sf/f TV development news - 2013

[Sindatur]

Guy Gardener wrote:

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There's a franchised gameshow in most of the Common Wealth called mastermind that's been ongoing in one form or another since the mid 1960s.

Wow.

it wasn't till my third read through that I finally figured out that "the following" was the name of the show and not meaning that the new series is called "the next thing that I am about to say which is..."

Fuck.

LOL, thanks Guy. I thought "The Following" was referring to the answer being in the link, and thought that was kinda cruel of Temis to make us click the link, when she could just give us the answer in her post. So, I clicked the link, and wasn't any the wiser, until I saw your post

[Temis the Vorta]

Hee hee, well I did italicize the name but that just goes to show how impossibly dull it is, that it doesn't sound like a name at all.

[Sindatur]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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Hee hee, well I did italicize the name but that just goes to show how impossibly dull it is, that it doesn't sound like a name at all.

Heh, I think it was the link you provided for backup that had me believing the answer was in the link

[Guy Gardener]

No problem Sindutur.

After I stopped being blond, my next thought was that "the Following" sounds a bit like "The Cult". Are we to assume that Kevin has thousands of mindless followers? I mean imagine if Stephen king said "RISE UP! RISE UP! It is time to take control of America!" Who exactly is going to listen to that call to arms?

[Christopher]

Hmm, I immediately took it as "The Following" in the sense of a movement or a religion having a following, i.e. people who are followers of it. But I guess I can see how people could hear it in the sense of "The following is a special presentation."

[Temis the Vorta]

There's some guy in the Deadline thread asking if Cult Following would be better and "my job depends on it." Probably an imposter but I did warn him that the CW has a serial killer show called The Cult.

The essential mistake here is that Mastermind refers to James Purefoy's character, and The Following refers to his "fan club." Purefoy is going to be a big, charismatic draw, but who knows if the fans will be as big a draw, individually, as recurring characters, so they should keep the focus on Purefoy's character and come up with synonyms for a cult leader.

Anyway, on to more pressing matters...NBC picked up Do No Harm (Jeckle & Hyde medical show), yay, I like that one. The lead actor was on Person of Interest in a guest star role, and I thought he had what it takes to carry a series.

...stars Steven Pasquale as a brilliant neurosurgeon wrestling with his dangerous alter-ego that threatens to wreak havoc on his personal and professional life.

The other pickup, Infamous (what was wrong with Notorious?) sounds more like an ABC show. And speaking of ABC, here's another analysis of what they need.

What ABC should be careful with: Look, ABC, I know you loved having Lost and you're doing all you can to find a replacement serialized sci-fi event, but so far you've come up with squat (not counting Once Upon a Time, which benefits from skewing female and fitting in nicely with the rest of your Sunday programming). Let's review: FlashForward, V, Invasion, The River, No Ordinary Family. Instead of taking the first cool-sounding project, work closely with an established genre showrunner and create a series with some weight to it. And please, no more found-footage shows.

So, basically the shows should be "good" and then they will be successful? I'm sure nobody has thought of doing that. Nah, they had it and then they lost it - Once Upon a Time takes the Lost approach and pitches it squarely at women. ABC is going to pick up a buncha shows like that, and good, bad or ugly, some of them will work.

[RJDiogenes]

Harvey wrote:

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On the television side, you seem to be giving Abrams a lot of credit (or blame) where it's not deserved. His active involvement as a writer and/or director on those shows has been limited to their early life. Consider: Abrams' last writing credit on Lost was the season three premiere; his last writing credit on Fringe was the season two premiere; his last writing credit on Alias was the fourth season premiere; his last writing credit on Undercovers was the third episode.

Could be. I have no idea what his behind-the-scenes involvement is.

[startrekwatcher]

Infamous might be okay--I love a *good* mystery but just so often the build up works but then the resolution is very unsatisfying--I'm just leery of a big mystery driving a series right out of the gate--too often it overshadows the characterization and the writers get bogged down in the crafting of the mystery--which generally flops.

The Jekyll/Hyde show sounds intriguing--definitely will be giving that one a try.

But I definitely agree with the writer about stopping with the big mythology Event series--they just don't work--they turn into a mess. Get back to basics I say--strong writing, good characters in a modest sized ensemble, and a few season long parallel arcs. He also forgot to mention Daybreak, The Nine, Life on Mars, Happy Town as ABC offenders and it wasn't just ABC NBC had Kidnapped, The Event, Persons Unknown, Surface. Fox had Alcatraz, Vanished.

[Temis the Vorta]

You're ignoring the success of Revenge and Once Upon a Time at ABC. Speaking of which, are they ever going to tell us what they're picking up? By the end of the week before upfronts, we usually have a pretty clear idea where things stand...I guess tomorrow will be a busy day.

[Guy Gardener]

Oh revenge.

Yum.

Last weeks episode was set 8 years in the past to show when Mandy first put everything into motion, and the hilarious thing is... All the walking dead. It's unbelievable the bodycount this show has had in just one season, corpses are riding in and out with the tide like empty beer cans.

It's almost like they weren't pulling it out of their ass from week to week.

[Temis the Vorta]

Signs of life at ABC.

ABC just made its “no-brainer” renewals, picking up its strongest scripted series. That includes freshmen Once Upon A Time, Suburgatory and Revenge, comedies Modern Family and The Middle and dramas Grey’s Anatomy and Castle.

Now that they've got that out of the way, they can tell us what's new. I'm really curious about The Last Resort.

[startrekwatcher]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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You're ignoring the success of Revenge and Once Upon a Time at ABC.

Those two;s success still escapes me but then again I don't see what millions of people do in CSI, Desperate Housewives or NCIS.

I tried Revenge but I thought the cast was pretty bland, the scheming rather unimpressive and the plotting pretty poorly done. And OUAT couldn't hold my attention and I didn't really care for how often the show hangs its hat on magical MacGuffins.

[Enterprise is Great]

http://www.deadline.com/2012/05/prim...k-good-at-abc/

Here is my last take on the ABC pilot field heading into tomorrow, when the network is expected to make its picks. On the drama side, NASHVILLE is on the schedule. Fellow soaps AMERICANA and RED WIDOW (formerly Penoza) also look strong, along with the male-skewing LAST RESORT, which I hear may be launched as a limited/midseason series. In the magical series face-off between 666 PARK AVE and GOTHAM, (Beauty & The Beast has dropped out of contention), 666 seems to have the upper hand but that could change.

[Christopher]

ABC's Beauty and the Beast is the fairy-tale one, right? The remake of the Ron Perlman show is the CW pilot? Well, either way, if one of the B&tB pilots has failed, that means the other one won't have to change its name if it succeeds. (Although I won't mind much if the CW pilot tanks too.)

[Enterprise is Great]

Revolution: New Story Details

Our entire way of life depends on electricity. So what would happen if it just stopped working? Well, one day, like a switch turned off, the world is suddenly thrust back into the dark ages. Planes fall from the sky, hospitals shut down, and communication is impossible. And without any modern technology, who can tell us why? Now, 15 years later, life is back to what it once was long before the industrial revolution: families living in quiet cul-de-sacs, and when the sun goes down lanterns and candles are lit. Life is slower and sweeter. Or is it? On the fringes of small farming communities, danger lurks. And a young woman’s life is dramatically changed when a local militia arrives and kills her father, who mysteriously – and unbeknownst to her – had something to do with the blackout. This brutal encounter sets her and two unlikely companions off on a daring coming-of-age journey to find answers about the past in the hopes of reclaiming the future.