Pilot Season 2008 [** Spoilers **]

Mr E

** Do not ask where to get these pilots. Discussion of sources and provision of links will be removed without prejudice, and the poster in question will receive a 1 week ban from the Television forum**

To prevent 15 new threads with polls appearing over the next 3 weeks (sorry user45701!), lets try and keep all Pilot discussion/announcements to one thread.

A Pilot is when a production company creates a test episode of a new show to get feedback (and hopefully sell) new shows to networks. Pilots can be quite different to what becomes the final episode 1x01 (actors are changed, scenes are dropped, plots can change), but they give a good idea of how a show is going to turn out.

Since Saturday, 2 pilots have been released:

Fringe: FBI agents Olivia Dunham and Peter Bishop are faced with a rapidly spreading unexplained phenomenon of the threatening kind. In an attempt to stop the spread, they enlist the assistance of Bishop's estranged father, the institutionalized scientist Dr. Walter Bishop.

Dawson's Creek's Joshua Jackson will play the lead role of Peter Bishop, a smart guy with many gambling debts. The Secret Life of Us's Anna Torv will play Olivia Dunham, a young, tough FBI agent who has to confront an unexplained phenomena. Also cast in the series are The Black Donnelly's Kirk Acevedo and Boston Legal's Mark Valley. They will play FBI agents. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King's John Noble and The Wire's Lance Reddick soon were added to the credits. Noble as Dr. Walter Bishop and Reddick as Phillip Broyles, a special agent for Homeland Security head of the Fringe division, that investigates terrorist and paranormal events. Alongside them are veteran actress Blair Brown and Take the Lead actress Jasika Nicole. Brown will play Nina Sharp, a 16-year veteran of Prometheus Corp., a cutting-edge research facility, while Nicole got the recurring role of Astrid, a federal assistant.

This highly anticipated sci-fi drama is created by Transformers / Star Trek / Mission: Impossible III's J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Fringe is directed by Emmy Award-winning Alex Graves ("The West Wing") and produced by Warner Bros. Television, Bad Robot Productions and Fringe Element Films.

True Blood: Alan Ball, creator of Six Feet Under, returns to HBO with a new series based on the novel series Southern Vampire by Charlaine Harris. The series follows Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic barmaid who finds comfort in the company of vampires since they have no brainwave activity for her to read. She and her brother Jason were raised by her grandmother after losing their parents in a flood and she tries to keep her telepathic ability a secret. Thanks largely in part to the creation of a Japanese-made synthetic blood called True Blood (where the series takes it name) vampires have make their existence known to the world. Sookie works at the bar 'Merlotte's' which is owned and operated by her boss Sam Merlotte who has a secret of his own.

** Do not ask where to get these pilots. Discussion of sources and provision of links will be removed without prejudice, and the poster in question will receive a 1 week ban from the Television forum **

User45701

cheers i must check out the 2nd one, man its good to use boards with a keyboard again ive been using the onscreen keybord at home because im too lazy to swap the keybord over from my gaming pc

herobear

FBI agents Olivia Dunham and Peter Bishop are faced with a rapidly spreading unexplained phenomenon of the threatening kind.

as opposed to the non threatening kind ?

a telepathic barmaid who finds comfort in the company of vampires since they have no brainwave activity for her to read.

i have NO WORDS!

*cringes* who the hell greenlit these ideas :mad:

Mr E

What intrigues me about True Blood is that its on HBO, so I'd expect adult language and violence where applicable. Might elevate it above the tame network vampire shows that came out last season.

Ivan

The Middleman: Fighting evil so you don't have to.

Wendy Watson is recruited by The Middleman as his protégée. The Middleman, a milk-guzzling comic-book-like superhero, protects humanity from the supernatural forces that lurk in the shadows.

The Middleman is based on Javier Grillo-Marxuach's series of graphic novels.

Starts tonight on ABC at 8pm, I believe. Seems like it could work depending on how they go about it. Course, it'll more than likely be totally over the top and therefore a failure... but here's hoping

Mr E

Here is one alot of people have been waiting for. Apparently this is mostly scrapped (the show's setting is changing from LA to New York), but it will be interesting to watch!

Life On Mars: ABC Studios, David E. Kelley Productions, 20th Century Fox Television, and Kudos Productions are co-producing the remake of BBC drama Life on Mars. Sam Tyler (Jason O'Mara) is a detective from the 21st century that travels back in time to the 1970's after a car accident. Tyler clashes with new boss Gene Hunt (Colm Meaney) who doesn't take his coming from the future seriously. He finds a friend in one of the few female detectives Annie Cartwright (Rachelle Lefevre). Tyler ends up working on a case involving a serial killer which may have something to do with his girlfriend's kidnapping in the present.

Kur4mA

herobear wrote: »

as opposed to the non threatening kind ?



i have NO WORDS!

*cringes* who the hell greenlit these ideas :mad:

Fringe is actually damn good if I say so myself. It's definitely worth a watch to judge it for yourself.

Mr E

Just flicked through LOM.... I expected the worst from that trailer, but it wasn't terrible. Colm Meaney (if he hangs on for the full series) should drop the American accent, and the guy who plays Sam seems a bit one dimensional (reminds me of Michael Schofield in Prison Break).

Lots of key scenes taken straight from the UK version - the accident, the intro to Gene, the conversation the person trying to reach him from 2007, the rooftop scene at the end.

I'll give it a chance. It could be very very good.

Ivan

Just watched the Middleman. Really, really good imho. Like Reaper and Chuck but funnier by miles the two main characters are instantly charming and fun to watch.

Its just the right amount of understated humour and over-the-top action. Definitely one of my favourites of this year (albeit its the first and only one I have watched thus far)

Watch this space, this should be pretty successful.

Basq

Have heard good things about 'Middleman' alright.. and luckily not a Fall pilot but a Summer series of 10 episodes.

As for the pilots, the only one I have watched so far is 'Fringe' and here's my opinion from another thread

Just watched it this evening - probably my most ancticipated of all the pilots. And overall, I really liked it but was not flawless by any means.

Firstly the good points.. the direction was spot on by Abrams as always (I assumed he directed the pilot) - the free-hanging titles for locations was VERY nifty and also the resuscitation of Olivia between flashes of brightness and silence was very nicely done.

Casting was also pitch perfect - from an excellent three leads (Torv, Jackson and Noble) down to Lance Reddick (though under-used in the pilot).

Onto the bad points - I think maybe they brought in too much too soon in the pilot. We get the idea of 'fringe science' thrown at us, along with a couple of fictional events where it was attributed and then we get the idea of 'Massive Dynamics' and what they do. I suppose it was to make the viewer come back for more (a lá the 'Lost' pilot) but it just seemed too much too quickly in the latter half of the pilot.

And also Joshua Jackson's little sarcastic quips might need to be toned down. During the scene where Walter was telling Olivia about the "shared brain state experiment", practically every second line we had Pacey popping in with a retort. You're not in the Creek now, bucko!

Really looking forward to the series though.. definitely one to watch. And Abrams can practically do no wrong!

Mr E

basquille wrote: »

And Abrams can practically do no wrong!

**cough** six degrees **cough**

Ahem.

Basq

Notice I said practically!

Some might say 'M:I 3' also but caught it on TV last Saturday and enjoyed it a helluva lot more than 'M:I 2'

ongarite

I have acquired "Fringe" from an American cousin and its fairly good. Hope it gets the green light for full season and doesn't get the chop from Fox half-way through the season.

Ivan

Just watched The Fringe. Enjoyable Sci-Fi, X-files meets CSI with a tinge of Threshold thrown into the mix. Solid cast, great direction and interesting plot (and subsequent plot devices) means; I believe this could make season 2 at least.

Watching The Middleman as I type and I'm really enjoying it. Having read some of the comics I have to admit that they captured the spirit of the comic amazingly well. It's certainly funnier that any of the recent shows and if they keep up the standard set by the pilot then we could be on to a real winner here.

Edit: Just after finishing The Middleman and I love it. Easily the funniest show of the past year and one which could be the surprise of the summer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkCbh78Wohg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84QHGV-_h2Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZcpbqaJ1Gw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHpc-zYHqMc

Mr E

Fixed your youtube links, Darko. The format is:

[ youtube ]xyz1234567[ /youtube ]
(without spaces)

Just use the youtube ID number, not the full URL.

Ponster

Deleted User wrote: »

Edit: Just after finishing The Middleman and I love it. Easily the funniest show of the past year and one which could be the surprise of the summer.

Hmm, a little quirky for me. Kinda like a mix of Gilmore Girls and Reaper. I just found myself surfing in the background instead of really watching the show.

Basq

Didn't really enjoy 'The Middleman' either... and I enjoy both 'Gilmore Girls' and 'Reaper'!

I think 'The Middleman' was a bit too quirky and wasn't nearly funny enough. Will give it another few episodes though.

'Life on Mars' was quite painful to watch as I see exactly how much it pales in comparison to the original. Jason O Mara was, without doubt, one of the most wooden actors to ever grace the screen and Colm Meaney was extremely watered down as the 'Gene Genie'. And as for Rachel LaFevre, she was a bit too attractive to be Annie - might be a bit over-critical but Annie was always the "cute though seemed a bit over her head in the male chavinism of the 70's". And as for Uncle Teddy, didn't he look just a teeny bit like Dennis Farina? Is he meant to be both the Ray and Chris characters.. that's just disappointing!

And what was with the extremely fake looking 70's backdrops and obvious harnesses and wires on Annie and Sam standing on the ledge of the building? I assume they'll be improved on between now and air-date.

And speaking of which.. is this the final cast? Or has it changed in terms of recasts? I know they were recasting a couple of the roles but unsure if this is the pilot with the recasted roles.

Sherifu

/me ponders whether to get US LOM.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

don't
get some horse porn or something you might enjoy

Ivan

True Blood was pretty dog shít awful imho. Only redeemable factor was Anna Paquin's tits, though that is almost immediately countered by her two front teeth.

Otherwise, pretty terrible over-acting in places, boring script and rather slow pace just left me very unmoved. Finally, I cant really decide if it is meant to be a sci-fi drama that takes itself too seriously or a quirky NBC thriller type that fails miserably and just comes off weird.

Either way, I would highly recommend avoiding this.

Basq

Gotta agree with Ivan.

I was really looking forward to True Blood as it's created and written by Alan Ball, the creator of 'Six Feet Under' and 'American Beauty' (although you wouldn't think it from watching it).

I really thought the Alan Ball / HBO / vampires prospect would work well.. how wrong I was. Anna Paquin plays a girl named Sookie Stackhouse (and yes, that's her real name) and it all goes downhill from there. Then we get Vinnie from 'Home & Away' playing her brother and it keeps descending downwards.

We get plenty of T&A, gore, sex, blood and bad language ('See You Next Tuesday' and f*cks galore!) as you would expect from HBO. But the dialogue is so lazy, so unfresh and un-natural that it's about as far from Alan Ball as you'd expect. I really don't know what happened. But the odd thing is that it leaves you with a desire for absolutely no more - it ends somewhat on a cliffhanger with

Sookie getting the shíte kicked outta her

but do you really care what happens? Don't know if it's the fact that majority of the cast all seem too cocky and over-confident in their roles. But it's definitely one of the most unlikeable casts I've seen in a show in a long time.

To summarise: 'True Blood' IS Alan Ball's 'Southland Tales' (for you film fans out there! ).

Skip it.. and re-watch some classic Alan Ball with some 'Six Feet Under'!

Very sad really!

Mr E

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..............................
Anyone interested?

Pretty Handsome: From Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy comes a new drama pilot based on the life of a family man who realizes he's a transsexual and opts for gender reassignment surgery. The show was originally titled "4oz.". Creator Ryan Murphy says the original title refers to the average weight of a man's penis. The show is produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Plan B Entertainment.

Sherifu

Mr E wrote: »

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..............................
Anyone interested?

I can think of 1 or 2.

Ponster

True Blood

To be fair I'd watch a second ep of this before I'd watch a second ep of The Middleman.

Thers' a very good review here which sums up everything I thought about the show.

http://yetanothertvreviewpodcast.blogspot.com/2008/06/true-blood.html

Supercell

Watched The Middleman last night and am a bit undecided.
Its very quirky, I guess it may be something that will grow on me after a few episodes, wasn't gripped have to say.

jor el

Thought Middleman was pretty good. Funny, like Reaper or Chuck. Could get old very quick, but could also be good.

Also watched True Blood, very strange. That review posted by Ponster is a fair representation. Since this is a very much unfinished pilot, I'd say it should change a bit before the final release, if it gets a release. The end kind of came out of nowhere (as in I wasn't expecting it to end yet), and left me feeling a bit "eh?". I'd watch a 2nd episode to see what the hell is going on.

I'll be giving Pretty Handsome a miss, sounds awful.

Mr E

Another one... based on the pilot clip reels that came out a few weeks ago, I think I'll give this one a wide berth.

Do Not Disturb: DO NOT DISTURB (working title) is a hilarious workplace comedy set at one of New York City's hottest and hippest hotels: The Inn. Named one of the Big Apple's "10 Best Places to Stay," The Inn is just that the "in" place to be, with its chic dcor, stylish staff and celebrity clientele. Behind the scenes, however, the upstairs/downstairs dynamic tells quite a different story."

AdrianII

Have only watched fringe so far. though the story was good and cant wait til the next episode.

i got LOM but havent watched it, i havent seen the UK version will i like the US one or is the UK version better.

Will probably watch a few over the weekend, what ye reccommend to watch.

Different question - anybody seen swingtown, any good

Mr E

Haven't seen Swingtown, but the reviews are spread wide between those who love it and hate it (with the average around the 50% mark).

http://www.metacritic.com/tv/shows/Swingtown

Looks like one where you'll have to suck it and see (pun intended)

Dodge

Didn't enjoy Swingtown. hate to say it but it might've worked as a cable show.

Thought Middleman was OK. I think its on ABC family too (and not the main ABC channel) so pressure isn't as intense. Could easily find itself a nice little audience there (although the show is actually rated TV 14 and contains a couple of excellent swearing jokes in it)

Have Fringe to watch. not that pushed to do so though

Basq

Both 'Pretty Handsome' and 'Do Not Disturb' both sound like misses!

I think Ponster reviews sums up my opinion on 'True Blood' quite well.. especially his thoughts that the failings of the show lie on how uninteresting and bland the characters are. But I wouldn't call the writing unusual.. I'd just say it was plain crap!

Which I never thought I'd say as Alan Ball used to be one of my favourite writers. Some of the dialogue was very "soap opera-ish" in it too.

jor el

basquille wrote: »

'Do Not Disturb' both sound like misses!

But, but... it's hilarious! Not to mention hot, in, chic, stylish, hip and dynamic. Someone's buzzword generator was working overtime there.

User45701

basquille wrote: »

Both 'Pretty Handsome' and 'Do Not Disturb' both sound like misses!

Ive made it a point to watch most pilots bar the reality/gameshows because there are some great shows that go un-noticed like "Knights of prosperity - robbin from the rich to give to themselves" im still waiting for the DVD

Mr E

Go for it! Looking forward to your reviews, User45701.... you might find a hidden gem for us.

Mr E

Another one.....

Raising The Bar: A group of young lawyer friends and former law school classmates find themselves on opposing sides in this fresh legal drama on TNT.

Raising the Bar is produced by ABC Studios in association with Bochco Media. 10 episodes has been ordered by the network.

Basq

"Fresh legal drama"? I'm sorry but isn't that a contradiction!

How many legal dramas have we had in the last few years?!

Oh God.. and it's got Zack Morris from 'Saved By The Bell' in it!

Supercell

Just watched "Fringe", really enjoyed it, kinda like the xfiles except Mulder is a hawt female.

Looks like an interesting story arc also.

jor el

User45701 wrote: »

Ive made it a point to watch most pilots bar the reality/gameshows because there are some great shows that go un-noticed like "Knights of prosperity - robbin from the rich to give to themselves" im still waiting for the DVD

Be our guinea pig User, and let us know what you think. I remember when Heroes was first announced, it sound like awful tripe, so perhaps there'll be another surprise this year. I'm not holding much hope for Pretty Handsome though.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

ah, but heroes sounded like awful tripe because it *is* awful tripe.

Mr E

Finally sat down to watch Fringe this morning.... I thought it was terrific, but I'm worried that it might be just a tad 'too' sci-fi for the general masses.

That, combined with the fact that its on Fox, is ringing alarm bells for me.

I hope it catches on, I really do.

Ivan

basquille wrote: »

"Fresh legal drama"? I'm sorry but isn't that a contradiction!

How many legal dramas have we had in the last few years?!

Oh God.. and it's got Zack Morris from 'Saved By The Bell' in it!

Ah come on now, he was great in NYPD Blues and he has done a helluva lot better than the rest of the cast. Tiffany Amber-Thiesen included...

That said, it does sound kinda shítty

P.s. Oih, Mord! NO! Bad Mordeth, bad!

Mr E

Another one out this morning....

Leverage: A team of Robin Hood-like thieves, hackers, and grifters are out for revenge against those who horde the power in this TNT drama project.

qwertplaywert

I heard that has Christine Kane in one of the lead roles. Could be worth a look for Mr. Lindsay McDonald alone

Of the other pilots, I've acquired LOM , Middlemen and True Blood but not watched them yet. Disapointed by the poor reaction to True Blood, will still give it a look though. Middleman is prop gonna be watched now in a minute, and LOM.......well, I'm dreading watching that, after the trailar.

I did however watch the Fringe pilot, liked it a lot. The 3 leads have great chemistry[I agree about Joshua Jackson's characters scarcastic 'quibs' though, needs to be toned down] and Jackson surprised me, he was quite good, last time I saw or heard of him was in the good awful ''The Skulls''. The diologue seemed a little chunky and unfinished at some parts, could prop have done with a script polish. The arc sounds promising, but I'm more concerned how they protray the storyline week to week. Will it just be the X-Files all over again, ala ''Monster of the week'' episodes some weeks, and arc episodes the others? Hopefully not, Abhrams has always been inovative, hopefully he breaks from the mould.

Mr E

I kind of liked The Skulls (the 2 DVD sequels were awful though).

I heard that has Christine Kane in one of the lead roles.

...and its Christian Kane (if he has become Christine, then its a whoooooole other kind of show)

Mr E

I kind of liked Leverage... it shows potential.

I thought the David Holmes-esque soundtrack was really annoying.... tried TOO hard make it sound like Oceans 11, the TV Show.

Cactus Col

Watched the Life On Mars pilot. i think people are being a bit too harsh on it. Personnally I thought it did a decent job, and assuming it diverges from the original (in the same way the office did) I can see this becoming a very entertaining and successful show.

Ludo

Just watched the Leverage pilot. It is basically an US remake of Hustle altered slightly for the American market. Even the music is the same as that used in Hustle. It was quite good though so if you like Hustle I would recommend it.

madrab

any idea when the dollhouse pilot sill be surfacing?

Ivan

I think I read somewhere that it was January, I think...