sf/f TV development news - 2013

[Enterprise is Great]

‘Returned’ Adds Mark Hildreth

Mark Hildreth has joined another ABC/ABC Studios pilot, drama The Returned the project chronicles how the lives of the people in Arcadia are forever changed when their deceased loved ones return. Hildreth will play Preacher Tom Hild, the local minister, who starts to question his beliefs when the dead start coming back.

[Temis the Vorta]

More Returned casting, including a couple well known names.

House alum Omar Epps, Kurtwood Smith and youngster Landon Gimenez round out the cast of ABC drama pilot The Returned... It chronicles how the lives of the people in Arcadia are forever changed when their deceased loved ones return. Epps plays Agent Martin Bellamy, an agent with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Smith plays Harold (Smith) whose dead son Jacob (Gimenez) is among the returned.

I guess returning from the dead would pose some thorny immigration issues.

[Enterprise is Great]

Syfy has given a 13-episode order to Ron Moore’s new project Helix.

[stj]

Contagion meets the remake of The Thing?

I guess in Hollywood that's a fastball.

[Enterprise is Great]

Paige Turco Joins ‘The 100′

Turco plays Abby, mother of Clarke (played by Eliza Taylor) and the authoritative chief medical officer of The Ark space station.

Also "The Selection":

Young British actress Sarah Winter has been cast in The CW pilot The Selection. She plays Ashley Brovillette, a naïve young woman who is overjoyed to be chosen by lottery as one of the contestants for The Selection competition.

[Temis the Vorta]

More casting for 100 and Delirium.

Grey’s Anatomy alum Isaiah Washington is returning to series television with a co-starring role in the CW pilot The 100,.... Washington will play Chancellor Jaha, the leader of the remaining human race now living in the orbiting space station.

...

ER alumna Michael Michele has been cast in Delirium...Michele, repped by Innovative and Untitled, will play Senator Elyse Hargrove, an ambitious widow with three children and Presidential aspirations who has a growing opposition to the political insurrection.

Gotta get up early in the morning to beat Enterprise is Great.

I'm kinda jazzed to hear about that orbiting space station, that's the closest a new TV show has gotten to space since, I dunno, BSG? Or Caprica if you stretch the point. Of course it's still a long way from that proverbial greenlight.

[RAMA]

Defiance looks like an unusual project

http://www.sfseriesandmovies.com/ser...iance-video-s/

[RJDiogenes]

I'm still undecided about Defiance. It looks like it might have some good ideas, but all the previews look incredibly boring.

[RAMA]

RJDiogenes wrote:

---

I'm still undecided about Defiance. It looks like it might have some good ideas, but all the previews look incredibly boring.

They do?? I've never seen that much action in ANY tv show in history.

RAMA

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Exactly. Action generally gets tedious pretty quickly, unless it punctuates a story and characters with substance. That's the unknown quantity here.

[Christopher]

Well, naturally trailers emphasize the action disproportionately. And it's a cinch that most of the action in this trailer is going to be from just the pilot episode, the flashbacks to the conflict that preceded the events of the series. Action is expensive, so we'll probably get more of it in the pilot than in the weekly episodes.

[RJDiogenes]

That's why I'm undecided about it. I see some interesting stuff, but then I see the tanks rolling and the fists pumping and I cringe. I'm leaning toward checking it out, but I'll end up deciding at the last minute. Or maybe waiting to see what my friends think and then watching it on On Demand if it seems merited.

[jefferiestubes8]

RAMA wrote:

---

Defiance looks like an unusual project

http://www.sfseriesandmovies.com/ser...iance-video-s/

We have a thread on it. It starts in about a month on SyFy.
The Defiance Thread - News about the Show and Game

[Temis the Vorta]

Great article on the broadcast pilot season in general, and why it's likely to fail just like it's failing this year.

• ARE THE CHARACTERS LIKABLE OR RELATABLE?
There is exactly one TV-viewing demographic that still cares about this: development executives laboring under the delusion that they’ll eventually find the next Cheers or Friends (both of which, by the way, were full of characters who often behaved terribly). You know who doesn’t care about likability? People who watch Game of Thrones, or Breaking Bad, or Mad Men, or Archer. This is usually the point at which networks assert that cable shows don’t have to reach as large an audience. But that doesn’t wash anymore, not when any number of network series are pulling lower ratings than Duck Dynasty and Sons of Anarchy.

...

• WILL THE AUDIENCE GET IT?
Most cable series proceed from the assumption that their viewers are looking for a good show. Most network series proceed from the assumption that their viewers are stupid and inattentive. That’s why the second episodes of network dramas are usually so boring that viewers flee — they’re essentially designed to reiterate and re-explain everything that unfolded in episode 1.

...

• IS THE SHOW LIKE SOMETHING ELSE THAT’S ON THE AIR?
This is actually not a bad question; the problem is the answer, which the networks want to be “Yes” when they, and we, should always be rooting for “No.” Only in network TV is past failure considered a sure sign of future success.

...

I get the counterargument: Safety sells. Familiarity works. Formula rules. Otherwise, the No. 1 show on TV wouldn’t be the 95th season of NCIS, and the reality shows we were enthusiastically watching in 2000 wouldn’t be the same ones that half of us are halfheartedly half-watching now. Still, something is amiss: In the recently concluded February sweeps, NBC finished fifth. And there are only four big English-language networks. Which means that maybe the most relevant question programmers should be asking when they consider this season’s pilots is “What do we have to lose?”

The third point - cookie-cutter-ism - is once again dominant this season, which leads to a confused audience that can't tell the shows apart based on what little they've heard about them (and everyone zones out advertising now). There are some glimmers of being different, a few Western-themed shows for instance, but overall it just seems like a big grey mass of boredom, even worse than last season.

I'm not totally jazzed about Defiance for instance, but it has actual aliens to show in the ads, and that makes it stand out in today's environment. The Western feel should also help.

[RAMA]

Christopher wrote:

---

Well, naturally trailers emphasize the action disproportionately. And it's a cinch that most of the action in this trailer is going to be from just the pilot episode, the flashbacks to the conflict that preceded the events of the series. Action is expensive, so we'll probably get more of it in the pilot than in the weekly episodes.

^^^^^^^^
What he said