Major networks and streamers are preparing a slate of new scripted dramas for the fall television season, many of them based on high-profile source material or targeting established audiences from previous franchises. Ryan Murphy's "Monsters" anthology series returns with an episode focused on Lizzie Borden, the woman accused of murdering her father and stepmother with a hatchet in 1892, played by Ella Beatty. A separate limited series from MGM, based on a podcast, dramatizes the 1977 kidnapping of a mortgage company owner by an Indiana man, with Jon Hamm playing the Indianapolis newscaster who covers the story.
A reboot of "A Different World," the 1990s sitcom and spinoff of "The Cosby Show," is set at the fictional Hillman College, an historically Black university. The show will follow Deborah Wayne, daughter of two characters from the original series, as a freshman navigating campus life and the weight of being a legacy student. Original cast members Kadeem Hardison and Jasmine Guy will reprise their roles.
Zoe Kazan, granddaughter of director Elia Kazan, is behind a new adaptation of John Steinbeck's "East of Eden" that focuses on the character of Cathy Ames, Cal's mother. Florence Pugh plays Cathy, with the series exploring her backstory in detail. The 1955 film adaptation directed by Elia Kazan centered on James Dean's portrayal of Cal as a rebellious character seeking his identity.
A rowing drama stars Miku Martineau as a West Coast high school student forced to move east after a family scandal, only to discover her new boarding school has no girls' crew team. She joins the boys' varsity rowing squad as coxswain, a position that creates complications as she adjusts to her new school and town. A divorce drama set in the world of technology and film stars Dominic West and Sienna Miller as a tech mogul and movie star embroiled in a contentious split involving accusations of wrongdoing and substantial financial stakes.
Catherine Zeta-Jones plays the title character in an action series about a former international drug smuggler turned art dealer forced to confront her past when a crew of assassins is hired to kill her. The cast includes Ron Perlman, Sidse Babett Knudsen, and Daniel Ings. Russell T Davies, creator of the AIDS-crisis drama "It's a Sin," has a new limited series set in Manchester pairing Alan Cumming as the proprietor of a popular bar with David Morrissey, known for "The Walking Dead," as a next-door neighbor electrician with critical views of the LGBTQ community.
