have to go with returning shows, given that none of the new comedies look too promising).

Without further ado, these are the fall programs that, on first glance, appear to have quite a bit of potential:

(Plus: Check out the worst new shows)


'Boardwalk Empire,' premieres 9PM ET Sept. 19 on HBO: This tale of Prohibition-era Atlantic City is everything you expect of a marquee HBO drama: It's fantastically acted, gracefully written and visually arresting. Martin Scorsese (who directed the first episode) and ex-'Sopranos' writer Terence Winter expertly bring this panorama of America in the 1920s to vivid life, and Steve Buscemi and Kelly Macdonald are mesmerizing as the drama's lead characters, corrupt politician Nucky Thompson and striving immigrant Margaret Schroeder. 'Boardwalk Empire' is not just the fall's best drama, it's 2010's best new show.

'The Event,' premieres 9PM ET Sept. 20 on NBC: Show of hands: Who's excited about another conspiracy-oriented thriller with a large cast and genre-flavored mythology? OK, so maybe viewers have been burned a few (dozen) times with that kind of show, but I cannot deny that the pilot for this drama was intriguing and made me want to see more. It helps that, unlike the sludgy 'FlashForward,' 'The Event' has a very appealing lead actor, Jason Ritter, who plays a regular guy caught up in dangerous situations he doesn't quite understand.

'Law & Order: Los Angeles,' premieres 10PM ET Sept. 29 on NBC: The 'Law & Order' mothership is gone, but don't count out this sturdy franchise. NBC hasn't sent critics the pilot for this show yet, so it may be a dud, but that'd be a shocker, given the show's solid pedigree. The excellent Skeet Ulrich stars as one of the lead cops, Terrence Howard and Alfred Molina play the deputy district attorneys, and Rene Balcer, the writer who revived the flagship franchise in recent years, is in charge of 'LOLA's' writing staff, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the 'L&O' thunk-thunk fares in L.A.

'Lone Star,' premieres 9PM ET Sept. 20 on Fox: This intelligent and thoughtful drama follows a smooth-talking con man and his grifter father, who have been running scams on naive "investors" for years. The son wants to start building a new life based on love, not lies, which brings him into conflict with his hard-charging father. It's unclear whether this premise will merit a full season of TV, but so far, 'Lone Star' feels like something you'd see on the classier cable channels, and David Keith's galvanizing portrayal of the senior con man is worth the price of admission.

'Luther,' premieres 10PM ET Oct. 17 on BBC America: There are dozens of cop procedurals all over TV, but what makes this one special is a galvanizing lead performance by Idris Elba ('The Wire,' 'The Office'). In this London-set series, Elba plays a character who could be a cliche -- a volatile detective who gets results -- with such conviction that the more derivative and conventional aspects of the show are relatively easy to live with.

'Nikita,' airs 9PM ET Thursdays on the CW (premiered Sept. 9): In this story of a tough intelligence operative driven to take revenge on her former employers, Maggie Q is eminently watchable and the series as a whole promises a lot of escapist fun. (For a full review of 'Nikita,' look here.)

'Terriers,' airs 10PM ET Wednesdays on FX (premiered Sept. 8): This engaging tale of two shambling private investigators has a surprisingly serious side, and it mixes buddy comedy and noir-ish skulduggery with low-key flair. Donal Logue, in particular, gives a deep and entertaining performance as Hank Dolworth, a recovering alcoholic and former cop with the tenacity of, yes, a terrier. (For a full review of 'Terriers,' look here.)

'The Walking Dead,' premieres 10PM ET Oct. 31 on AMC: Ever since executive producer Frank Darabont ('The Shawshank Redemption') unveiled a four-minute clip from this Apocalyptic zombie drama at San Diego Comic-Con in July, nerdboys and fangirls everywhere have been eagerly awaiting this adaptation of the acclaimed Robert Kirkman comic. Alas, the teaser clip is all that's available, but it looks as though it will be as tasty to genre fans as brains are to zombies.

The Show That Almost Made This List: 'The Defenders' (10PM ET Sept. 22 on CBS) is completely in CBS' procedural wheelhouse: It's not greater than the sum of its derivative parts, it's exactly the sum of its derivative parts (some of which are more than a little clunky). Yet I must recognize the meat-and-potatoes appeal of this surprisingly zesty legal drama about a couple of Las Vegas lawyers (played by Jim Belushi and Jerry O'Connell) who are one step above ambulance chasers. And I must commend Belushi for giving a very enjoyable performance as a slightly sleazy lawyer with a strong (if well-concealed) moral code.

The Show You Might Expect to Be on This List But Is Not: 'Undercovers' is a much buzzed-about new spy drama from J.J. Abrams that premieres 8PM ET Sept 22 on NBC, but so far the buzz is just noise. Sure, the flashy first hour looks nice, but so far 'Undercovers' comes across as style over substance. It'll have to up its game substantially to stay on my Season Pass list.



For a video preview of the fall shows, in which AOL TV staffers Kelly Woo, Maggie Furlong and myself discuss which shows we loved, liked and didn't love, look here.

Follow @MoRyan on Twitter.