New (Barely) Fantastic TV
I tend to watch a lot of fantasy/sci-fi/horror on TV, but a lot of stuff I used to watch is now either finished or only available on channels I no longer get. So I've been scraping around for new TV series that will fit into my preferred niche -- and the pickings are slim.
Some of them just seem to be scheduled wrong, so I rarely watch them. Terra Nova is one of those, as is Once Upon a Time. At least, it's more charitable to say "they're in the wrong time schedule" than to admit that I watched a couple episodes of Terra Nova and couldn't muster up any interest. Same applies to the modern-day segments of Once Upon a Time, although I've watched a bit more of that because the fairytale segments are more interesting. The storyline split across two time periods is annoying, badly handled, and obviously done because they were afraid audiences wouldn't buy a straight fairytale storyline. Cowards.
Grimm is similar to Once Upon a Time in that the people in charge obviously want to tap into the horror fanbase, similar to OUaT's tapping into the magic fanbase, but the producers were unwilling to commit fully. It winds up looking like a very toned down Buffy, Angel, or Supernatural. The hero's abilities are minimal and he doesn't really exploit them to any degree; he's really just a cop to hunts criminals who are secretly subhuman, but only he can tell. Stories are kind of ho-hum as a result, but I'm still sticking with it.
Person of Interest, in the same way, is borderline science fiction/superhero. No costumes, no powers, no gadgets, just an ex-CIA dude and a guy who built a terrorism- and crime-predicting computer for the government. Thus, the tech is just a little itty bit more advanced than reality. It's actually the more interesting of the four shows, but I still feel cheated, even though it has "Ben" from Lost and he's doing a pretty good job in a paranoid good-guy role.
Those are the shows that started with the fall season, but there have been two new mid-season replacements: Alcatraz and The River. Both are further along on the fantastic motif scale than the previous four: Alcatraz has the backstory that everyone on the island when the prison closed actually disappeared, and now they're coming back, without any signs of age. It's also got a Lost alumnus ("Hurley".) But despite the backstory and hints of future mystery-tinged with sci-fi, the storyline is basically Brimstone without demonic powers. It's kind of early to tell (only saw two episodes,) but The River has a pretty decent bundle of supernatural horror ideas, but the presentation (all done as a fake cinema verité) is really pretty lame, as is every single bit of action or dialogue that the main characters are involved in.
Which is sad, because it seems to be the only new "fantasy" series that is willing to commit to a fantastic premise.
Some of them just seem to be scheduled wrong, so I rarely watch them. Terra Nova is one of those, as is Once Upon a Time. At least, it's more charitable to say "they're in the wrong time schedule" than to admit that I watched a couple episodes of Terra Nova and couldn't muster up any interest. Same applies to the modern-day segments of Once Upon a Time, although I've watched a bit more of that because the fairytale segments are more interesting. The storyline split across two time periods is annoying, badly handled, and obviously done because they were afraid audiences wouldn't buy a straight fairytale storyline. Cowards.
Grimm is similar to Once Upon a Time in that the people in charge obviously want to tap into the horror fanbase, similar to OUaT's tapping into the magic fanbase, but the producers were unwilling to commit fully. It winds up looking like a very toned down Buffy, Angel, or Supernatural. The hero's abilities are minimal and he doesn't really exploit them to any degree; he's really just a cop to hunts criminals who are secretly subhuman, but only he can tell. Stories are kind of ho-hum as a result, but I'm still sticking with it.
Person of Interest, in the same way, is borderline science fiction/superhero. No costumes, no powers, no gadgets, just an ex-CIA dude and a guy who built a terrorism- and crime-predicting computer for the government. Thus, the tech is just a little itty bit more advanced than reality. It's actually the more interesting of the four shows, but I still feel cheated, even though it has "Ben" from Lost and he's doing a pretty good job in a paranoid good-guy role.
Those are the shows that started with the fall season, but there have been two new mid-season replacements: Alcatraz and The River. Both are further along on the fantastic motif scale than the previous four: Alcatraz has the backstory that everyone on the island when the prison closed actually disappeared, and now they're coming back, without any signs of age. It's also got a Lost alumnus ("Hurley".) But despite the backstory and hints of future mystery-tinged with sci-fi, the storyline is basically Brimstone without demonic powers. It's kind of early to tell (only saw two episodes,) but The River has a pretty decent bundle of supernatural horror ideas, but the presentation (all done as a fake cinema verité) is really pretty lame, as is every single bit of action or dialogue that the main characters are involved in.
Which is sad, because it seems to be the only new "fantasy" series that is willing to commit to a fantastic premise.