Want a new favorite show? 'When' might be as crucial as 'what'

Readers are always asking me to recommend something new to watch between seasons (or after the final episode) of their favorite shows.

The conversation starts out being about genre ("a drama, but not too gory"; "a comedy, but not like a sitcom"), but I've increasingly noticed that viewers are looking for a when instead of a what - they want "something set in the 1960s" (to fill the void left by "Mad Men") or "something medieval" (the wait for "Game of Thrones," about an imaginary continent's comparable Dark Age, feels interminable) or some other period piece set in a personal sweet spot: Victorian, Edwardian, Celtic, Druid, Roman, czarist, pioneer and - always a big request - programs set before, during and after the Civil War.

Don't forget World War II, the Space Age and the Cold War. (The darling decade of the moment is the Reagan-era '80s.) And to all that, add a healthy demand for shows about the future - 50 years from now, a century from now, eons from now.

Is there some larger thesis here about our discontent with present-day life in the early 21st century? Or is it just that the period pieces have improved in quality and become more believable in their details and setting?

Whatever the reason, time frame and timelines seem so essential to viewers' desires now that I'm surprised that Xfinity, DirecTV, Netflix and other providers haven't added "sort by decade" and "sort by century" to their on-demand search options. (They can thank me later for the idea.)

The 2015-16 TV season brings several more shows - along with those already on - that take place some-when other than right now. Squeeze into my time machine and let's see whether there's a period that appeals to you.

845-866

• "The Last Kingdom" (BBC America, Oct. 10) The Viking invasion again, this time set in 866 and told from the perspective of a nascent England of scattered kingdoms. Bonus detail: Town and village names are shown in original Saxon, then translated into modern English.

• "Vikings" (History, returns early 2016) When last we left Ragnar Lothbrook, he and his fellow Danes got their clocks cleaned while attempting to conquer Paris in 845.

1270s

• "Marco Polo"(Netflix; second season in production) Handsome young man goes far and wide to discover naked Asian ladies. (If only he'd had the Internet ...) Bonus detail: Benedict Wong's series-salvaging performance as Kublai Khan.

14th century (c. 1315?)

• "The Bastard Executioner" (FX, premiered Sept. 15) This bloody, bloody drama is set in Wales sometime after the reign of King Edward I. Bonus detail: Cast members were required to wear yellowed and browned teeth - even the prettier actors, such as "True Blood's" Stephen Moyer.

500-1620

• "Masterpiece: Wolf Hall" (PBS, aired in spring 2015) A delectably dour portrait of political scheming during the tumultuous reign of Henry VIII. Bonus detail: Darkness. Viewers get a real feel for life by candlelight.

(Hey, producers and showrunners - things are looking thin along here. Got any ideas for an "Apocalypto"-style drama about the conquistadors? What about a tobacco-colony drama?)

• On the Mayflower front (1620), National Geographic does have a two-night miniseries drama about the Pilgrims - "Saints & Strangers" on Nov. 22 and 23 - starring "Mad Men's" Vincent Kartheiser as Gov. William Bradford. (We were hoping for something more along the lines of a Pilgrim dramedy.)

1693

• "Salem" (WGN America; returns in spring 2016) Witches terrorize panicked Puritans, only this time the witches are real.

1715

• "Black Sails" (Starz, returns in 2016) Tales of the Caribbean pirate menace, set just before the events of "Treasure Island."

1745

• "Outlander" (Starz, returns in 2016) A British woman on vacation in Scotland in 1945 touches an ancient standing stone that transports her back to 1743. Season 2 picks up in France during the Jacobite risings. Bonus detail: kilts and more kilts.

1777-1781

• "Turn: Washington's Spies" (AMC, returns in 2016) Colonial rebels from Long Island devise new ways to warn Gen. George Washington about the British army's next move. Bonus detail: invisible ink and other primitive encryption techniques.

• "Masterpiece: Poldark" (PBS, aired in summer) In 1781, a gallant and handsome redcoat officer returns from the American war to run a copper mine and winds up marrying his kitchen maid.

1860s

• "Mercy Street" (PBS, premieres Jan. 17, 2016) Filmed in Virginia, PBS' first domestically produced drama in ages is about an Alexandria hospital at the outset of the Civil War.

• "Hell on Wheels" (AMC, final episodes will air in 2016) Post-Civil War corruption/revenge drama set against the fast-and-furious completion of a transcontinental railroad in the Midwest. Story last left off in 1867.

Late Victorians

• "Penny Dreadful" (Showtime, returns in 2016) Florid monster mash set in London in 1891 features Victor Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, werewolves, vampires, demons. And "Ripper Street" (BBC America, also returns in 2016) is a crime procedural set in London that started in the year 1889 and is now in 1894. Meanwhile, on another plane entirely, "Another Period" (Comedy Central, recently renewed for Season 2) is a send-up of crunchy-gravel dramas, set in tony Rhode Island in 1902.

1925

• "Downton Abbey" (PBS, final season begins Jan. 3, 2016) Although it started in 1912 (with grief over an heir's death in the doomed Titanic crossing), the series is now up to 1925, which is where producers say it will wind down. Bonus detail: Lady Mary's best line ever: "I'm going upstairs to take off my hat."

1932

• "Masterpiece: Indian Summers" (PBS, premiered Sept. 27) Languid, steamy drama about mostly-white-people problems during the British Raj. Bonus detail: flop sweat.

World War II

• "Masterpiece: Home Fires" (PBS, premieres Oct. 4) Charming drama about rural British women gearing up in 1938 to do their part in the looming war. Bonus detail: Keep Calm and Wear a Snood.

• "Manhattan" (WGN America, returns Oct. 13) Drama set in Los Alamos, N.M., as American scientists and engineers secretly build and test the atomic bomb. Season 2 picks up on July 16, 1945 - three weeks before the United States drops a nuke on Hiroshima.

Early 1960s

• "The Man in the High Castle" (Amazon, premieres Nov. 20) Set in 1962, this alternate-reality drama shows life in a former United States that fell to Germany and Japan in World War II. These '60s don't look like much fun. For starters: no rock 'n' roll.

• "Call the Midwife" (returns in 2016) On a more cheerful note, they're still birthin' babies in London's East End, with increasing hints of modernization. Season 5 will pick up in 1961.

1966

• "Masters of Sex" (Showtime, Sundays at 10) Season 3 moved forward a few years into the sexual revolution, as Virginia Johnson and Bill Masters released their first book, "Human Sexual Response." (Frankly, it was more fun when the show was set in the prude '50s.)

1967

• "Public Morals" (TNT, Tuesdays at 10) Drama stars Edward Burns as an Irish-American cop in the NYPD's vice unit.

• "Aquarius" (NBC, renewed for Season 2) David Duchovny plays an L.A. police detective who tangles with the Manson family. Left off in January 1968 - 18 months before the Tate-LaBianca murders.

1972

• "Vinyl" (HBO, premieres in early 2016) Martin Scorsese and Terence Winter (with help from Mick Jagger) are behind this drama about a New York-based record label desperate to find bigger acts. Stars Bobby Cannavale and lots of sideburns, shag carpeting and tube tops.

1979

• "Fargo" (FX, returns Oct. 12) Noah Hawley takes Season 2 of the Minnesota murder epic back to 1979 and the pre-Reagan malaise. Bonus detail: Jesse Plemons ("Friday Night Lights," "Breaking Bad") with feathered hair.

1982

• "Wicked City" (ABC, premieres Oct. 27) L.A. noir on the Sunset Strip in the early-MTV, Rodney-on-the-ROQ days. Bonus detail: the birth of RATT.

1983

• "The Americans" (FX, returns in early 2016) Season 4 creeps closer to glasnost - can Philip and Elizabeth keep daughter Paige quiet about their spying? Bonus detail: Paige is in her room wearing out her LP of Yaz's synth/new-wave classic "Upstairs at Eric's."

1985

• "Red Oaks" (Amazon, premieres Oct. 9) This coming-of-age story at a New Jersey country club is kind of a "Flamingo Kid" set in the John Hughes era. Bonus detail: crimped hair.

• "Halt and Catch Fire"(AMC, Season 2 concluded in August; renewal status unknown.) An improved second season flash-forwarded from '83 to '85, focusing on the race to build an online gaming network.

1980-something

• "The Goldbergs" (ABC, returned Sept. 23) This loud-family comedy was originally set in 1985 but isn't a stickler for chronological accuracy. How else to explain the re-enactment of John Cusack's boombox moment from 1989's "Say Anything ..."?

1995

• "Fresh Off the Boat" (ABC, returned Sept. 22) Chinese immigrants move to Florida and open a restaurant. Bonus detail: Li'l Eddie Huang is wild for mid-'90s hip-hop.

2002

• "Better Call Saul" (AMC, returns in early 2016) A prequel to "Breaking Bad," which took place in the late '00s. Bonus detail: flip phones.

2065

• "Minority Report" (Fox, premiered Sept. 21) Steven Spielberg consulted a team of futurists for the movie version; the TV show (set 10 years after the movie) takes all of its visual cues from there, including the ubiquity of personalized advertising. Bonus detail: mega-skyscrapers in Silver Spring, Maryland.

2090-ish?

• "Westworld" (HBO, premieres in 2016) Complete overhaul of the 1973 sci-fi film about a Wild West frontier that's actually an amusement park populated by synthetic androids. Set in "the near future."

2400-ish?

• "Into the Badlands" (AMC, premieres Nov. 15) This martial-arts sci-fi series starring Daniel Wu is set "several centuries in the future" in the American Midwest.