Smallscreen Features

Genre Shows: A Tale Of Things To Come

By Ian Cullen May 29, 2010, 17:41 GMT

Hawaii Five O star- Alex O\'Loughlin - Westwood, CA. USA © Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos

As a fan of television, specifically genre-related television. I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about some of the new stuff, which is coming out from the networks for the Fall and 2011 television season.

One show I am looking forward to though, and this probably falls under the bracket of cop show or procedural, but I’m really looking forward to seeing what CBS do with their updated version of Hawaii Five-0.

Now I’m not one of those who was obsessed with the original show. Here in the UK I’d be lucky to catch the occasional episode, and that was usually on school holidays. Because it was usually on during the day here in England, and I don’t seem to recall it getting a great deal of play but the episodes I did see, and this was the eighties.

The show felt dated back then. Though I always loved the opening credits, catchy theme tune and the sneak peak at the tropical setting of Hawaii. I mean, why wouldn’t I enjoy that, living in Manchester where the winters are long and the summers can be few and far between. 

With regard to science fiction stuff that’s coming up. I have to say am not really overwhelmed with enthusiasm, especially given that we’ve now saw the conclusion of LOST, which for me was the single best quality science fiction series on television. So obviously these new shows have much live up to.

What I hope doesn’t happen is that we get a network trying to sell their latest show as the "NEXT ‘LOST’" which is what ABC did with FlashForward, which is one of the reasons that the show ultimately failed.

I feel that a show should be allowed to grow and evolve and do its own thing. Trying to set a show up as the next ‘LOST’ or the next ’24’ or next anything is akin to condemning your show to television hell. ABC should really have just let FlashForward be the next FlashForward as apposed to hyping it up as the next LOST. 

One show getting a bit of buzz right now is ‘The Event’, which looks to be a Government Conspiracy thriller and stars Blair Underwood and Jason Ritter.

A part of me has a few concerns for the event, because visually it has a similar feel to FlashForward, and the promo seems to be putting much attention on what they’re not telling us, which is how they sold us FlashForward and LOST, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I just get the sense that the mainstream audience is getting a bit weary of heavily plotted story arcs.

So ‘The Event’ could be one to look out for.

NBC are also bringing us The Undercovers, which is described as a light hearted Spy show, which has a little in common with shows of my youth such as Hart To Hart and Scarecrow and Mrs King. Though having seen the trailer. I can’t help but think that there’s a little Mr and Mrs Smith in there as well, which is a funny thought when you consider the fact that they tried to spin that movie off into a series a few years back.

The show stars Boris Kodjoe and British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw who is well known to genre fans for her recurring role in Doctor Who as Martha Jones younger sister Tish Jones.

For my money. The Undercovers would be a natural pairing for Chuck should NBC decide to run both shows on the same night.
 

Undercovers is produced by J.J. Abrams. However from what I’m hearing. He isn’t as involved with it than he was with Alias, which could well be a bad thing for the series. And talking of Alias, Kristin Dos Santos at E! Online has revealed that there are murmurings of ABC wanting to remake that show, though at present. This is just rumour.

Over at CW, which some people refer to as The "Can’t Watch" network, their big new show is a remake of the popular syndicated hit ‘La Femme Nikita’, which stars Maggie Q in the title role. The original was massively popular here in Europe, and did fairly well stateside as well. However when Alias came around it was soon swept under the rug.

In regards to superhero themed shows. NBC has an interesting one in The Cape, which centres on a disgraced cop who is framed for a series of murders, and becomes a caped vigilante.

This series stars David Lyons in the lead role, and has a strong supporting cast, which includes genre favorite Summer Glau of Firefly and Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles fame.

I like the look of The Cape, and think it looks like a lot of fun, but my gut tells me that it will be lucky to last a full season on NBC given that it feels like something that would be a better fit on their cable property The Syfy Channel. Though I do hope I’m wrong about that.

Of course anything NBC can do, ABC can do just as well. 

ABC’s superhero offering is No Ordinary Family, which is headed up by Michael Chiklis who is better known for his roles in The Shield and The Fantastic Four movies.

No Ordinary Family is basically what it says on the tin. The show centres on a suburban family who go on vacation, only to have their plane crash near the Amazon River. Due to circumstances beyond explanation, they return to the burbs with superpowers.

This show sounds like it could have some potential, and sounds like a more grown up take on the animated feature film The Incredibles. So this could be one to watch.

Returning shows that genre fans can look forward to include Sanctuary on Syfy Channel, which has 20 episodes this season as apposed to 13 and I’m hearing some exciting and fun things about this latest season from my sources in Vancouver.

In regards to returning broadcast genre shows. We’ll see a return of the re-imagined V series in the midseason, and they’ll really need to shake things up on that in order to try and win back some of the viewers who dropped off after the gawd awful poorly executed first season.

Monsters and Critics' contributing writer Ian Cullen is a former actor and community artist, and a lifetime fan of Science Fiction and television. He runs www.scifipulse.net - a site, which follows the trends of science fiction television and movies.  He lives in Manchester, England.