2005 Fall Season TV Pilots September 27, 2005
Posted by TheCasualCritic in TV Talk
So I'm thinking what better way to get introduced to the television offerings if not by checking out the new shows that the network execs put their high hopes for the season into. After all, these are the shows that were designed to avoid all the mistakes and build on the success of the previous years. What could go wrong?
First we have a few Sci-Fi shows. Aliens and spaceships were always a success on primetime network television. Particularly Friday nights. Let's remember just the more recent examples: Oddyssey 5, Firefly, John Doe, Dark Angel or even Showtime's Jeremiah. What do they have in common? They have all been cancelled after at most 2 seasons. So following in their footsteps comes Threshold a show whose 2 hour pilot tried to cram more ideas than a show should have during its first season. A strange pluri-dimensional object kills half the members of a boat crew and takes over the other half through a complex sound pattern that affects people even when viewed on a tape. Thankfully the government has an emergency plan in place for events like this and a crew of scientists leads the defense efforts from a skyscraper building in the middle of downtown Washington, DC... (it's scifi...). Oh, and it appears that what they actually want (the aliens) is to modify our DNA from a 2-helix to a triple helix structure... Yah.. Threshold is so ridiculous in its first 1h30 that I could ramble just about it in this entry but, let's spare everyone the pain and move on.
Invasion is the other alien themed show. These aliens also seem to take over people, but the show is slower paced and takes a little more time to introduce the characters. The show starts with a hurricane, which is definitely a bit awkward in the wake of the past few weeks but that cannot be held against it. Probably worth checking for a couple more episodes to see where it leads.
Surface is about sea monsters. I am actually quite surprised noone tapped into this obvious theme lately, but whether the show will have any success, it's hard to say. It tries to mix encounters of regular people, marine biologists and military investigations. Scheduled Mondays at 8pm on NBC it might survive opposite mostly comedies if there are enough watchers willing to start their week with a thriller.
Supernatural is WB's new Buffy-like show. Two brothers fight demons in their quest to find their missing father and avenge their mother's death. Following Gilmore Girls in Tuesday's line-up, WB probably tries to keep the Gilmore viewers in as one of the brothers is none other than Jared Padalecki - who plays Dean in Gilmore Girls. His co-star is also a WB familiar face: Jensen Ackles, currently still in Smallville (Jason) but also known from Dark Angel (Alec).
To round up the sci-fi/supernatural line-up we go back to Friday night and, oh boy, back to CBS who schedules Ghost Whisperer right before Threshold. Jennifer Love Hewitt plays Melinda who... can speak to the dead. The cheesy-ness potential of this new show does not have to be described in detail, although watching it I had the feelin that the producers did try somehow to borrow some elements from hits like Joan of Arcadia or Dead Like Me.
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