[Note: I know it's not movies, but as promised, a continuation of 2013 Comic-Con coverage, Feature Film Highlights]
A
celebration of science fiction.
With the success and staying power of
shows like "Person of Interest," "Arrow" and
"Revolution" (debuted at
Comic-Con
in years past), TV creators are going geek with a bunch of new shows with a
sci-fi bend this fall.
I attended
this
year's Comic-Con's pilot previews and caught a few gems.
***
"Almost
Human" (FOX). Starring: Karl Urban, Michael Ealy
In
the future, law enforcement teams up with androids to help maintain law and
order. A detective returns to work after a leave of absence; he
was ambushed and his team killed on assignment a couple of years ago.
Initially,
the human detective is assigned a robot partner, whom he humorously disposes. Then
finds himself partnered with a synthetic, a human-like android. Not
only he's not 100% functional physically, he has to accept that synthetics (and
robots) are now fully integrated into the police force, and he has to learn to
trust and work with his synthetic partner. There's good buddy humor, where he's
trying to communicate with a non-human partner built with a human-like,
emotional response. On a personal level, there's also the
mystery of his girlfriend suspiciously gone missing. He soon realizes that
there are major advantages of working with a synthetic. Synthetics possess
computer-like ability, which is proven to be useful during interrogation. Together
they successfully solve a crime against cops.
Produced
by the prolific J.J. Abrams, this high-concept procedural, action-packed show
has a lot of potentials.
***
"The
Hundred" (CW). Starring: Henry Ian Cusick, Eliza Taylor
Post-nuclear
war, surviving humans live in space stations. 97 years in the future,
the lawenforcer ships 100 juvenile delinquents, expendable and monitored via
electronic bracelets, into earth. To avoid overpopulation, any adult age
18 and over who commits a crime is punishable by death. They're sent to earth to
test the air and survive the wild. It's also a social experiment; a new
civilization with no rules. Cliques emerge, with those who want to
remove their monitoring bracelets and go off on their own, and those who want
to follow through with their mission and hopefully bring their families down to
earth. The first scene on earth is a breath of fresh air. Green
forest, water streams and sunlight give new hopes, although danger lurks. It's
alive and a contrast of colors with the cold, grayish-bluish shade up in space.
While
the concept is intriguing, the story would have been better executed with
adults. The drama is better in space with adults. There's
a crime, cover-up and near execution.
On earth, cheesy scenes abound. Teenagers
fit into the stereotypes; the jock, the tough chick, the nerd, the followers,
and so on. Whether or not this show could last remains to be seen.
***
"Sleepy
Hollow" (CW). Starring: Tom Mison, Nicole Beharie
The
scene opens in 1776, where the protagonist beheads a soldier, a horseman in the
woods. He falls down unconscious and wakes up in our time, nearly
getting struck by passing vehicles in the village of Sleepy Hollow. An
officer sees a headless horseman killing his partner and pursuing the 18th
century man. The man is linked to the killing and
imprisoned. He claims he was a spy and worked
under George Washington during the revolution. There are
fish-out-of-water scenes between him and the female cop, considering events
that have taken place over a couple hundreds years, like modern inventions,
civil war and civil rights. While the cop remains skeptical, she
has seen something mystical as a child, and now seeing proofs that there's
truth to his story, she begins to side with him. They team up to solve a
mystery that involves four headless horsemen of the apocalypse, demons, a witch
and a bible.
This
is the one show that I had no interest in and didn't think could work. But
it does. Director Len Wiseman and writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto
Orci create a pilot that defies logic.
It's hard to describe, but
somehow all the elements, supernatural, mystery, fantasy, adventure, hauntingly
work, creating an suspenseful show that blows past any pre-conceived notions.
***
While
I didn't get to see the pilots of two shows in particular that I'm looking
forward to,
"The Tomorrow People" (CW; starring Robbie Amell,
Amanda Clarke) and Marvel's
"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" (ABC;
starring Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen), put these on your must-see list if you're a
sci-fi fan.
"The Tomorrow People"
reminds me of "Heroes."
Several young people with special
powers, such as teleportation and telepathy, band together to defeat dark
forces.
Director Joss Whedon parlays the popularity of the
billion-dollar movie, "
The
Avengers" into "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."
S.H.I.E.L.D. stands for
Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.
The
division is headed by Agent Coulson, who's last seen dead in the movie.
Unlike
their superhero counterparts, this is a story about ordinary people, albeit
with exceptional abilities, who undertake extraordinary missions to protect the
world.
***
