H8R. Charlie's Angels. How to Be a Gentleman. The Playboy Club. There were a lot of clunkers this fall, when it came to new TV series – many of which, thankfully, are already cancelled, though a few, incredulously, endure (Hi, Whitney!).

But there have been some bright spots as well. Now that we've had at least a few episodes to see how they've been progressing, these are the series that have grabbed us and best held our attention week to week. So if you're looking for some new choices for your DVR, continue on to our list of Fall's Best New TV Series.

How can you turn a time-honored haunted house story into an effectively disturbing and utterly watchable TV series? By giving the house at the center of the tale an overloaded and over-stuffed timeline of terror that features a rogue's gallery of gruesome murders that date back almost a century. Yes, the Harmons couldn't have a picked a better house to live in, provided that they were actually looking for a place over-run with tangible, trapped ghosts obsessed with pyromania, drowning, dismemberment and demon babies.

Ryan Murphy, creator of Nip/Tuck and Glee, gleefully throws subtlety out of the attic window and gives us a giant glowing mish-mash of all our favorite horror movies. The Shining, Rosemary's Baby, Psycho, Halloween and many more are not just honored here, they're the show's life-blood. People at IGN are already calling it the "Anti-Lost." Not because of its themes or characters, but because this series very quickly answers questions while simultaneously raising new ones. So American Horror Story, for those who can stomach it, is both a very confusing and rewarding series to watch. But if you're in the mood for killer pig men, black latex-clad specters or bowls full of raw brain, then pull up a barf bag and enjoy the ride. With American Horror Story on this list, it will probably sound weird when we tell you that Boss, currently airing on Starz, is this season's creepiest series. Yes, it's a soot-covered political drama about the ruthlessness involved in governing an effective and operational "machine" of flawed people, but it also comes with a devastating twist; degenerative mental illness. It only took a few minutes of the pilot episode before Kelsey Grammer deftly kicked Dr. Frasier Crane to the curb and gave us the towering Tom Kane, Mayor of Chicago, who has been diagnosed with the incurable Lewy Body Disease, a time-release personal hell that involves his entire body shutting down a section at a time until - within 3-5 years - he becomes a non-functioning shell of his former self.

In Boss, which incorporates such broad strokes as torrid affairs, drug addiction and mutilation, the best scenes are the calm, quiet meditational ones that feature Kane alone with his disease. His shadow. His inescapable fate. Not nearly enough people are watching this magnificently unsettling show and we'd like to change that. Is he or isn't he? That's the overriding question so far on Homeland, a fascinating series about an American POW, Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis), rescued after years in captivity, who may have been turned by the enemy. Homeland shares some of the same producers as 24, but takes a more thoughtful, layered, yet completely engrossing approach towards the subject of terrorism than that action-heavy series.

The cast is excellent, including Lewis, who has to continually show so many layers to Brody, who at the least is suffering from PTSD and keeping some very dark secrets about what he was forced to do as a prisoner – and may be much more dangerous than he appears. Morena Baccarin (Firefly, V) is terrific as his wife, Jessica, who has a whole lot to process when the husband she thought was dead returns to her life, while Claire Danes gives a standout performance as Carrie, the CIA agent convinced of Brody's guilt - perhaps to a reckless degree. A highly involving series that functions both as a thriller and a character study, Homeland has quickly turned into appointment television. Continue to Page 2 for adorkable roommates, quirky suburbanites and the delicious power of revenge.