Greetings from the nerd capital of the world!

The Collective Admins are frantically running around SDCC, trying to glean all the news in all your favorite fandoms, but yesterday, we sat in Ballroom 20 for hours to watch some screenings of new shows that are coming this fall. Ironically, both the screenings I saw were for tv mysteries–with a healthy dosage of creepiness thrown in, in case paranormal activity is your thing.

Looking for something new this fall? Read on to hear my thoughts on these two new shows!

“Nancy Drew” on The CW

Everyone’s favorite child sleuth is getting a regular slot in the CW’s fall programming. This Nancy, however, isn’t the wide-eyed and eager young detective we’ve come to expect. She’s older, a little darker, and a little more skeptical.

Think Nancy Drew if she’d been hanging out with the Winchesters for a few years and had internalized some of their angst.

Nancy, played by Kennedy McMann, is a woman in her late teens recovering from the loss of her mother to cancer. She’s given up solving mysteries, choosing instead to focus on her job and applying to colleges the following year. It all changes, of course, when a woman is murdered and Nancy herself is labelled a suspect. The case isn’t without its paranormal ties, however, and soon Nancy’s current case and a decades-old mystery become inexorably intertwined.

I won’t say anything else about the plot of the premiere episode because *spoilers* but I will say that the vibe of the show is quintessentially “CW-ish” (if you watch Riverdale, you’ll know what I mean). It’s a sexy episodic murder mystery with just enough of the supernatural to latch onto some of Supernatural’s fandom, and with just enough nostalgia for the book series to make longtime fans want to tune in as well. There are secret compartments, urban legends, and, of course, a lot of red herrings. Even though the setting may change, it’s still very Nancy Drew.

Nancy Drew premieres October 9 on the CW. 

“Evil” On CBS

Tbh, I hadn’t even heard of this upcoming show until I saw that it was scheduled just before Nancy Drew in Ballroom 20. And then I saw that Mike Colter was attached to the project and, well, that was enough to keep me in Ballroom 20 for an extra hour and a half.

I’m pretty sure that with the impending end to Supernatural‘s 15-year reign as The Paranormal Show To Watch, networks are scrambling to become the New Paranormal Show To Watch. Evil is CBS’ bid to catch a bit of SPN’s audience.

If SPN, Bones, and Ghost Hunters had a baby, it would be Evil. 

The plot follows Kristen Bouchard, a single mom of four young daughters, who is a psychologist who works with the D.A.’s office, as she encounters a murderer who claims to be possessed by a demon. Enter David Acosta (Mike Colter), a priest-in-training who moonlights as a concessor, or someone who investigates the validity of claims of miracles and demonic possession on the behalf of the Catholic Church. No spoilers here, but this is, by far, one of the creepiest network televison shows I’ve ever seen. And yeah, I know, you’re thinking “oh great, another monster-of-the-week show.”

I promise you, it’s so much more than that.

The showrunners, Robert and Michelle King (The Good Wife), have brought together a series that will explore the true nature of evil–and we’re not just talking devils and demons, here. They want to delve into humanity’s inherent capacity for good and for evil, and how evil is infectious (the premiere episode specifically cites a particularly problematic forum site as a cesspool of all that is wrong with the world…you know what I’m talking about). It’s a sociopolitical commentary that it is both timely and terrifying.

Evil premieres on September 26 on CBS.