what if the artists ran the TV?
So, that TV meme. (Lexie: You helped me break in the highly detailed map of Cincinnati I asked my parents for a couple years ago, for Christmas. XD)
THE MEME:
1. Comment to this post with "I surrender!" and I'll assign you the basis of some TV show idea. (Science fiction show, medical drama, criminal procedure, etc...)
2. Create a cast of characters, including the actors who'd play them.
3. Add in any actor photos, character bios and show synopsis that you want.
4. Post to your own journal.
THE PROMPT (from sotto_voice):
A quirky police procedural set in Cincinnati, with a woman as the star.
TYPE: Hour-long whodunit with a dash of urban fantasy, 12 episodes in the first season, USA
RATING: ...Is NCIS TV-14? I imagine it'd be similar to that.
CREDITS SONG: Fear is Never Boring - the Raisins (Some variation on either the guitar solo or the final rounds of the chorus, for both opening and closing credits. Ignore the strange video and just focus on the song.)
SYNOPSIS: Paranormal activity and funky powers may sound great in theory, but in practice, people are just as likely to use them to do nasty things as they are guns, knives, and toxic substances. When the police in Cincinnati find such a case, they hand it over to the experts.
TEAM LEADER: Andrea Moon (Taraji P. Henson)
Andrea hates to say she's clawed her way to the top, but that's one of the most effective ways to put it. She grew up in Over-the-Rhine with no money and, all the statistics indicated, no future - but she decided early on she wasn't going to be one of those statistics. Being made head of a team in the Paranormal Division is a pretty good sign she's succeeded. She isn't scared by much, is fiercely protective of her team, and holds a special loathing for rapists - such an attack left her older sister a discombobulated wreck of a teen mother. Considering how long she's been in law enforcement, both with the Paranormal Division and in more mundane crime scene investigation, she's still got quite the sense of humor about her work. She's also single, and quite happily so; her few attempts at relationships have crashed and burned because she's very nearly married to her work.
SPOILER: Rumors run wild around town that there's a werewolf working in the Paranormal Division; entirely possible, since it's no hardship to give someone one or two nights off a month. Most people suspect it's Andrea, given her no-nonsense approach to her job and her last name, but in episode 4, we learn that she actually has no paranormal talents whatsoever - unless you count excellent aim, but she's confident that's learned rather than any sort of gift.
FIELD INVESTIGATOR: Ellen Conrad (Joanne Kelly)
Ellen is a child of privilege - grew up in Hyde Park, went to St. Ursula for high school (as much part of growing up in a very Catholic family as their having money), two degrees from Xavier University, the works. She's felt drawn from the time she was in middle school to help those less fortunate; one of her master's degree professors referred her to the Paranormal Division, and that seemed like the best fit (not to mention being the place that hired her). She's very quiet, and oddly particular about avoiding the very bloody crime scenes, but there's no doubt she can hold her own in a fight - and out-eat any three guys on the staff. She also seems to have a knack for tracking down suspects in nearly any conditions.
SPOILER: Episode 5 presents us with the first full moon since the werewolf rumors really started flying; Ellen is conspicuously absent for the first half of the episode, and looks like she hasn't slept well when she does return. It's not confirmed until she sniffs someone down in episode 6, in which viewers also learn that it runs in her family.
FIELD INVESTIGATOR: Steve Ramirez (Jay Hernandez)
Steve is a transplant to the area from Cleveland; everyone gives him a hard time about this, especially when he breaks out the Browns gear during football season. He first came to Cincinnati for college (at UC), and loved it so much he decided to stay there. He's a loud, impulsive bookworm and a terrible driver, but he's got a streak of luck that's got to be paranormal and somehow keeps him safe behind the wheel. (The rest of the team tends to stop him from driving, though, partly due to the collateral damage and partly because of his terrible taste in music.) For all his impulse, he's very good at what he does.
SPOILER: Steve has a massive, massive crush on the forensics guy. He doesn't admit it until episode 8, when Ellen points out she's smelled it on him the whole time.
THE TECH GIRL: Elizabeth "Lizzie" Hudson (Alesha Dixon)
The Paranormal Division shares tech services, forensics and the medical examiner with the mundane CSI force. Lizzie much prefers the Paranormal Division jobs, and is hoping the money to get a full-time transfer over surfaces, not least because the people in the mundane offices look at her funny when she hooks up to the computers. Her particular talent gets her to the bottom of technical problems faster than just about anyone out there, but it does have its side effects; she's come down with computer viruses (which usually manifest as really nasty colds) more than once. She grew up in Lebanon (in Ohio, not the country), and got an apartment in Norwood when she got the job; in many ways, she's still adjusting to city life. She's been through a string of girlfriends since high school, and takes days off to do equality advocacy work whenever she can.
SPOILER: At the end of part one of the two-part season finale, Lizzie is knocked unconscious by a power surge that hits the building while she's hooked up to one of the Paranormal Division computers. In part two, it turns out that the power surge was an attack directed at her. The team finds the person responsible, but the season ends with no clear idea as to whether she lives through the attack. (Season two opens with her being discharged from the hospital.)
THE FORENSICS GUY: Ben Ludlow (Jared Padalecki)
Ben's just a farm kid from Ross who passed up a chance to play football in college - and possibly build a career out of it - because it didn't leave him enough time to take all the science labs he wanted to. There's nothing unusual about his ability with a microscope (or any of the other lab equipment he works with); he likes to joke that growing up so close to Fernald probably dampened his chances of developing any abilities, as opposed to raising those chances like in the comic books. He's the resident sports nut (all kinds of sports, not just football), and also the one who makes what he calls the pilgrimage to the WEBN fireworks every year. Outside of the lab, he can actually be a little clumsy; it's like he doesn't know his own strength, sometimes.
SPOILER: He really doesn't know his own strength, which becomes evident when the person who attacked Lizzie breaks out of the restraints, in the Paranormal Division building, and tries to attack Steve; the force of Ben's football-instincts tackle knocks the attacker out. It's also a catalyst for Steve to finally own up to his epic crush to someone other than the resident werewolf. The season ends without showing the full extent of Ben's reaction - but the audience does at least know he's not utterly freaked out by it.
THE MEDICAL EXAMINER: James Bentley (Gerard Butler)
James grew up in Avondale, within walking distance of the Cincinnati Zoo; he inherited the house after his parents' deaths, and his family (wife, two sons) still lives there. He much prefers the mundane cases, if only because it's easier to explain what killed someone when you don't have to worry about paranormal influences butting in. Paranormal theory has long been a passion of his, however, and he can often lend some insight to a case.
SPOILER: It comes out in episode 9 that James got snacked on by a vampire a couple of years previously. Vampirism isn't catching unless you nearly die during the bite, which he didn't - but vampires are often carriers of blood-borne diseases, and he's still going through the battery of tests for anything he might have acquired.
THE MEME:
1. Comment to this post with "I surrender!" and I'll assign you the basis of some TV show idea. (Science fiction show, medical drama, criminal procedure, etc...)
2. Create a cast of characters, including the actors who'd play them.
3. Add in any actor photos, character bios and show synopsis that you want.
4. Post to your own journal.
THE PROMPT (from sotto_voice):
A quirky police procedural set in Cincinnati, with a woman as the star.
TYPE: Hour-long whodunit with a dash of urban fantasy, 12 episodes in the first season, USA
RATING: ...Is NCIS TV-14? I imagine it'd be similar to that.
CREDITS SONG: Fear is Never Boring - the Raisins (Some variation on either the guitar solo or the final rounds of the chorus, for both opening and closing credits. Ignore the strange video and just focus on the song.)
SYNOPSIS: Paranormal activity and funky powers may sound great in theory, but in practice, people are just as likely to use them to do nasty things as they are guns, knives, and toxic substances. When the police in Cincinnati find such a case, they hand it over to the experts.
TEAM LEADER: Andrea Moon (Taraji P. Henson)
Andrea hates to say she's clawed her way to the top, but that's one of the most effective ways to put it. She grew up in Over-the-Rhine with no money and, all the statistics indicated, no future - but she decided early on she wasn't going to be one of those statistics. Being made head of a team in the Paranormal Division is a pretty good sign she's succeeded. She isn't scared by much, is fiercely protective of her team, and holds a special loathing for rapists - such an attack left her older sister a discombobulated wreck of a teen mother. Considering how long she's been in law enforcement, both with the Paranormal Division and in more mundane crime scene investigation, she's still got quite the sense of humor about her work. She's also single, and quite happily so; her few attempts at relationships have crashed and burned because she's very nearly married to her work.
SPOILER: Rumors run wild around town that there's a werewolf working in the Paranormal Division; entirely possible, since it's no hardship to give someone one or two nights off a month. Most people suspect it's Andrea, given her no-nonsense approach to her job and her last name, but in episode 4, we learn that she actually has no paranormal talents whatsoever - unless you count excellent aim, but she's confident that's learned rather than any sort of gift.
FIELD INVESTIGATOR: Ellen Conrad (Joanne Kelly)
Ellen is a child of privilege - grew up in Hyde Park, went to St. Ursula for high school (as much part of growing up in a very Catholic family as their having money), two degrees from Xavier University, the works. She's felt drawn from the time she was in middle school to help those less fortunate; one of her master's degree professors referred her to the Paranormal Division, and that seemed like the best fit (not to mention being the place that hired her). She's very quiet, and oddly particular about avoiding the very bloody crime scenes, but there's no doubt she can hold her own in a fight - and out-eat any three guys on the staff. She also seems to have a knack for tracking down suspects in nearly any conditions.
SPOILER: Episode 5 presents us with the first full moon since the werewolf rumors really started flying; Ellen is conspicuously absent for the first half of the episode, and looks like she hasn't slept well when she does return. It's not confirmed until she sniffs someone down in episode 6, in which viewers also learn that it runs in her family.
FIELD INVESTIGATOR: Steve Ramirez (Jay Hernandez)
Steve is a transplant to the area from Cleveland; everyone gives him a hard time about this, especially when he breaks out the Browns gear during football season. He first came to Cincinnati for college (at UC), and loved it so much he decided to stay there. He's a loud, impulsive bookworm and a terrible driver, but he's got a streak of luck that's got to be paranormal and somehow keeps him safe behind the wheel. (The rest of the team tends to stop him from driving, though, partly due to the collateral damage and partly because of his terrible taste in music.) For all his impulse, he's very good at what he does.
SPOILER: Steve has a massive, massive crush on the forensics guy. He doesn't admit it until episode 8, when Ellen points out she's smelled it on him the whole time.
THE TECH GIRL: Elizabeth "Lizzie" Hudson (Alesha Dixon)
The Paranormal Division shares tech services, forensics and the medical examiner with the mundane CSI force. Lizzie much prefers the Paranormal Division jobs, and is hoping the money to get a full-time transfer over surfaces, not least because the people in the mundane offices look at her funny when she hooks up to the computers. Her particular talent gets her to the bottom of technical problems faster than just about anyone out there, but it does have its side effects; she's come down with computer viruses (which usually manifest as really nasty colds) more than once. She grew up in Lebanon (in Ohio, not the country), and got an apartment in Norwood when she got the job; in many ways, she's still adjusting to city life. She's been through a string of girlfriends since high school, and takes days off to do equality advocacy work whenever she can.
SPOILER: At the end of part one of the two-part season finale, Lizzie is knocked unconscious by a power surge that hits the building while she's hooked up to one of the Paranormal Division computers. In part two, it turns out that the power surge was an attack directed at her. The team finds the person responsible, but the season ends with no clear idea as to whether she lives through the attack. (Season two opens with her being discharged from the hospital.)
THE FORENSICS GUY: Ben Ludlow (Jared Padalecki)
Ben's just a farm kid from Ross who passed up a chance to play football in college - and possibly build a career out of it - because it didn't leave him enough time to take all the science labs he wanted to. There's nothing unusual about his ability with a microscope (or any of the other lab equipment he works with); he likes to joke that growing up so close to Fernald probably dampened his chances of developing any abilities, as opposed to raising those chances like in the comic books. He's the resident sports nut (all kinds of sports, not just football), and also the one who makes what he calls the pilgrimage to the WEBN fireworks every year. Outside of the lab, he can actually be a little clumsy; it's like he doesn't know his own strength, sometimes.
SPOILER: He really doesn't know his own strength, which becomes evident when the person who attacked Lizzie breaks out of the restraints, in the Paranormal Division building, and tries to attack Steve; the force of Ben's football-instincts tackle knocks the attacker out. It's also a catalyst for Steve to finally own up to his epic crush to someone other than the resident werewolf. The season ends without showing the full extent of Ben's reaction - but the audience does at least know he's not utterly freaked out by it.
THE MEDICAL EXAMINER: James Bentley (Gerard Butler)
James grew up in Avondale, within walking distance of the Cincinnati Zoo; he inherited the house after his parents' deaths, and his family (wife, two sons) still lives there. He much prefers the mundane cases, if only because it's easier to explain what killed someone when you don't have to worry about paranormal influences butting in. Paranormal theory has long been a passion of his, however, and he can often lend some insight to a case.
SPOILER: It comes out in episode 9 that James got snacked on by a vampire a couple of years previously. Vampirism isn't catching unless you nearly die during the bite, which he didn't - but vampires are often carriers of blood-borne diseases, and he's still going through the battery of tests for anything he might have acquired.