sf/f TV development news - 2013

[Temis the Vorta]

Looks like NBC has one solid action show to advertise to the sports-viewing male audience. Revolution looks better than I'd hoped! Just the kind of action-adventure story NBC needs.

However, Do No Harm looks pretty soapy and overwrought. I'll watch it, but NBC should develop an ad that focuses more on the chaos wreaked by the Jeckyll side. It's for midseason, plenty of time.

[JD]

Watched the trailer and clips for Revolution, and Do No Harm. Liked what I saw from Revolution, kinda meh on Do No Harm. Honestly when it comes to Revolution, I think I'd rather see them focus on conflicts and politics of the post-blackout world rather than the mystery of what happened. In the trailer I was finding Charlie's search for her brother and the conflict with Giancarlo Esposito's Capt. Nevill more interesting than the set up for "the mystery".

[Temis the Vorta]

I think they need to do a different ad for Do No Harm that focuses on Jeckyll running amok, particularly for the male audience. But they have months to worry about that, I'm sure they'll have many variations for different audiences by then.

[Guy Gardener]

I wonder if Moffat is wondering if this will interfere with the DVD sales of his Jekyll series from a couple years back?

[Temis the Vorta]

Is he going to start whining about his brand again?

Well, it's NBC. Unlike CBS, NBC doesn't actually know what their brand is. Poor Do No Harm is running on Sunday, after some reality shows, how is it supposed to survive? If it's lucky, it won't totally collapse in the ratings and gain enough of a cult following to earn a lead-in or lead-out slot on Friday nights, paired with Grimm, for 2013-14.

[RJDiogenes]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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I wonder if everyone will be sick of serial killers by the time Hannibal comes out. The CW and FOX both have their versions.

I was sick of serial killers a couple of episodes into Millenium.

[Temis the Vorta]

Speaking of that, rumor has it FOX will hold The Following to midseason. So the only serial kill show actually launching in the fall is also the one I happen to like best: CW's Cult. That should help it out some, no competition in that particular genre in the fall.

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

It was being said a month or so ago that Cult, if picked up, as it now has been, would have a midseason launch and be designed to have 13-episode seasons to maintain tight storytelling. Has there been news to the contrary?

[Temis the Vorta]

Come to think of it, maybe Cult is launching midseason too. The CW would be smart to jump ahead of the others, but they haven't actually released their schedule yet. Thurs I think?

[AviTrek]

Crossbones lives!

http://www.nbc.com/news/2012/05/14/n...ates/index.php

[Temis the Vorta]

Just watched a clip of The Following...errgh, not quite as cool as I'd hoped. Maybe Cult will tackle this premise better, and it does look like the premises are almost entirely the same...serial killer on the loose who is using the internet (oh that dastardly internet!) to induce others to become serial killers, too.

The key here is, I want there to be a good reason these people are imitating the serial killer, and not just because they are dopes with no life. I can't stand stories that use stupidity as a motivator for characters. I'd much rather there be some zany sci fi explanation, the guy is a Goa'uld and he's controlling everyone's minds!!!

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Cult isn't really a serial killer show, and its premise is quite different to and much more complicated than that of The Following. Cult is about a TV show about a cult leader with a following of brainwashed minions who do his bidding. This TV show in turn has a rabid cult following of fans. When real life starts to imitate the TV show there's an open question as to whether it's a case of crazed fans playing copycat or whether the show has some kind of supernatural effect on reality. Robert Knepper is playing an actor named Roger Reeves who plays Billy Grimm, the cult leader, on the TV show.

[Temis the Vorta]

Here's the description of Cult from Deadline:

After a rash of disappearances and a likely murder, an inquisitive, young female production assistant on a wildly popular television show called “Cult” joins a journalist blogger in investigating the rabid fans of the series who might be re-creating crimes seen on the program, in real life.

And from The Daily Beast:

There's a show-within-the-show which is also called Cult, and which may be linked to the deaths and disappearances of several people who watch the show, viewers who become obsessed with the show's Lost-like mythology and the central figure, Billy Grimm (Robert Knepper). But Billy Grimm is just a character, played by actor Roger Reeves. Right? Or he is a disembodied boogeyman? Or are people preying on Cult viewers and driving them insane? These are some of the questions raised within the pilot episode, in which blogger Jeff Sefton (Matthew Davis) investigates the disappearance of his Cult-obsessed brother and teams up with a production assistant (Jessica Lucas) who works on the show in order to uncover just what is going on.

If there are multiple suspected murders, then this is serial killing. Maybe it's also serial-other-crimes as well - kidnapping, torture - I won't begrudge them that, they need to fill a lot of episodes. Given that they cast Robert Knepper as the mastermind, they won't be holding back on the heinousness of the crimes, because he's the go-to guy for psychos.

In both shows, the problem is the same: how to make this premise work without turning the cult members into dolts or zombies? Either the writing needs to be fiendishly clever or they should go for a supernatural or sci fi angle, even lightly.

Cult anyway sounds like it's going to get trippy, which is why I think it'll be more successful. The Following looks like it'll get dull and repetitious pretty fast. Maybe people aren't being killed, but spirited away to another dimension? Sure, count me in!

[Temis the Vorta]

Hulk not dead yet! Hulk smash puny ABC!

The only property from Disney-owned Marvel still in active development at ABC is Hulk, which was set up one and half years ago with Guillermo Del Toro and David Eick attached. Lee said the project will be in consideration for the next pilot cycle. I hear Del Toro is still on board.

[Kegg]

Last time a director I liked tackled Mr. Purple Pants, he was Ang Lee. So understandably wary, even with del Toro's involvement.

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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In both shows, the problem is the same: how to make this premise work without turning the cult members into dolts or zombies?

I think the solution is obvious, and pretty much there in the premise:

Make them fans.

Putting the 'fan' back into 'fan'atic, after all. Take the crazy obsessiveness people can have over a TV show, and then just use those kind of personalities going murderous. (Copycat killing, then we see the fans afterwards critiquing it as if it's a bit of fan fiction that got some of the continuity wrong.) It could be pretty fun.