Remember I talked about Nobody’s Watching a while back? It was the pilot for a comedy that didn’t get picked up, but which its creators decided to put on YouTube.
Well, it’s been so successful, Variety reports, it looks like NBC is going to commission six episodes. The fact it’s going to be cheap to make might have swayed NBC, but apparently Web 2.0 is seeping into the consciousness of network executives over there as well.
In the US: Mondays 9/8c, NBC. Starts September 25, 2006 In the UK: Not yet acquired, although Channel 4 is most likely to pick it up
After last year’s sci-fi ‘dump’, where virtually every new drama commissioned by the US networks – Invasion, Surface, Threshold, etc – had an SF theme, it’s interesting to note that NBC’s Heroes is more or less the only new SF show this time round. Even then, it qualifies more as fantasy than SF, since it follows a group of ordinary super-heroes – if there is such a thing – rather than aliens or some other sci-fi staple. It’s not very original and clearly owes The 4400 a debt or two, but it’s actually pretty good.
Doctor Who‘s all very nice and all, but at its heart, it’s a show aimed mainly at kids. Happily enough, adults can also get some fun from it, but if you want hard-core, adult sci-fi (which is very different from adult hardcore sci-fi, of course), you have to go to the States.
Battlestar Galactica is still the show to beat in terms of, well, everything really, if you want decent plotlines, decent effects, decent characters, etc. Season three would normally be starting right now, but the US SciFi channel has delayed it until October to make sure it’s all really well done and ready for when it finally sees the light of day.
However, there’s a trailer available on YouTube now (with a slight audio sync problem) to give you an idea of what season three’s going to be like.
Incidentally, Stargate: Atlantis and Stargate SG-1 both began new seasons on Friday. I haven’t reviewed them because, to be honest, it’s the same old, same old there – they keep plodding along with nothing desperately bad or desperately good to take away from it all. Fun, but we’re in the 13th mile of a marathon, really.
One thing though. Both shows, together with Battlestar Galactica, have the kind of effects that Doctor Who can only dream of. So the next time you hear RTD going on about how fabulous The Mill is, show him an ep of Stargate Atlantis. Hell, even these mocked up season three titles for BSG should give him pause for thought:
In the US: ABC, not yet scheduled (although TV.com reckons 1st September)
In the UK: Not yet acquired
Last sitcom of the day, Our Thirties (aka Our 30’s) is another Friends ‘homage’. Its simple premise is that people in their 30s have already done interesting things and have plenty of back-story, so a sitcom about a group of 30-year-olds will therefore be interesting. Plus kids are all on the Internet these days, leaving only people in their 30s watching tele.
It’s not a theory that holds much water. But Our 30’s does have one saving grace – Peter Serafinowicz. Yes, the voice of Darth Maul and star of Look Around You, Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and numerous other fabulous British comedies has made his way across the Atlantic to appear in a US sitcom. And doesn’t he do well?
Ah, after The Class, we have another CBS sitcom. This one isn’t quite as interesting. In fact, it’s altogether tepid. So tepid, in fact, that CBS haven’t yet decided if they want to air it (it’ll probably be a mid-season replacement if one of the other shows commits suicide), and no one in the UK has acquired it yet.
The basic set-up is that a house-husband who stays at home and looks after the kids while his (literally) high-flying wife goes off and wins the bread is frustrated by the fundamental injustices of life: women who hold up queues by talking on their mobile phones for too long; being called “Mister Mum”. You know, really serious stuff.
So angry is he that he starts to hallucinate his car’s satnav system giving him advice on how to stress-down. That’s how angry he is. Ooh.
And that’s more or less it. Slightly dorky husband; smarter, infinitely patient wife who puts up with his gaucheness – you’ve seen it all before in Everyone Loves Raymond and King of Queens, to name but two.
If this ever sees the light of day, expect either significant changes or a run of three shows at most. But don’t waste precious eyeball time on it, whatever you do.
