sf/f TV development news - 2013

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

I heard they were shooting in Montreal which was standing in Austria, 1938...

"Zero Hour" takes place in the present day of Chicago and back in time to France and Germany in 1938.

Hmm! Time travel or flashback? Maybe they should coordinate with Grimm on the whole evil magical Nazi artifact thing.

It might go back even further than that. Originally, the show was described this way:

His search leads him on a dangerous journey around the world collecting clues that will unlock not only a spectacular mystery surrounding the Twelve Apostles but also questions about his own identity.

Dr. Greene as the Thirteenth Apostle?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

My final scorecard:

Happy about: Cult, 666 Park Ave, Zero Hour, Do No Harm

Question marks: Revolution, The Following (terrible name!), The Last Resort.

Wish they'd gone to series: Beautiful People, The Frontier.

So that's the sum total of the new broadcast series I will be checking out next fall.

On cable, add LA Noir on TNT to that list...

EDIT: The Daily Beast has some nice, coherent descriptions of the picked-up shows...

Zero Hour "has roots in a Doomsday device coveted by the Nazis during World War II and kept secret by a clandestine group of priests."

666 Park Ave won't be coy about the boogie men: "There's definitely something supernatural lurking in the corridors of The Drake, as shadows, ghosts, and spirits appear in the first episode, and something dark and powerful went down when the building was first built. Watch out for that dragon." You mean Vanessa?

The Neighbors doesn't sound as silly as the description I quoted above.

Do No Harm's doctor gets in trouble when "after five years of successfully containing "Ian Price," Kohl learns that his alter ego has build up a tolerance to the drug treatment that has kept him in check."

Revolution: "the blackout is man-made and much of the action centers on the nature of the conspiracy: the reasons behind it are up for grabs even more than who carried it out." No aliens? Are they really banking on the audience being interested in the why rather than the how?

This description of Cult makes it sound pretty amazing, way beyond the usual CW show. Has Rockne O'Bannon's got another mindfrak series?

It's hard to describe the CW's psychological thriller Cult, from creator Rockne S. O'Bannon (Farscape) and executive producer Josh Schwartz (Chuck), because the premise is pretty trippy in itself. 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. Alona Tal (Veronica Mars) also stars. Insider information: Cult was previously set up at ABC before moving to the CW. The fictional creator of the show-within-a-show Cult is an Oz-like figure who may not be who he claims... if he even exists at all.

 

[Caliburn24]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

Cult sounds intriguing, but spinning that premise into an ongoing series could be really challenging.

 

[startrekwatcher]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

Since I was hoping (unrealistically I know) the networks would get rid of everything on broadcast--because it sucks--and start from scratch I'm ready to have another go and see if maybe next season they can actually come up with some consistently entertaining shows with actual interesting characters--I'm so over wildly fluctuating consistency from ep to ep, large casts, mythology heavy programming, poor casting, bland characters who are nothing but interchangeable and the Big Picture being the central focus.

I think I'll sample Do No Harm(open premise where the writers could easily craft season long arcs every season with no series spanning stuff), Cult(small cast, likeable actors(Matt Davis/Jessica Lucas/Knepper, interesting premise that doesn't look to try to be an epic monstrosity so hopefully it will be a little more grounded), Zero Hour, Park Avenue(this could go afield if it plays up keeping too much shrouded in secrecy), The Following(this has the potential to fall into predictable cop schtick i.e. alcoholic cop chasing killers). So help me if any of them start down the big event shitload of mysteries/questions path I'm dumping them in a second--large reason why Revolution and The Last Resort are not even in my sampling for next fall. Zero Hour could veer into this but I'm willing to see if it does--otherwise I'm a sucker for these type of stories.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

Zero Hour sounds like it might be good, although a main character tortured by a kidnapped spouse week-after-week will be hard to maintain; hopefully that part will resolve quickly.

Looks like Revolution will spark a lively Science Does Not Work That Way! discussion. Maybe we should start a thread with that title and sticky it.

I should probably just keep my replies stored in a database so I can just copy and paste them whenever this comes up.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

The Last Resort may not be a drawn-out mystery series, if they're serious about really making it a "limited series" next winter. Not like The River, which was obviously intended to be an ongoing series the way they left it open-ended, but a true miniseries with a real ending.

Amazingly, the sf/f pickups may not be quite over. Gotham may still be alive and kicking at ABC.

EDIT: THRfeed has a complete list of renewals/cancellations/pickups.

EDIT Pt 2: Looks like The Last Resort will be a regular series.

Although there had been talk of ABC hoping to treat the series as a limited-run event project, sources said Sony had received a full 13-episode order. A short order would have been troublesome for Sony as it needs to make the most of the costly show's international sales potential, and that's hard to with anything less than 13 segs.

Which means if the ratings tank, we will be left in the dark about what was "really" going on. Let me be the first to kick off the prognostications: the order to fire the missiles was a loyalty test (their nukes are inoperative) and they failed. They discover that their nukes are inoperational when the Iranians try to steal them and put them to use.

Further prognostications: the series will do well overseas but not so well domestically. It's too much of an outlier on ABC's schedule - a bunch of soaps, and then one military show? The ads will be shown to the soap-watchers who will not be interested. So it's 13 and done.

The only way to salvage it: use the ads to play up the soapy/sexy aspects of a bunch of sailors "marooned" in a tropical paradise. Scott Speedman has a soapy-hunk look about him. Dichen Lachmann is striking and exotically beautiful. Omid Abtahi is a cutie. There are a couple female naval personnel, that will appeal to the female demo if it isn't all guys in navy uniform. Yeah, this could work...

 

[xortex]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

JJ is insidious. Lying that the conspiracy won't be based on aliens, fantasy or the supernatural, or at least he's fooling himself and will realize that as soon as the writers run out of ideas and play the alien trump get out of jail free deus ex mechina card to end it like he did Lost which is hideously clever which I never said he wasn't. You got to hand it to his writers who are competing for who's more hideously clever.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

I have a hard time believing humans can rewrite the laws of physics so that gasoline won't work in a car engine anymore.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

NBC is done with pick-ups (no Midnight Sun or The Frontier) Looking at their dramas overall, I'm still not seeing that common thread they need for a strong brand identity (male-skewing, to take advantage of their large sports audience):

Revolution - sci fi adventure
Do No Harm - doctor show, sci-fi-ish
Republic of Pirates (spring?) - historical adventure
Chicago Fire - firefighter drama (probably similar in structure to an episodic cop show)
Infamous - mystery soap, very ABC flavored
1313 Mockingbird Lane (spring?) - fantasy comedy, also more ABC-ish

This is actually very few dramas in the context of NBC's annual need to rebuild their schedule.

NBC also has Hannibal lined up for next fall.

 

[startrekwatcher]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

I take it that hideous Munsters remake didn't get picked up.

 

[Vendikarr]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

I take it that hideous Munsters remake didn't get picked up.

They pushed back shooting the pilot to summer. A decision will be made in the fall, and if it goes to air, it will show up in the spring at the earliest.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

You can see the preview for Revolution here. They're partly making a play for the Hunger Games audience, with a young woman armed with a bow in a dystopian future, and for the Twilight audience with the casting of Billy Burke.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

NBC's schedule.

Revolution gets the 10pm Monday slot. Do No Harm, 10pm Sun (midseason). Smash is also held till midseason (by which time everyone will have forgotten it). 1313 Mockingbird Lane, Hannibal and Republic of Pirates are also slated for the last half of the season.

Still no news about Gotham from ABC. They announce their schedule Tues am.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

Mockingbird Lane and Republic of Pirates are still in development for midseason, but I don't think they've actually been ordered to series yet.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

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

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

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]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

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]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

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]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

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]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

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.