New crop of TV shows

[rhienelleth]

kieyra's post on various new TV shows got me curious enough to do some looking of my own, and I'm suddenly excited about some of the new stuff coming on.

1. First up is "The Inside", a new show by Tim Minear ("Angel","Wonderfalls"), which centers around a female FBI agent recruited into the Violent Crimes Unit in LA as a profiler. She late finds out her boss hired her more for mer traumatic past than he did for her skills as a profiler. Which is interesting, because what boss ever hired anyone for the trauma they've experienced? But it's Tim Minear, so I have faith. :) Of more interest, perhaps, is the fact that Adam Baldwin ("Firefly") co-stars in this. And it premiers in June, Wednesday the 8th to be exact, at 9pm. Set your TIVOs. Summer may not be so bland for TV-land, after all.

2. It seems that NBC is taking a dip into the SCIFI pool with "Fathom", though I admit I'm a little torn on this one. I was excited at first, because the premise, quoted word-for-word from Zap2it: "Lake Bell, who co-starred on ABC's "Boston Legal" earlier this season, has submerged herself in a new role. The actress has taken the female lead in NBC's drama pilot "Fathom," a sci fi-tinged show about mysterious creatures -- which turn out to be aliens -- living under the ocean. She'll play a marine biologist who discovers the creatures, according to The Hollywood Reporter."

Um, wow, that sounds strikingly familiar. As in exactly the plot, story, and character of Michael Turner's short lived but powerful comic book by the same name, "Fathom". Except his marine biologist female lead, Aspen, not only discovers them, but discovers she is one of them. I figured they weren't going to spoil you for that in the pilot, but was very excited to learn they were making a TV series based on his oh-so-awesome story.

Except that after some more searching, I realized to my shock and chagrin, that it isn't Fathom the comic book. The characters all have different names. But the premise is the same, and even the show title. Hmm. Something reeks of fish here. I'm going to watch, I'm sure, if only to see if they really are ripping off Michael Turner, who besides being one of the most amazing artists in comic-dom (he was the original artist for "Witchblade"), was forced to take a hiatus from working a few years back for health reasons. Don't quote me, but I'm remembering something really big, like cancer, and something to do with surgery on this thigh and having to relearn how to walk.

Oh, they better not be ripping him off.

3. FOX (who I don't trust in the least) is reportedly picking up "Bones", a drama starring David Boreanaz and based on the forensic anthropologist mysteries by Kathy Reichs (if you haven't read them, think Patricia Cornwell). The blurb reads like this: "Emily Deschanel ("Boogeyman") has scored the lead role in the drama pilot, about a team of forensic anthropologists who solve crimes using evidence supplied by skeletal remains. She’ll play Temperance Brennan, the leader of said team in the 20th Century Fox Television-based project. David Boreanaz and Michaela Conlin also star in the pilot, which comes from executive producers Barry Josephson and Hart Hanson and is based on the "Brennan" novels by Kathy Reichs."

Makes me really wonder who David plays. I've read the books, you see. The male characters are...diverse. And Tempe's love life is as screwed up as Kay Scarpetta's. And she doesn't get along well with others, really. (Maybe that's a trait among forensic pathologists?) In any case, her one "relationship" with a Det. Andrew Ryan can best be described as on again, off again. And she has a grown daughter, an ex-husband...she's not a a twenty-something as the actress playing her will be. I'm skeptical, but interested.