Times like this, I like to look to the future, to see what new and exciting shows the world of television might be offering me come next fall. Pilot season is a time when the most creative entertainers in the medium come together with fresh, new, original-
(What's that?
Oh, really? All of it? Damn.
No, they're just going to be really disappointed when I tell them...
Fine, I know it's my job, I just don't like...
Ugh. Hateful.)
Sorry, about that, Freaks. Where was I? Oh, right! Pilot Season 2012. Looks like it's shaping up to be an exciting look at TV we've already seen! Let's check out the coolest repeats, remakes, and retreads, shall we?!
Dueling Beauties (and Beasts)
Both CW and ABC are cultivating remakes of the popular fairy tale, trying to mix a sexy love story with the genre trend that is very, very popular for next season. Expect CW's version to be more "grounded in reality", as it's based on the 80's show and is taking a more procedural bent, while ABC's version is set in a magical world. Also, you can probably expect them both to be terrible.
 |
| This will forever be the greatest version of the love story based on Stockholm Syndrome. |
Unoriginal: novels and comics edition
CW is also planning (and seriously hyping- they seem to think it's the sure thing for a pickup) a prequel to Sex and the City, The Carrie Diaries, based on the 80's-high-school-set Candace Bushnell novel. I do suppose it would be interesting to see how Carrie turned into a vapid and horrible person, huh? CBS is doing a Sherlock Holmes reboot, which is obviously much-needed, and NBC is doing a modern-day take on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Do No Harm, which imagines the man with two personalities as a New York City doctor. Oh, and CW is also doing Green Arrow. But they dropped the "Green", so now it's just Arrow. Edgy!
 |
| Screw edgy, break me off a piece of that arrow! |
Doctors and Cops, oh my!
In completely unsurprising and unexciting news, there are a million new shows starring cops, firemen, lawyers, and doctors. Want a list? Chicago Fire (NBC), Trooper (CBS), Guilty (FOX), County (NBC), First Cut (CW), Golden Boy (CBS), Queen (CBS), and an Untitled FOX project. These are all the shows that will actually make it on TV next fall.
Stealing the Queen's TV
Also in the works are lots of British remakes (since that worked so well with Free Agents!), including Bad Girls and Friday Night Dinner on NBC, and White Van Man and Only Fools and Horses on ABC. This is not going to work. There, I called it.
 |
| Dammit, NBC, neither is this! |
Searching for JJ Abrams
The biggest trend for next year is the whole genre-elements-in-the-real-world show, although some of these are doing a better job of combining than others. There's lots of time travel, mysteries, aliens, new societies, post-apocalyptic settings, demons and other various supernatural creatures around, so us sci-fi nerds are really hoping the networks can manage to make some of these actually work. NBC is doing Beautiful People, about the rise of the machines, Midnight Sun, about a commune that vanished, and actually got JJ Abrams for Revolution, one of the post-apocalyptic ones. CW is combining singing and time travel with Joey Dakota and combining The Hunger Games and The Bachelor with The Selection.
And no, I did not make either of those things up.
ABC is going to town after the success of Once Upon a Time, and has no less than six genre-style shows in the works, an untitled sitcom with aliens, conspiracies with Zero Hour, setting up a new civilization with Last Resort, cops dealing with an unseen world on Gotham, demons taking over an apartment building on 666 Park Ave, and an untitled Roland freaking Emmerich. Yeah, you read that right.
 |
| So expect excellent characterization, subtle plots, brilliant writing, and no gratuitous CGI. Also, I'm a unicorn. |
And of course, CBS isn't making any.
Oh, grandpa.
So, is there anything I'm actually excited about?
Hell yes.
Mindy Kaling is writing and starring in an untitled sitcom for FOX, where she plays a "Bridget Jones-type doctor struggling with her personal and professional life". Um, yes please. Also, Max Mutchnick and David Kohan (Will and Grace) are doing a new pilot sitcom for CBS about longtime best friends (huh, that sounds familiar...and awesome) and Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Cougar Town) has a new sitcom in the works at FOX.
Arrested Development alum Judy Greer and Portia de Rossi might both have new shows on ABC, with Greer attached to star in American Judy and de Rossi starring in The Smart One, exec produced by wife Ellen Degeneres. I really love both Greer and de Rossi and I trust them when it comes to comedy, so I expect good things there. And though I can't imagine it will get picked up, I'm intrigued by another ABC project, Gilded Lily's, a soap set in 1898 at the first luxury hotel in NYC.
What about you, Freaks? Anything making your heart race?
No comments:
Post a Comment