BBC America Announce 2 New Shows

[Bob The Skutter]

BBC America and Clarkenwell Films, the makers of Misfits, have announced a no exclusive partnership on 2 new shows to be distributed by BBC Worldwide outside of the US.

The Dead Beat

The Dead Beat, two cops, one dead and one alive, become a reluctant team, working from leads in the world of the dead to track down killers in the world of the living. Subverting the crime genre, The Dead Beat brings a whole new meaning to cold cases, underworld informants, dead leads and buried evidence.

Wired

Wired takes place in a world that looks exactly like today, except for one thing: this is a world with ‘Syns’ (‘Synthetic Organisms’), exact replicas of human beings and the newest luxury accessory money can buy. Wired explores our evolving relationship with technology, the boundaries of society’s values and moralities, our hypocrisies and contradictions - holding up a mirror to who we are today and what we might become.

 

[23skidoo]

The Dead Beat just sounds like a remake of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), except with a "land of the dead" twist.

Alex

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think these both sound interesting. Ironically, that's more than what I can say about anything new from the SyFy channel in the last few years...

 

[Lonemagpie]

The Dead Beat presumably is Alien Nation with zombies instead of aliens, and Wired sounds like a BSG spinoff...

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I think these both sound interesting. Ironically, that's more than what I can say about anything new from the SyFy channel in the last few years...

Skiffy is pathetic. There's actually a lot of sf/f pilot activity for 2012-13, but the interesting concepts are appearing anywhere but skiffy. You'd think they'd be ashamed of themselves...

Anyway, I've posted the laundry list of shows that have made it to pilot here. It's a good haul, 26 shows so far. But everyone's still allergic to space opera.

 

[Kelso]

Wired

Wired takes place in a world that looks exactly like today, except for one thing: this is a world with ‘Syns’ (‘Synthetic Organisms’), exact replicas of human beings and the newest luxury accessory money can buy. Wired explores our evolving relationship with technology, the boundaries of society’s values and moralities, our hypocrisies and contradictions - holding up a mirror to who we are today and what we might become.

Syns would have been a better title.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

"Wired" is too well known as the name of that magazine, which may not be so much a problem if the series were targetted at the general public, but sci fi fandom is exactly the type of people who subscribe to Wired the magazine.

People will naturally think it's a TV version of the magazine, about high-tech news. Which wouldn't be a bad idea, I'd watch that, but you definitely don't want to give a totally misleading impression like that for a new series! Somebody needs to do their market research a little better there. Maybe they'll figure it out in time to change the name.

"Syns" could be used to make a cute pun...Syns of the Flesh. It's about sex-bots!

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Or a team of killer ones called "The Seven Deadly Syns".

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Or an animated sitcom called The Syn-sons.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

wired

"Wired" is too well known as the name of that magazine,

People will naturally think it's a TV version of the magazine, about high-tech news.

I first thought of the Al Pacino film S1m0ne (2002) directed by Andrew Niccol.
I also thought of the recent Bruce Willis film Surrogates (2009). Both cover the same subject matter and comparisons can and will be made to Wired on BBCAmerica.

 

[MacLeod]

The Dead Beat just sounds like a remake of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), except with a "land of the dead" twist.

Alex

I had a similar thought, that it sound similar to Randall and Hopkirk(Deceased)

 

[Deckerd]

Re: wired

"Wired" is too well known as the name of that magazine,

People will naturally think it's a TV version of the magazine, about high-tech news.

I first thought of the Al Pacino film S1m0ne (2002) directed by Andrew Niccol.
I also thought of the recent Bruce Willis film Surrogates (2009). Both cover the same subject matter and comparisons can and will be made to Wired on BBCAmerica.

Surrogates didn't explore the relationship between humans and their robot replica. It bypassed that whole event and went on to when everyone had accepted them as the norm. Wired sounds much more interesting.

The Dead Beat presumably is Alien Nation with zombies instead of aliens, and Wired sounds like a BSG spinoff...

BSG didn't have replicas of living people. It's never clear, however, if 'The Final Five' were originally human. I mean if they invented the Cylons as they existed in the BSG universe, what were they before the invention?

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Re: wired

BSG didn't have replicas of living people. It's never clear, however, if 'The Final Five' were originally human. I mean if they invented the Cylons as they existed in the BSG universe, what were they before the invention?

I expect that the aborted series Caprica would have answered that question definitively.

These new shows sound okay, and I expect we'll get to see them in the UK eventually, but I can't say I'm very excited at the prospect. Like Temis, I want space opera, damn it. It's probably some sort of weird psychological condition - cosmodephilia (cosmos (universe) + ode (lyrical verse) + philia (friendship)) perhaps?