Why is Fall TV so bad this year?

in General
Where are all of the killer Fall TV shows, new and returning? A shortened Boardwalk Empire final season, and some great eps of The Walking Dead (E1-3) are just about all we have. Everything else is subjectively just okay/meh/bad, or let's just call them "not great". AHS Freakshow is okay, The Affair - meh/whatever, Homeland/Sons of Anarchy - atrociously bad. Even The Good Wife, which was fantastic last season, is batting slightly 'above average' on it's own scale. We were drowning in great TV this summer, now we've pockets of 'meh'. I can't recall a Fall TV season that was this soft in the last decade. What happened?
Comments
Jan/Feb and then April to June seems to be when the really good prestige stuff comes out these days, aside from a few like Boardwalk, The Walking Dead, etc. All the fall returns aside from that are just the junk sitcoms and 'mum' cop shows. Not that I'm judging - I do watch a lot of those as well.
I also think Orphan Black is just okay. Maslany is incredibly talented, but none of the characters, even hers, feel real, and it has that breakneck pacing and bonkers plotting that's just not for me.
I would love to check out Black Mirror -- Jon Hamm is going to be in the Christmas special -- but the only way for Americans to (legally) see it is via DirecTV. Hopefully they will work out the copyright and licensing issues and license a proper Region 1 DVD or streaming deal soon.
The #1 show I'm looking forward to though? Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell on the BBC. It's my favorite book of all time so naturally I was over the moon when the fucking BBC started doing a fucking MINISERIES.
I just did a quick google, and it's estimated to premiere Jan. 2015. Thanks for the heads up!
@JaimieT are you mad that is only a miniseries or excited that they're doing it at all?
@pavlovsbell - Hurray, a fellow fan!
http://www.themarysue.com/first-image-summary-jonathan-strange-mr-norrell/
@Elisa, I gave up on The Flash but tuned in last week and thought it had improved. I really enjoyed the latest episode (107). It was comic book-y without the cheesy teen-CW feel of the earlier episodes.