As the networks line-up the pieces of their 2017-2017 tv seasons, NBC announces its intentions and fantastical new recruits…
Having just cancelled current shows The Mysteries of Laura and Heartbeat and moved some of its returning shows around the potential schedule (Blindspot moving to a difficult slot on Wednesdays) NBC needs to fill out its coming schedule with some new shows and it has just started announcing some of those plans.
Timeless… previously known as – ironically – ‘Time‘, looks to be one of those series that will depend solely on its execution. It tells the story of a mysterious criminal who steals a top-secret time-machine and heads back into the past to apparently change history. In the ‘present’ there’s limited time to resist the effects this will cause and a disparate team is pulled together to man the original prototype time-machine to follow and stop him. But is history – and the truth – quite as clear as they’ve been told?
Certainly, all the familiar time-travel tropes are being played to: cause and effect and cause, historical backdrop, greater good, pliable continuity and hints of other bigger agendas… and that’s something that may well play against its longevity unless the acting and the strength of the script can help bolster the show and convince potential audiences there’s something actually new or at least compelling to watch.
That being said the dialogue itself sounds good and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out… and executive producer Shawn Ryan has a strong track record of being involved with shows that take singular ideas and create cult hits.. including Angel, The Shield, Terriers and The Last Resort. The pilot is directed by Neil Marshall, best known for the likes of Dog Soldiers, The Descent and Black Sails.
Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter, Malcolm Barrett, Goran Visnjic, Paterson Joseph, Sakina Jaffrey and Claudia Doumitare among the stars.
MIDNIGHT TEXAS — (Photo by: NBC)
Midnight, Texas… looks like an attempt by NBC to stoke the fires ignited by HBO’s True Blood. Once again the source material comes from a series of books by Charlaine Harris and, again, features a town that is inhabited by the good, the bad and the fantastical. Like the ‘Bon Temps’ community, the town of Midnight is described in the press release as “…a mysterious safe haven for those who are different. As the town members fight off outside pressures from rowdy biker gangs, ever-suspicious cops and their own dangerous pasts, they band together and form a strong and unlikely family.” True Blood was a cable show, able to show explicit sex, adult language and to push the barriers. Whether NBC – which will have to dilute some of those factors being a mainstream network – can achieve the same cult status remains to be seen. The cast includes François Arnaud, Dylan Bruce, Parisa Fitz-Henley, Arielle Kebbel, Sarah Ramos, Peter Mensah, Yul Vazquez and Sean Bridgers.
Kristen Bell goes to ‘The Good Place’…
The Good Place… is a light comedy that will feature cult Veronica Mars and House of Lies star Kristen Bell as a selfish, unexceptional woman named Eleanor Shellstrop who finds herself in Heaven after a clerical error appears to place her in the wrong Afterlife.
It then chronicles her efforts, with mentor Ted Danson, to make sure she’s not sent to ‘the other place’ though she’s sometimes her own worst enemy and the most disruptive element in the heavenly set-up. It’s an unapologetic comedy rather than a drama, but Bell is always worth the price of admission.
The Blacklist spin-off – now entitled Blacklist: Redemption – will formally go to series after some shocking left-turns and cast-changes in the continuing main show which moves to Thursdays. It will feature Famke Janssen and Ryan Eggold reprising their roles from the main series – an episode of which planted the seeds for the spin-off format. Taken, the prequel to the Liam Neeson-starring film series is also still on target, but is most likely a mid-season replacement.
According to NBC there is still a possibility that there is a future for the Cruel Intentions series which has not been pikced up, but neither formally nixed. It would see another cult tv actress Sarah Michelle Gellar reprise her role of Kathryn Merteuil from the 1999 film which was, itself, based on the historical novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
