In the UK: Fridays, 9pm, Sky 1 In the US: Not yet acquired
Stan Lee’s the kind of guy who gets to have his name in the title of things. While opinion is divided about exactly how responsible he, rather than say Jack Kirby et al, is for creating Spider-Man, The Avengers, The Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, the X-Men, Daredevil and Doctor Strange, he did enough that he gets to have movies and TV shows called Stan Lee’s Mighty 7, Stan Lee’s Superhumans, With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story, Stan Lee’s Mutants, Monsters & Marvels, Stan Lee’s Academy of Heroes and Stan Lee’s Oscar Campaign, and to cameo in pretty much all the Marvel universe movies.
By now, he has both name and face check familiarity with the general populace. At least in the US. In the UK? Maybe.
Anyway, that’s what Sky 1’s probably gambling with Stan Lee’s Lucky Man, in which James Nesbitt is a London police detective with a gambling problem who gets possibly the worst thing in the world for a man with his addiction – a magic bracelet that gives him incredibly good luck.
Lee contributed a one-page synopsis for the show, so by normal naming rights, this should probably be called Neil Biswas’s Lucky Man, given Biswas (The Take) developed the synopsis into the series and has written most, if not all of the first season’s 10 episodes. However, Sky 1 almost certainly figures the show could do with a boost in the ratings/overseas exports sales through Lee’s presence in the show’s name since in the scheme of things, Lucky Man is probably on a par with Crime Traveller and other mildly science-fictiony/fantasy TV series without a huge amount of oomph.
