The following list highlights all of the pilots being considered for pick up for the 2011-2012 fall TV season by FOX:
Sarah Jones
Alcatraz is another J.J. Abrams production that is about a cop (Sarah Jones from Big Love and Sons of Anarchy) and a team of FBI agents who attempt to track down a group of missing Alcatraz prisoners and guards who reappear in the present day after disappearing 30 years earlier. The cast includes Jorge Garcia (Lost) Sam Neill (Jurassic Park), Parminder Nagra (ER and Bend It Like Beckham), Santiago Cabrera (Heroes) and Robert Forster (Karen Sisco and Heroes).
VERDICT: Yes, it’s a J.J. Abrams production and it boasts an impressive cast, but is the overall premise going to keep viewers coming back? This is Prison Break crossed with Lost and a little bit of Alias on the side; but will all of that really be enough to keep an audience hooked each week? I’m not sold (yet).
Ethan Hawke
Exit Strategy stars Ethan Hawke as the leader of a CIA team that specializes in high risk rescue extraction operations that save agents who have been compromised. This comes from Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (the men behind Hawaii Five-0). The cast includes Megan Dodds (MI-5), Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan) and Lina Esco (the short-lived series Cane).
VERDICT: It’s quite interesting that FOX was able to get Ethan Hawke to appear in a weekly series and to have the men who not only brought Star Trek back to the big screen but have also succeeded to make Hawaii Five-O hip once again, well, that says a lot; but I have serious concerns if the general viewing audience is going to want to see these high risk missions each week. How many of these rescues – in real life – actually work out? And the rescues that don’t work out, are they going to show those too? There are just too many factors to have to worry about in order to hook an already fickle viewer.
Miranda Otto
Based on the Joe Hill graphic novel, Locke & Key is a new suspenseful thriller about widow Nina Locke (Miranda Otto from the Lord of the Rings franchise) and her three kids (Jesse McCartney from Summerland, Sarah Bolger from The Tudors and newcomer Skylar Gaertner) who, still reeling from the brutal murder of their guidance-counselor father by a deranged student, move to a small island off the coast of Maine, where they discover a mystical doorway in their new home. Nick Stahl (Terminator 3), Mark Pellegrino (Being Human and Lost) and Ksenia Solo (Life Unexpected and Lost Girl) co-star in this production from Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.
VERDICT: This show has a captivating premise, being based on an already popular graphic novel, and is primed to be on a network – that despite its track record of holding on to sci-fi series for very long – occasionally knows how to cultivate a supernatural-based series (hello, The X-Files anyone?) and it would be a good idea to collect the graphic novel based fans (as AMC can easily claim they did with The Walking Dead). For FOX not to move forward with this pilot, making it a weekly series, would cement their fate and not in a good way.
Geoff Stults
The Finder is the spin-off from the popular FOX series Bones that is based on The Locator books by Richard Greener, which follows a former military policeman (Geoff Stults from October Road) who has the ability to find anything. The series (naturally) comes from Hart Hanson (the man behind Bones) and co-stars Saffron Burrows (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) and Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile).
VERDICT: Pick this show up FOX. For one thing, you’ve got Hart Hanson behind the scenes and he knows what he is doing as an executive producer (hello, Bones anyone?). Then, you have a terrific cast that will bring fans from all genres and it will be a great companion piece to Bones. Ready, set, go.
Kiefer Sutherland
The Kiefer Sutherland-led drama Touch is about a single father raising an autistic son who has never spoken; but he soon discovers that his son is actually communicating with him through a complex series of numbers, and may even be able to predict events before they happen. The series comes from Tim Kring (the man behind Heroes). There are no other details on cast members at this time.
VERDICT: Based on the power of drawing an audience to anything for which he appears in, FOX should pick up this show based on the popularity of Kiefer Sutherland even if he won’t be playing Jack Bauer in this series. The one big concern for this show getting picked up would be how parents with autistic children will react to the abilities of the lead character’s son. If they can accept it, then the general viewing public just might give it a chance; if not, then it is sayonara.
Lauren Ambrose
Weekends at Bellevue stars Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under) as a psychiatrist in charge of the weekend shift of Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric unit. The cast includes Broadway actress Janet McTeer, Amber Stevens (Greek) and Eric Winter (Moonlight and Brothers & Sisters). Gail Berman, Jack Bender and Lisa Zwerling are among the executive producers.
VERDICT: Is this FOX’s idea of making a female House? Or will Ambrose’s character be touchy-feely, which could alienate viewers just as much. And, do we all want to see the stories coming out of psych ward on a weekly basis? This just might be too heavy (or in some cases depressing) for viewers to have to deal with week after week.
Where does all this leave FOX? They should pick up The Finder and Locke & Key without question and, more importantly, once each is on the air let them build an audience – no more on and off with only 13 (or less) episodes aired. They should also hold onto Touch simply because of the powerhouse that is Kiefer Sutherland. As for the rest of the pilots, despite interesting premises, great casting and big-name producers, they will either bore the audience, be too complicated or just not have enough story to attract the general viewing audience on a weekly basis.
The last pilot watch update will be coming soon, focusing on the pilots at NBC.
Rueben's Ramblings 