Wow it would appear that the police procedural/courtroom drama series are still happening but the spy & assassin type shows are really picking up as the next wave of popuarity. Covert Affairs (Piper Perabo, new USA series James Cameron 'True Lies' TV series in development ABC making "Charlie's Angels" reboot Chaos for Fox. CW is making a pilot for remake of "La Femme Nikita" ABC Family channels' "Shadows" Legends also just today it was mentioned a new CBS spy drama from Anthony Zuicker Treadstone - Why has this genre come back? Sure Alias was a good show the first 2 or 3 seasons ending in 2006 which was only 4 years ago. Was there one show that started it off again in the last year or so, the spy more than the assassin element?
I don't think any one show or program was responsible, We've just had several successful genre efforts this decade that make these type of series attractive for Television. The Craig Bonds, Bourne films, 24, and others have been trucking along for most of the decade to great success. It's just a trend. The golden age didn't produce a million westerns because of one big hit, it was just a popular and reliable genre at the time.
The spy genre isn't very interesting to me (I'll check out Chaos anyway) but Homeland from Showtime sounds like they might be onto something. They're lining up a great cast anyway:
So they are rebooting the movie Angels as "spies" and not the TV Angels as private eye/cops not allowed to patrol because women did not police the public back then
Has anyone else noticed how movies about corrupt government officials, especially the President, only seem to get made during Democratic administrations? Reagan, Bush and Bush, Bupkis. Carter, Clinton, Obama, too many to name, but the one with Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington comes to mind.
maybe it takes a while to go from idea conception to production to release, so they're made during Republican administrations, and just come out during Democratic ones?
Not sure about movies but as for TV shows to be fair, 24 had its share of corrupt government officials all throughout the Bush II years, with perhaps the biggest and certainly the best IMO being President Logan, a Republican president, and when that storyline went down I think Jack was speaking vicariously for a lot of anti-Bush people when he told Logan, 'you're going to see justice today Mr. President!" Man, that was an awesome scene. Conversely, the first President Palmer was the show's best President and most noble, and he was a Democrat. Two more shows that didn't get mentioned were Undercovers and Rubicon. I know Undercovers has been canceled and I think Rubicon was canceled too.
Corrupt government conspiracies are a staple that never seem to die (even though it's become a hokey old cliche by now). Jericho and Prison Break even used the same actor to personify the corruption! I certainly haven't noticed any variation by Administration.
assassin series on Starz "Noir" I guess Starz is sore that they didn't jump on the bandwagon in 2010 and missed the boat that season. They have just decided to in development at the imdb.com link Noir (TV Series 2012) no info but the deadline article mentions: and if you are interested in the anime series origins: Noir (TV Series 2001) "Nowâru" (original title) according to Wikipedia This sounds okay. I've watched the Covert Affairs show and that is very CIA-mission-driven and similar to Alias episodically. I guess Noir would be more like Nikita. Hey chicks with guns and female assassins are great. get the men demographic for sure. I'd watch Alias again.
Fox jumps on the bandwagon for development for 2012-13 TV season, who happen to be best friends. Sony makes big comedy push Development season leaps to full speed Aug. 9, 2011, I'm glad to see Fox trying to get one show up in this genre.
How could anyone forget Nikita? I don't think the genre has faded at all. It's been going pretty strong - 24 only ended recently, after all. And we've got another Bond film in the pipeline. It's a pretty healthy genre, I think. Alex
Well, Chuck is a sci fi spy series, but I'd like to see a sci fi spy series that didn't need to be shoehorned into a romantic comedy format, with all the limitations thereof.
Another spy show. "New York office of the CIA?" Why does Hollywood keep insisting that the CIA should be working domestically. Maybe they do, but I like to think otherwise! At least Covert Affairs and Chuck keep up the pretense that domestic spy work has to be super top secret or they will all get into a lot of trouble. I'd hate to see Chuck dragged before a Congressional oversight committee.
I would like it to be in Star Wars or Star Trek like seting with alien empires in the future and whatnot.
And now Frank Spotnitz, a writer and executive producer for "The X-Files" is in development for an original prime-time show for Cinemax, a yet-titled show about http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sho...nemax-new-show-salt-dragon-tattoo-female.html To me a show about a protagonist going undercover falls under the spy genre. This should be a good 13 episode series with lots of action. Better than Covert Affairs and Alias?